dracule1,
OK, I respect your observations of the Wisdom Audio Adrenaline. I don't know that model, but a few years ago I heard the Sage series. However, my impressions of all Apogee ribbon models I heard is that they were excessively smooth, kind of like old school tube amps, and markedly rolled off in HF. Yes, lacking in RESOLUTION, not hyper-resolution. (There is no such thing as hyper-resolution in an accurate speaker without quirky frequency anomalies.) The reason is the LARGE ribbons. A large panel of any driver, whether electrostatic, ribbon, planar magnetic will create off axis HF rolloff from the edges to your ears. This is why the Stax F83 was rolled off compared to the F81--the tall F83 created large off axis HF rolloff from the high vertical parts. But a NARROW quarter inch ribbon won't create any horizontal HF rolloff, because that ribbon has full HF delivery way off axis. But there is still the problem of the large vertical height. Line source promotional material still ignores the HF loss from higher vertical "segments". Even though at ear level you are getting everything, and you can stand and still get everything if there are vertical segments at ear level, if you do some integral calculus you see that the taller the driver, the more off axis segments there are, creating more HF rolloff. Also, sitting too close to a tall line source magnifies the angle of off axis, creating more HF rolloff and a tonal balance shifted to the bass. The remarkable thing about the ML CLX is that it has the highest resolution of any commercial speaker available, except for the flat panel KingSound King. The fact that the CLX can attain this excellent resolution DESPITE one curved panel, leads me to speculate about how great the CLX would be if they just straightened the curve out. That would be a testament to ML's superior membrane/stator technology, if only they straightened it. The disadvantage of the very tall and wide King is the off-axis vertical dispersion I just spoke about. The CLX is a reasonable height and width, to get a focused, non bloated image. My ideal speaker would be a near point source quarter inch square electrostatic to yield no off-axis rolloff, and I would be the size of an insect to hear the delicate tiny volume sound. But the size of the CLX is a reasonable compromise to get enough volume with minimized rolloff.
By the way, someone recently had a valid point that the larger electrostatic membrane enables less excursion than a smaller membrane for the same volume level. Less excursion would create even more linearity and less distortion. However, I believe that the disadvantage of the HF rolloff effect of the larger membrane outweighs the benefit of less excursion in the large membrane.
OK, I respect your observations of the Wisdom Audio Adrenaline. I don't know that model, but a few years ago I heard the Sage series. However, my impressions of all Apogee ribbon models I heard is that they were excessively smooth, kind of like old school tube amps, and markedly rolled off in HF. Yes, lacking in RESOLUTION, not hyper-resolution. (There is no such thing as hyper-resolution in an accurate speaker without quirky frequency anomalies.) The reason is the LARGE ribbons. A large panel of any driver, whether electrostatic, ribbon, planar magnetic will create off axis HF rolloff from the edges to your ears. This is why the Stax F83 was rolled off compared to the F81--the tall F83 created large off axis HF rolloff from the high vertical parts. But a NARROW quarter inch ribbon won't create any horizontal HF rolloff, because that ribbon has full HF delivery way off axis. But there is still the problem of the large vertical height. Line source promotional material still ignores the HF loss from higher vertical "segments". Even though at ear level you are getting everything, and you can stand and still get everything if there are vertical segments at ear level, if you do some integral calculus you see that the taller the driver, the more off axis segments there are, creating more HF rolloff. Also, sitting too close to a tall line source magnifies the angle of off axis, creating more HF rolloff and a tonal balance shifted to the bass. The remarkable thing about the ML CLX is that it has the highest resolution of any commercial speaker available, except for the flat panel KingSound King. The fact that the CLX can attain this excellent resolution DESPITE one curved panel, leads me to speculate about how great the CLX would be if they just straightened the curve out. That would be a testament to ML's superior membrane/stator technology, if only they straightened it. The disadvantage of the very tall and wide King is the off-axis vertical dispersion I just spoke about. The CLX is a reasonable height and width, to get a focused, non bloated image. My ideal speaker would be a near point source quarter inch square electrostatic to yield no off-axis rolloff, and I would be the size of an insect to hear the delicate tiny volume sound. But the size of the CLX is a reasonable compromise to get enough volume with minimized rolloff.
By the way, someone recently had a valid point that the larger electrostatic membrane enables less excursion than a smaller membrane for the same volume level. Less excursion would create even more linearity and less distortion. However, I believe that the disadvantage of the HF rolloff effect of the larger membrane outweighs the benefit of less excursion in the large membrane.