Electrostatic or Dynamic

Philefreak - I'm currently suffering from this dilemma as well. I currently have a pair of Martin Logan reQuests and a pair of Talon Khorus sitting in my listening room (despite the fact that I can't afford to keep both pairs). The reQuests and Khorus are both fast and transparent. However, IMHO I've found the Khorus are smoother and more detailed, generate a wider and deeper soundstage, go lower, play louder, and generally sound more full and natural (i.e., lifelike) than the reQuests. Not surprisingly, the Khorus are the speakers I use almost all the time now. Nevertheless, I occassionally find myself craving the crisp, edgy liveliness and incomparably tall soundstage of the electrostatics, so I still play them once in a while and haven't been able to bring myself to sell them yet. Thus, for the time being, I'll have to agree with some of those above that we can't have it all, even though there are some speakers that may cover most of the bases pretty well. So to finally answer your question, I feel many of us who've lived with both speaker designs can never really be fully content with one or the other. Other than dual ownership -- or constantly trading/selling back and forth between dynamic and ES speakers -- perhaps the most sensible approach is to identify the 3-4 sound qualities that are most important to you, and go with the speaker that does the best at providing those qualities. Then, when you find yourself yearning for some other quality, this will serve as a gentle reminder that there's always more to life and music than what's in front of you (not trying to be preachy or philosophical, just rambling). By the way Philefreak, I thought I read on one of your other posts a while back that you were using Khorus. If this is correct, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how you think they compare to electrostatics.

Ljgj - your question was already asked and hopefully answered in the thread "Talon Khorus question" posted on 03-12-01.

"Complete satisfaction"? Admit it Albert - even you occassionally crave a little of that very deep and oh so satisfying wall-shaking, dish rattling bass that your magnificent cryo-treated, hot-wired Soundlabs just can't quite seem to pump out. Maybe you don't miss it all the time, but you gotta want it once in a while. Give it up. Let go of your denial. Repent or we'll come to your house, put you on the rack, and play really loud, boomy rap music until you confess.

Interesting how different people experience the same things so differently. The thing I've really liked about the electrostatics I've owned (in addition to their midrange clarity and lifelike soundstage) is their vivid "liveliness," yet Lindeman5 finds ESL speakers to be lifeless. Likewise, the main the thing I never quite liked about the electrostatics I've owned or auditioned was their bass performance, particularly at the very bottom, yet Shubertmaniac doesn't experience ELS to have any bass performance shortcomings. (Jerie's and Albert's comments seem accurate to me.) Different ways to invoke for different folks, I suppose. In any case, this thread seems to be getting a little off track -- I don't think the point of Philefreak's question was to ask people to defend one design or the other, but to find out if there were other people out there who also vascilate between ESL and dynamic designs and, if so, what they do about it. Sounds like a lucky few have found their holy grail, while some of us are still exploring the possibilities.