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[Stephen Kirby]

Nah, you need 24" to go really low.   

[Scott Holtzman]

Nah, you need 24" to go really low.   

Are those Magnepan's for the mains?  That's a lot of cone mass to accelerate.  You could move a lot of air with those things but I think they would lack articulation.  I know that's one of those ethereal qualities but to me for small rooms/home theater a 12" driver seems to balance extension and articulation.

One of the reasons I want to hear a SPUD, it seems to strike a great balance.

[Stephen Kirby]

Are those Magnepan's for the mains?  That's a lot of cone mass to accelerate.  You could move a lot of air with those things but I think they would lack articulation.  I know that's one of those ethereal qualities but to me for small rooms/home theater a 12" driver seems to balance extension and articulation.

One of the reasons I want to hear a SPUD, it seems to strike a great balance.

That's a Mark Levinson HQD system from the late '70s.  Two Quad ESL (electrostatic) speakers on a stand with a Decca ribbon supertweeter in between them.  Each driver was run off it's own 25W ML2 class A amp.  Eight in all for the system.  The heat was amazing.

The subs were Hartley 24 inchers.  True subs.  They were originally developed to do studies on infrasonic noise from airports and were put in test homes with some on and some off.  I don't think they go very high or loud.  Not terribly high compliance and xMax was pretty small.  But they went really low.

I heard this system playing an original master tape of Eubie Blake doing ragtime piano in a concert hall.  The tape was made from a stereo pair of B&K instrumentation mics run straight into the recorder.  As Eubie stamped his foot on the stage to keep time you could feel it.  No boom or bloat.  Just the realistic sound and feel of someone stamping their foot on a stage 20' in front of you.  The whole thing was the most realistic reproduction of sound that I've ever heard.

[Scott Holtzman]

That was when I was just getting my ears.  While my friends were oohing and ahing over 15" front loaded boxes at Sound Advice blasting AC/DC and Boston I was down at the high end shop listening to Earl Klugh on a pair of Ohm Walsh's.  When they were not busy and noticed I paid attention I was given the opportunity to audition some of the best of the day.  I think the electrostatics were Magnepan (sp?).

What I wish is what Ivan says all the time, to go back and listen.  With my degraded ears of today and the inverse to have my youthful ears back to listen to what we have today.

Without breaking the bank I still have not found a HF driver that appeals to me like the Infinity EMIT's.  The Watkins woofers are accurate also.  So my home system is still late 80's early 90's Carver/Infinity with a modern Integra Pre/Pro.  It gets the job done.

Sounds like we are both the same generation and I think as a whole we romanticize the gear, cars and even the women from those bygone days of youth.  By all measures I think we have it better today.

[Steve M Smith]

Nah, you need 24" to go really low.

Have you seen Dave Rat's new 30" subs?


Steve.

[Stephen Kirby]

Scott, Magnapans are planar magnetic speakers.  There is a conductor bonded to the film diaphragm.  The Infinity tweeters are based off the Magnapan without treading on their patent.  As were the Apogee panels.  Those are different from electrostats like the Quads or Sound Labs which have no conductors on the diaphragm and use high voltage potentials to move the diaphragm.  Less mass on the diaphragm means that they are more responsive.  But they are limited in output by arcing between the stator plates though the diaphragm.  Both technologies are SPL limited by the diaphragm displacement and so large panels are used with resultant pattern issues as well as dealing with the rear wave.  Lot of theoretical technical issues compared to something like a DSL point source.  But for reproducing the effect of instruments in a physical space to a fixed listening position, with a sense of very high transparency, there is nothing like them.

[Mark Wilkinson]

Lot of theoretical technical issues compared to something like a DSL point source.  But for reproducing the effect of instruments in a physical space to a fixed listening position, with a sense of very high transparency, there is nothing like them.

Completely agree.  Not sure why they work as well as they do, but IME the clarity and imaging that electrostats can provide is often stunning.
I've hung on to a pair of Acoustat X and Martin Logan CLS, both full range,  for listening pleasure and also comparing  tuning efforts of my PA gear.

Always speculated that the relative "mass-less-ness" of an electrostat's diaphragm gives some kind of better transient timing.... with a superior impulse response.
This speculation has had me focus on trying to clean up the impulse response of my PA gear.
So far, I'd have to say that strategy is paying dividends...the clarity and imaging of the stats and the PA keep getting closer..... PA electrostat sound 
 

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