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Electrostatic Speakers

I have been lusting after a pair of electrostatic speakers for my entire life. When I was a kid the Infinity Servo Static was the big dog in town. I heard a pair of stacked (4) QUAD electrostatic when Mark Levinson was saying they were the only speakers up to his standards.

So, It was with great excitement when I ordered a pair of QUAD ESL-2912 speakers. I set them up in my listening room and they were fantastic. Even the bass was impressive, tight and went very low. However not the bass output one would get from a big powered sub-woofer. One night I was playing internet radio and I heard thunder. I walked outside and there was no rain. The thunder was coming from the speakers! Not loud but deep and tight.

I have owned lots of speakers over the years. I sold stereo systems for years when I was younger. I worked for AR for a few years. In all those years I have never heard any speaker that came close to the QUAD ESL-2912 for clarity and transient response.

Then one day the party ended. One of the speakers made a loud single CLICK, just one and then back to normal for days. Then it got much worse. It clicked and thumped every few hours. Then it clicked and thumped every few minutes.

I sent an email to the Distributor asking what to do. No answer. I sent a few more emails, no answer. The clicking was making me nuts so I removed the back cover and disconnected the panel, there are five, that was making the noise. All was back to wonderful except the left speaker was a bit softer in volume than the right speaker.

Over the next few months I sent more emails and my tone turned angry. Finally they sent me a replacement panel. Before the replacement panel arrived more panels went bad in the first speaker and then the second speaker.

Next we shipped both speakers to the factory repair center. Six months they returned with banged up cabinets, torn speaker cloth and one speaker still not working!

So my $ 13,000.00 dream speakers have bitten me. Years ago I had KLH 9 speakers (also full range electrostatic) and never had trouble with them until they died and couldn’t be rebuilt.

Any of you have experience with QUAD electrostatics? Some people say a rebuilt pair of the old ones are way better than the new ones. I assumed that new modern manufacturing methods would have made the new speakers super reliable.

Thoughts?? Am I within my reasonable rights to sue these guys?
davidclarke
dpl1
40 posts
 
OP, I too am sorry for your troubles with the 2912's. I have a pair of 2905's that I bought used back in 2009, and the only problem I have had is with the protection circuitry that on occasion in the first year would interfere with normal operation, making them sound muffled. At the time I thought the panels were going bad, so I unplugged them and started searching for repair options. The owner of Quad, IAG, had no presence in the States at the time. Wayne Piquet (PK) and a couple of other places only dealt with ESL57, ESL63 and perhaps 988/989 repair., but I found this in the D.C. area, factory authorized at the time. I spoke to the owner and he sounded very competent:

https://hifiheavenrepairs.com/#/services

However soon after that on a whim I tried the speakers out again, and straightaway the sound was great. Somehow the circuitry had reset; I have no other explanation. They have been fine ever since and I am careful with the volume knob.

BTW I have heard the Sanders Reference hybrids for a short while at my b-in-law's, and I thought they sounded excellent too.
lous's avatar
lous
203 posts
 
If they had glue issues it's likely that in time the other panels will also fail. One thing that often works is a Better Business Bureau complaint. Best Buys once damaged a phone when installing a Zagg screen protector. The store refused to do anything saying that I should use my insurance to pay for it. I looked up their ethics statement and using it, filed a complaint, they then came through. Hope things work out for you!
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 
@thehorn,

If Sound Labs are too big, then electrostatics aren't a fit. Unless someone is willing to live without low frequencies. You need plenty of surface area to get LF from electrostatics. IMHE, compromises to reduce size (usually hybrids using cone woofers) don't perform nearly as well. 

About the muraudio, how long have they been around and how many have they sold? I'd be skeptical to spend large $ on something that if parts/service are ever required, you don't know if manuf. will be around. Check out a ten or twenty year old audio magazine. Half the advertisers don't exist anymore! It's a lot tougher getting your local random audio tech to repair an electrostatic than a tube amp. Cheers,
Spencer
sfischer1's avatar
sfischer1
56 posts
 
I can whole-heartedly recommend Martin Logans.  I've owned ReQuest, Arius i, Prodigy, and CLX.  The early ReQuest, required occasional vacuuming of dust to keep quiet-squealing at bay and good HF extension. The Prodigy and CLX were and have been flawless and trouble free. The Prodigy from 2000 through 2010 and the CLX from 2010 on. (estimates). The Prodigy and CLX both benefit from a powered down, vacuuming every few months to maximize HF extension.
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