Electrostat - M-L; Quad or Soundlab - reliable

Add me to the Acoustat fan club. My model 2s have never had anything done to them but replace the socks. They have great transparency, soundstage and that sense of music coming from nowhere that all electrostatics tend toward. They can be beamy and the bass can overwhelm you if you have things set up wrong. They also like power, lots.
I am fortunate that I have a very long room and have mine setup in a close listening seating arrangement. The soundstage is very wide and deep. The bass is full, but controlled.
I used to drive them with a Hafler 220, now I am using a vintage Adcom GFA555 and with a tube Dynaco Pas preamp. This gives it a very full, powerful and slightly warmish tone.
I would like to put better caps and wire in the Acoustats. Anyone here with some documentation, would be a great help.

cheers

e

I have never heard of panels being replaced on a 7 year basis like tubes as stated by a previous poster - this sounds perposterous!! I had sound labs and never had a problem with the panels, but the power supplies did act up and fail, One speaker had the bias adjustment fail and the other had 100% power supply failure. I did buy them used and they were abused by the previous owner- i suspect they had been in a flood or something because the transformers were way rusty. I did get about 7 years out of them and all in all was very happy to have owned one of the very best speakers anywhere for a a while- all good things end at some point.

one point i would like to make, is always buy these from a dealer that is "johnny on the spot" when it comes to service. The dealer I bought from was very lame and totally useless when it came to service and support and he was also kind of a liar. Repairs are very expensive and a pita and panels are not cheap and shipping charges will kill you on those things. I dont know what some have been smoking?

6550, while the problems you experienced are not common, they illustrate why customer service by the dealer is important. In the case of products purchased new, the dealer should be willing and able to diagnose the problem, including traveling to your home as necessary to help. As with any product, failure caused by abuse cannot be covered under warranty, but I know of an instance or two in the fairly distant past where it was the result of defective material, in which Sound Lab bent over backwards to help and took care of repairs outside of the warranty period without charge. They are diligent about finding the cause of failures if and when they occur, in virtually every case due to material supplied to them such as a run of bass transformers with bad insulation. Sound Lab stands behind its products and reputation. As a Sound Lab dealer, I truly try to go the extra mile for the customer, including providing setup assistance upon delivery, to sorting out issues if and when they occur down the road. I'm in it for the long haul and as such am fully committed to customer satisfaction. Having been on the consumer side of things long before putting on a dealer hat, I value that commitment above all else, particularly in the case of a specialized product like Sound Lab that isn't sold off the rack at Best Buy. Whether it's a client just up the street or one halfway across the country, I'm all over it because a day without music is like a day without sunshine, and I can't bear the thought of a single customer who isn't delighted. Seriously.

Quad 2905.

They do act as electrostatic air filters so most need cleaning from time to time but are reliable. I would say soundlabs are the better stats. Ask Duke for a demo hes a great guy to deal with.