Electrostats Shootout at 4000 Corral

HELLO Fmpnd BRAVO your experience of these magical mk11 or mk1 has the most convincing testamony. so it seems your post can bring this thread to a close. Gasman and Plato both back up your experience. the description of your system sounds looks like you,ve done your homework ,i am going to take a look at the equipment you mention. its interesting martinlogan has like 8 models ,and sound lab has like 8 models innersound has 2 or 3 ,martin logan goes to $80000 sl's goes up to like $20000, big is not always better in fact almost never not! TO: all the martin logan devotees and the lovers of sound labs please refer all your protests to Gasman, Plato, and most of all to Fmpnd. as far as i'm concerned the shootout is over... lets go to the saloon.. drinks are on me.

First off, thank you to Sean and Chuckie for your kind words. Whadda ya think guys - do I owe them a nice big discount next go-round, or what??

I'd have to agree with Plato that overall the InnerSound Eros outperforms the stock Dynastat. The bass section of the Dynastat - in particular the cabinet itself - is in my opinion the weak link. I do a few tweaks that help out a bit, but that transmission line bass of the Eros is superb.

Getting the Dynastats set up right is much more difficult and involving than setting up conventional speakers or full-range electrostats. This is true of any electrostatic/dynamic hybrid. The bias control, brilliance control, and bass level control all have to be set right for your listening position (and your taste) in your room.

I would say the Eros is dangerous competition for the much more expensive Martin Prodigy. I confess, however, that I do like the wide radiation pattern of the Sound Lab speakers. I've made a few suggestions to Sound Lab regarding an improved bass section for the Dynastat, but a major redesign would probably push the price up significantly.

Amplifier matching is critical with the big full-range Sound Labs. The best bang-for-the-buck amps I have found so far are the InnerSound amps, which I sell (I don't sell their speakers, at least not yet).

I've encountered a couple of setups where the big Sound Labs were bloated in the bass. By far the worst was at 2002 CES, where the room's walls were so flimsy you could put your hand on the walls and feel them vibrating. That room was hopeless. In other rooms, I've found that moving the listening position helped a great deal.

One of my customers plays violin in a symphony orchestra. His previous speaker was a highly customized pair of Quad 57's, which he said were the only speaker he'd heard get violin right. When he listened to the big Sound Labs, he told me that not only did they get the violin right, but also cello and string bass, which was a first in his experience. Another one of my customers is a drummer, who told me the big Sound Labs have the best bottom-end definition of any speaker she's heard. Still another customer preferred the bottom end of the Sound Labs to that of his $40,000 Genesis system with something like sixteen servo-controlled woofers. I make mention of all this to point out that, when set up right (and assuming the room acoustic gods haven't cursed you), the big Sound Labs do some magical things in the bottom octave or two.

That being said, the dynamic range of the Eros is indeed greater than that of the big Sound Labs (unless you have really humongous amplifiers). Personally I prefer the package of attributes the big Sound Labs offer, but I respect the Eros a great deal.

Best wishes to you in your quest, Tweekerman!

Albert, you have to remember that the newer Eros are something like 96 db's at one watt !!! With 21 watts of tube power, they would ROAR. There are no doubts that the Innersound's ARE the king of E-stat dynamics from that point of view. Whether or not the dynamic woofer and panels blend well together is a personal decision. I've never heard them first hand, so i can't say either way. Sean
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I have not heard the Eros, which Sean has mentioned, but otherwise my experience is the same as Albert's, that getting the sound to blend properly with hybrid ESLs is a very tricky business indeed and rarely satisfying. Mating the Quad 63 with a Gradient sub was nice, after some tweaking of the Gradient's X-over, but the the only full range ESL's which I found really convincing were the big Sound Labs. The Quad 989 only second here to my ears. If I were in your shoes I would take both Sean's and Albert's advice and listen to the Eros and hunt for a good used big Sound Lab. Cheers,

you may be making a big mistake if you fail to check out the vmps rm-40 ribbon loudspeakers. as said before, they have been compared favorably to speakers costing more than three times their price. specifically the m-l prodigy & soundlab a1.

a similar sound, that may even work better in smaller rooms, for even less money, can be found in the vmps rm1 or rm2.

as it seems you are so intent on others' opinions, & that winning the best sound of the show at the 2002 ces isn't enough, go to harmonicdiscord.com & check out owners' comments on the vmps forum there. also, you'll find that brian cheney, vmps' owner, is very active & helpful.

regards,

doug s.