ATC actives are well known for dynamics and lack of compression on transients. Dynamics are quite often the missing element from many systems which are otherwise excellent in other respects.
Speed kills....
Which is why I love 'stats so much. For myself, dynamics and leading edge transients are essential. Are there any alternatives in terms of dynamic "boxey" type (verity?) speakers that I should listen to? My present speakers are hales t8's (hales has been out of business a long time ago) and they are about as far away from that ideal as you can get. I want to go in a different direction for my FINAL set of speakers.
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Music Reference is offering a direct-drive ESL for $12k. That buys you left and right panels, each of which is powered by it's own direct-drive tube amp (no output transformer on the amp, no input transformer on the panels!), plus a pair of 8" dynamic woofers for 100Hz down. No power amp(s) needed, nor speaker cables. |
A lot of the aparent speed and detail of electrostats is in the lack of dispersion, but the truth is they can store quite a lot of energy which in any other speaker we’d blame for muddy sounding results. Take a look at figure 6 here: https://www.stereophile.com/content/martinlogan-masterpiece-renaissance-esl-15a-loudspeaker-measurem... What electrostatics do spectacularly very well is ignore a lot of the room acoustics. It's really hard to achieve the same level of clarity at the listening room with point source type speakers. And please don’t come after me, I like ESL speakers. I just want to broaden the understanding of what it is we like about them. |
The Music Reference ESLs achieve much better dispersion without sacrificing speed. While some designed curved panels to improve dispersion, there were other sonic trade offs involved. It's why Roger Sanders stuck with a flat panel. Roger Modjeski learned a thing or two from Harold Beveridge. I took the panels out of my Acoustat Model 2's and had Roger modify them to mimic his panels dispersion. The difference is not subtle. One doesn't have to sit in the sweet spot with their head in a vice to enjoy the sonic pleasures of what an ESL should provide. Not to mention the mid-range in Roger's design is the closest I have ever heard to an ESL-57. One of the major disadvantages of an ESL is the transformer. I never used the Acoustat interfaces as I run mine with direct drive amps and before that ran them with the same electronics and transformer Roger designed for his ESLs, powering the speakers with a Music Reference RM-200. Based on my experience I can easily say direct drive is the way to go. |
Erik, as you know ESL’s aren’t the only dipole planars. Magneplanars and Eminent Technology LFT’s, both magnetic-planar/ribbon speakers, also have nulls to either side (their radiation pattern is a figure-of-8), but they don’t have the apparent speed of ESL’s, or their liquid see-through transparency and low-level detail. Roger Modjeski says that’s because of the extremely low moving mass of the Mylar used in ESL drivers. The thought of ESL speakers with direct-drive tube amps really has me lusting. Guess I’m gonna hafta sell some of my vintage drums! |
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