What kind of power wakes up electrostatic speakers


Is it wpc, high current, both or what? I've been aud-itioning amps with the Final Electrostatic 0.3's (86 db sensitivity). The manufacturer suggests a minimum of 50 wpc to get them going. So far, I've tried a Nakamichi Stasis (150wpc) and an Electrocompaniet AW250DMB(250 wpc).With both,the speakers sounded dull, yet the Parasound HCA 3500 (250wpc & high current)made them sing sweet as can be.
Could somebody be kind enought to explain to me how this stuff works. I need to purchase an amp to drive the Final 0.4's (the big brother to the 0.3's). I'd love to know what
to look for.
I appreciate in advance your help. The source for this
was a Pioneer PD S95.
steakster
It's really not watts or amps but volts. ESLs are mostly voltage driven devices. However, there is a reactive impedance due to the fact that they are really just capacitors (impedance drops with increasing frequency) that are driven by transformers (voltage step up devices).

Since there is a characteristsic impedance, but one that is reactive - it turns out that in solid state amps it is a good idea to have a large SOA (safe operating area) and a stable design so that the amp doesn't barf on the wierd phase angles and implied current/voltage lead/lag.

In order to move the diaphragm almost only voltage is required - however in practice there is some current wasted in the process. This is why tube amps can be direct coupled to the stators in some designs, even though the plates are actually very high impedance. Current not really required.

For various reasons, imho, there are few solid state amps that shine on ESL loads, while tubes of sufficient power (read power = voltage swing) can often give superior results in the midbass...

There are only a few different variants on the drive transformer circuits used in ESLs. Notoriously bad are the original ML CLS with a nasty dip down into the 2 ohm region, making them a tough to drive speaker in general. Depending upon what the manufacturer of your speaker did in the drive circuit (and there are only a few choices for full range cells - full range cells being like CLS, Acoustat, not Quad 57)you could have a nasty, low Z load to drive. That makes it very hard for all but the very biggest amps to handle, and that narrows the field so much that you may have a hard time finding one that also sounds good.

If you want to do some research look into the patented drive circuit for the Acoustats - it solved this problem very nicely. One can use it for personal use without violating the patents, btw...

For some ESLs it can be a problem to find an amp that will drive the speaker and sound good doing it for the above reasons.
Hahahah... Bear, you bring up a very good and interesting point. It is quite possible for an amp to drive a difficult load like a walk in the park, but the bottom line is, does it sound good doing it ??? : ) Like everything else in life, there are a LOT of factors that add up to make the big picture, not just one or two. Sean
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If you are looking for a amp designed for electrostatics the Innersound amps are made for this . They have a Kilowatt Monobloc rated at 1,000 watts at 8 ohms that will really wake up your speakers. WWW.Innersound.net They also have smaller rated amps too.
Tweety speaks the truth! and whoever heard of ESL's at EIGHT ohms, so just THINK of the possibilites!
Innersound also has a electrostatic amp at 2,000 volt-amps at $3000.00 which is a lot less money than the kilowatt monobloc hope this helps