Effects Of Power Cords On Electrostatic Speakers

@hsbrock

Yes you want to listen to the speaker before buying, even if it means getting on a plane. If you love the sound, take careful not of what is feeding them.

Different speaker designs… particularly categories have strengths and weaknesses. We as enthusiasts have values and a history of listening to music and systems.

When you get in to the high end there are certain things that attract you. Typically details and slam… then you learn about sound stage and transparency, then imaging and microdetails and finally rhythm and pace. It is really easy to go around chasing the next thing you have learned about and loose site of the music.

It becomes an analitical activity to get a little better detail, or imaging… etc. planar do some amazing stuff. But they are a huge amount of work getting around their shortcomings and requirements. For instance most planar need optimization to tolerances of 1/8 “ in all three dimensions. But there is no formula… this can take months or even longer of moving them around. The support electronics must exactly be optimized for the job. Very high quality because planar are revealing, massive power, very nature The source must be really natural sounding. Room require to can be very critical.

For me, after decades of upgrades with planar. I got season tickets to the symphony. Which I have had now for ten years. I quickly realized that my fantastic system did an outstanding job of reproducing the venue and mastering qualities. But after 45 minutes of listening to my system i got bored. I was fascinated by its technical prownes and not by being pulled into the music. This is when I turned away and started to look for a really musical system.

I upgraded virtually everything. Moved to dynamic speakers (there is more than one reason most all speaks are dynamic, one is, in general they can be made to get more of the total picture correct). Changed all of my electronics… I no longer put lots of money into massive power but to highly musical. My system now sounds like my trips to the symphony. I listen three hours a day and have to drag myself away from it. Long journey. Happy to talk more about it.

I consider power cables to be filters, and all that wayward power from the utilities to be needing correction. It's not complicated in that regard.

@ghdprentice @terry9 I have spent my time studying the websites of Magnepan DWM and Bryston, watching videos, learning all I can. Then I just encountered the recent comments above. Living in a small city there is not a single audio store that carries any speakers with Planars, yet I am still convinced by the words that they are the way to go, simply by my reading of the technology and its rationale and the accompanying testimonials by those I respect. The biggest challenge is that I’ve got woofers with sensitivity of 97-100dB, the planars are 92-94, and for over 55 years I’ve liked it when the point source disappears, thus I’ve considered open baffle, and to increase the efficiency of the planars I’ve looked for open back AMT Planars, and I’ve thought about using them dipole with Bi-Horns front and back, positioning them away from the wall, etc. I’ve figured that even 30Wrms would do for the Planars because, if I can gain 10dB with the horns, that would give me a max. SPL beyond any volume I listen to. The most difficult music I like is choral with organ and/or symphony accompaniment, e.g., the Tabernacle Choir, as well as other classical, but I’d like to build matching systems for our children as well, and at least one of them plays bass guitar and I suppose our grandchildren may like rock and other (all 7 are married, and about 24 grandchildren), which puts limits on the budget. I am leaning towards active speakers and using a tube pre-amp where all the controls are. My wife of 46 years likes the Eagles and the more mellow folk-rock, while I am more of a Beatles & Stones guy, but I don’t get into that as much anymore. So yes, the musicality is what I am anxious about, because I like to just sit and listen and zone out for hours, or even do my reading with the background music playing, enjoying the peacefulness, and so the transparency and brilliance are important, and for me that means precise transients and clarity, while also having speakers than can handle the sustained bass of the organ, which also require cone control (I’ve got my eyes on some 15" woofers with high BL and considering Isobaric to increase the transient-cone control). The most creative/challenging part of the above will be designing-building the Bi-Horns for the Planars (for which I’ll use a cabinet design app and laser/CNC for the work). So, I am all ears to any and all knowledge you of much more experience can give me, especially the steps in your evolution in your journey from power prowess to musicality, and anything to understand about planars and adapting them to horns. (For design work I’ll be using REW and WinISP.) Hopefully these might be legacy systems, heirlooms to pass down to grandchildren.

@ghdprentice is always worth reading. I have never heard a really good cone system, but I’m sure that his is worth every dime and that I would love it.

By all means, get on a plane and hang out in a high end store for a couple of days. That’s where I heard my first planars, Magnepan Tympani 1a’s, back in ’73. Never went back to cones for very long - longest was a hybrid, but the marriage of the cone and ESL drivers was closer to a discord after a while - to my ears. At that time.

But - I’m really wedded to my ESL’s and Class A monoblocks (dissipate 110W, deliver about 30W). The great thing about solid state is that you can design amps which cannot overdrive the speakers - so you don’t need protection circuits or other devices, which always degrade the sound. Magnepans with Brystons round out the system, which my room needs

If you have the itch to improve, you can upgrade the crossovers. Not hard and definitely worth the money.

The new Grado Epoch cartridge gets me closer to live music, but my ears tell me that there’s still a way to go.

@terry9 

thank you for your kind words

I think this is why auditioning is really important.
 

There are many spectacular sounding planar systems out there.

I remember listening to a set of ESS AMT 1D’s and having tears come to my eyes. But in my current system, they would be intolerable. Their lack of coherence across the audio spectrum was far too great, as well as many other shortcomings. So a lot of the stuff has to do with where are in your journey. Auditioning is really important.

Different audiophiles have different end points.