ribbon or electrostatic speakers

Hello Seadogs,

I'm a dealer for Sound Lab and several other speaker lines, as well as a few lines of electronics that work well with the speakers I sell. I will be a dealer for the Gilmore Audio speakers (assuming they sound really good - I haven't heard them yet). I will of course have much more useful comments to make once I have a pair on hand, but from what I understand in lightness of the ribbon diaphragm, bass excursion capability, and ease of driving, the Gilmores delve into exciting territory for a full-range planar.

I'm located in New Orleans. My living room is my showroom, and my gimmick is offering a free bed & breakfast stay to out-of-town customers, plus airfare reimbursement with purchase. So far over 80% of the people who take me up on my offer and fly here to audition Sound Labs end up buying a pair (this doesn't count people who are in town for some other reason and come by for an audition), and the only sales I have failed to make have been when the customer wanted something with greater dynamic scale. In the past I've lost those sales to big cone-and-dome speakers; with the Gilmores I hope to have a planar that can compete in that arena as well.

I think there will be several Gilmore dealers here and there; you might want to contact the distributor, Harry Blazer of Glacier Audio (www.glacieraudio.com), to see if there will be one close to you.

Best of luck in your quest,

Duke

I looked up Gilmore and found nothing. I looked up Glacier and found Apogee not mentioned. That strikes me as funny, because the speaker described sounds suspiciously like an Apogee Duetta.

Glacier's description of the Gilmore leads readers to believe all ribbon and electrostatics are dynamic whimps. I can't speak for the others, but the Apogee Scintilla is rated conservatively at 110 db. I know for a fact it does more. They just didn't have the amps in the mid eighties that could explore the Scintilla's limits. The newer Apogee Diva is rated at 120 db. In other words, bring on Mahler!

It is my sincerest belief the Gilmore will be a very expensive redo of the Apogee, with a bass panel twist. Hopefully it is an improvement. Loving the realness of the music I listen to through my Scintillas, I can't see there is any room for improvement, except efficiency.

Hi Muralman, How do you get in touch with the 14 year Apogee veteran? What's his name and does he have an email address, phone #, or web site? Thanks!

piega.ch

With some hesitation (only because they are all but impossible to find) I recommend the Acoustat Spectra 66 or Spectra 6600's. They probably have the largest surface area of any full-range electrostat ever built (6 panels), but image exceptionally well in a large enough room because they are driven full range only in a very narrow area.

I enjoyed a pair of Acoustat Monitor 3's for 20 years, which also had very good bass. They also had outstanding imaging (better than 2+2's), which I suspect is because their panels were angled (as in the Acoustat X) meaning the high frequencies and midrange hit you directly from only one set of panels. When the Monitor 3's broke last year, I didn't kow where to get them fixed at the time (Roy Esposito at "Sounds Like New" is the Acoustat guru), so I gave them to my housekeeper's kid and bought a Medallion pair of 2+2's.

I was not quite completely satisfied with the 2+2's because the bass wasn't low enough, so I jumped at the chance to acquired a pair of Spectra 66's earlier this year. The guy I bought them from was driving them with a Classe Omicron in a large room, and the bass was stunning. I took them home to a smaller room with a pair of ARC VTM200's, and the bass was actually overwhelming. Lacking the funds to buy a new house, I sold the VTM200's, and I'm presently driving them with the power amp section from a large Luxman receiver driven by an ARC Ref 2 Mk II (no, I'm not crazy, it sounds better than the VTM200's!), as I try to decide what "proper" power amp would be best.

Anyway, sorry for the digression - point is, I've lived with different electrostats for decades, and if you get a chance to hear a pair of the 6 panel Acoustat Spectra's, I think you'll find the bass you're looking for.