Best Electrostatic loudspeaker?

If you have a large enough room, and sufficient money, the Soundlab Ultimate One is the best electrostatic made. I also think it is the finest speaker made of any type, and at any price, However, at over $27,000.00 for the Ultimates Ones, there are a lot of choices out there. There will be people who prefer other types of speakers, for more and less money, as there is NO perfect speaker. The Soundlab has the magic of ULTRA low distortion, combined with a phase and spatially correct wall of sound that delivers a perfect image. The musical performance appears at true life size, while maintaining the subtleties that define a live performance. Amazingly, they accomplish this on both Jazz and Classical music. Quite a feat, considering the differences in the style and type of performance, not to mention the vast differences in recording techniques. The Ultimates Ones also have the highest resolution of any speaker I have ever heard, their speed and transparency render both instruments and voice so real, that at times, you find yourself laughing with joy. If, however, you treasure extreme bass output (pressure) or very loud SPL, or perhaps the different type of coloration and contrast that a dynamic system delivers, then there are many others (like the Beethoven for instance) that fill that requirement. (In fact, the Beethoven is what I would own if I could not have the Soundlab Ultimates, which I already have.) One thing is certain, all of the pieces in a stereo system are a compromise, no matter what they cost. To help overcome this problem, a great deal of care has to be taken to match all the components so that they work together as perfectly as possible. In the end, this will require room treatment as well. Every listening room I have ever been in had problems that the equipment alone could not overcome, no matter how much was spent.

The best electrostatic? It does not matter. Compared to any dynamic speaker, they are all musical wonders. I have listened to my Acoustat 2+2 speakers for over 14 years and I have never tired listening to their sound and the wondrous music they produce. They best work with tube electronics that is for sure.

I have never been crazy about the Martin Logan speakers with any equipment I've heard them with. Loved the Maggies, both large and small, with almost all the equipment they've been paired with. I still like pistonic drivers for pop/rock, though. Just can't get that "thwack" with the electrostatics unless you get the really big ones (yet), and the big ones have a bit of an imaging problem in my experience. (Makes singers sound like their mouth is 4 feet wide). On Jazz and classical, though, can't be beat.

I have not heard the Sound Lab Ultimate One that Albert Porter speaks of, nor his Viva amps mentioned elsewhere, but I do own a pair of (budget?) fifteen grand Sound Lab Millennium One's. This is essentially the same speaker with a less rigid frame. They bring tears to my eyes. Wish I had discovered Sound Lab years ago. For twenty years I designed and built my own loudspeakers. Essentially there are two things a speaker has to get right: Resolution (transient response) and tonal balance (frequency response). Of the two, tonal balance is the more fundamental. Now here's the great secret: You cannot have correct tonal balance without a correct radiation pattern. A correct radiation pattern would be one that is uniform with respect to frequency - that is, equally directional at all frequencies. Impossible with conventional speakers. Possible with true omnis or with full range horns (such as Klipschorns), and also possible with a large curved dipole - which is what guru Roger West uses in Sound Labs. The natural figure-eight bass radiation of the dipole is maintained on up through the mids and highs by the curved geometry (Martin CLS's aren't curved nearly enough to achieve this). This also gives outstanding imaging over a very large listening area. Now, why does radiation pattern matter? Why can't a conventional speaker, or planar magnetic/ribbon speaker, simply be "voiced" for natural tonal balance? The reason is that your ears take into account both the first arrival sound and the reverberant field, and when there is a discrepancy in tonal balance between the two your ear/brain can tell it's a fake. Get the tonal balance the same in both fields, and the illusion becomes so convincing it's scary. So if you have conventional speakers (omnidirectional in the bass, hemispherical in the mids, and directional in the highs) there is no way to voice them for a truly natural tonal balance. Now, remember that resolution is the other critical factor in sound quality - electrostatics outperform everything else in this area, so when Roger West solved the tonal balance/radiation pattern puzzle he ended up with the most intelligent and elegant solution yet presented to the challenge of how to convincingly recreate the experience of live music. Roger went on to refine and tweak this most elegant design over something like eighteen years, resulting in the Ulitmate One and the Millennium One, both variations on the classic A-1. Sound Labs combines the very best of what electrostatics excel at with a geometry that takes them into a league all their own. You can listen standing up or sitting down, anywhere in the room, or even in the next room. There's nothing like them out there.

The Sound Labs are wonderous. They have 20 sq ft of panel area. The ML CLSs have 8 sq ft but get you most of the way there for only $4k. The extra sq. ft. of the Sound Labs are for bass and larger acoustical environments. If you can live with 40Hz lows then the CLSs will sound as good as the Sound Labs, with the right electronics (tubes) and in the right acoustic environment, at 1/3 to 1/5 the cost. Service with ML is also outstanding. Sound Lab does not always answer their phone.