Using tube amp with electrostatic speakers.

bdp24 ...

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I used a pair of "loaner" Atmosphere 60 watt mono amps for a couple of years to drive the Acoustat Four's I used to own. Then I switched to an ARC Classic 60.  The ARC produced better base, the Atmosphere took the honors in the mid-range. Both amps were under powered for the Acoustats. 

On night a friend brought over two of Frank Van Alstine's 250 watt solid state amps with one of Van Alstine's bridging devises. We used high quality IC's to hook everything up.  

We sat in total amazement when those hundreds of watts started driving those huge electrostatic panels. At the time, the room size was about 25 x 40 ... and the room was totally filled with non-distorted sound. No matter how high I cranked the volume control, the speakers and amps went right along with the program.  Haven't heard anything like it ever since. I have to admit, I sometimes pine for that system. 

Damn oregonpapa, that is a BIG room! In the 80's I heard the Acoustat 1+1, 2+2, Three, and Four driven by ARC (D-75 and D-150), but they can use all the power they can get. Same with Maggies, of course.  I'll be setting up a pair of Tympani T-IV's soon, and have an only 200w/ch amp for them, a PS Audio. There are guys throwing 2000 watts into them! But the room is pretty small, so hopefully 200 will be enough for the bass panels. They will be bi-amped, with either a tube or SS 100 watter on top.

Stewart,  I apologize for the tone of my remarks; I was feeling playful, and perhaps that came across as hostility, which was not my intent.  It seems impossible to get my point across to the assemblage, which is simply to re-state that one should make one's own decision on amplifier power and type based on the electrical characteristics of the speaker. Period.  There is no one correct answer that fits all situations. Of course, this goes for any type of speaker.  Sadly, most modern day ESLs are difficult loads for tube amplifiers, not because of the operating principle of an ESL per se but because of crossover design.  Martin-Logan is chief among the guilty.  But they really don't care; they assume you will buy the latest solid state behemoth to drive their speakers.  Try a Quad 57 or a KLH 9 sometime (both nominal 16-ohm loads), and you will know what I'm talking about.

And, since you brought up magnetic/planar speakers, others are now starting to discuss them as if there is any parallel with ESLs.  Apart from size and shape, there is not.  To run a magnepan with a tube amplifier, one should consider using the Zero autoformers.  I used to use Zeros with my Sound Labs, until I got some advice on how to "fix" their fundamental impedance characteristic.

Electrostatics love current .much more then Voltage as with a Tube amp.
put a Pass Labs 250.5 , Big Krell, or  Coda  amplifier and you will get tighter bass ,better dynamics and control
as well as speed. Even Maggie love power,Soundlabs for sure.

Audioman,  ESLs (like Sound Labs) are not "controlled" by a high power amplifier in the same way that the misinformed might say that an electromagnetic speaker (like a Magneplanar) is controlled by high power.  Electromagnetic speakers, woofers in particular, generate a back EMF by virtue of the fact that there is spurious motion of the undamped diaphragm, to which a coil is attached, in the field of the stationary magnet structure.  A high power SS amplifier can ameliorate the problem, which manifests itself as a loss of bass definition, by virtue of its low output impedance.  Norman Crowhurst showed decades ago, however, that the output impedance of the amplifier does not need to be so infinitesimal as it often is for modern SS amplifiers, in order to achieve this goal. 

The reason some might like to use a high power SS (or tube) amplifier on a Sound Lab is because the crossover network wastes amplifier power at midrange frequencies.  However, like Ralph said, a good 60W to 100W tube amplifier is to my mind optimal. Sound Lab recently cured some of this problem by modifying the crossover.  ESLs, except at very high frequencies well above the range of hearing of most audiophiles, are NOT inherently current-loving speakers at all.  In fact, the impedance is inherently quite high across the midrange and the speaker could be said to need a voltage amplifier.  I am glad of this, because the amplifiers you named are wretched, with the possible exception of the Pass Labs.  Furthermore, the "big Krells" were notorious for upchucking when coupled to ESLs, because they were unstable into a capacitative load.