Electrostat - M-L; Quad or Soundlab - reliable

HJS,

Very true and i would suggest looking at the quad ESl 57, the modded ones by PK and others. They are tons ahead of the original and can be driven to some unbelievable levels without issue.

In the past i was also fond of both soundlab and acoustat, it's been awhile since i have heard them, but i did get to hear the modded ESL57 a few weeks ago and they were actually pretty good and powerful , yes ... powerful!!!!

I would not buy a standard ESL57 unless you had intended to mod them !!!

Regards,

I'm not so enamored of the Acoustats. Mine caught fire and almost took the house down. There was a short in the transformer in the left one which was repaired, and the right one shorted out about 7 months later. I sold them at that point.

I've owned every former model ML produced: Aerius I's, SL3's, Requests, Monolith III's, and now Vista's, and I've yet to experience a single reliability over close to 20 years of use. I'm perplexed by the "reliability issue" posed by the author.

Reliability is a valid concern, addressed well by some who have posted to this thread. I suggest that something which should be at least as important is performance. If you aren't delighted with the sound day after day, year after year, you might have the most reliable speaker but not want to listen, and that would be a pity. Follow your ears.