Electrostatic pros and cons.

Cone woofers and electrostatics can work together wonderfully.

The issue is the room, EQ and levels. Fix that and you can have a mind-blowing ESL experience. :)

Also, fixing that is sometimes very hard! :)

I thought I was responding to critiques of the measured response of some electrostats.

I am not faulting you, @audiokinesis  I just like to be explicit about my own angles. Just because I may feel ESL's are overall not that great measuring doesn't mean you should not like them.

I think we are debating technology and not the sound. I think listeners should try out an ESL / Amp combination and see if the like them for the money.


While you do have to carefully match the woofer's level to the panel, the issues I'm talking about have more to do with ragged frequency responses within the panel itself, especially between the mid to treble range. Something a number of people have tried to correct with room correction software with varying levels of success.

I don't think this should matter as much as personal listening experience however. I'm just trying to be clear about spepcmanship.

Best,
E

From measurements I've seen int he past, several ESL's I've seen just don't measure well in the frequency or distortion domains.

That may not be true for every ESL though, that's a broad generalization based on what I've seen.

There were still plenty of good reasons to listen to them though. :)

Best,

E

@audiokinesis

Very interesting indeed! :) Always happy to have more information, even if it doesn't agree with what I've seen in the past.

Best,

E

The main pro I would say is the very low distortion with their air-damped diaphragm.

Never seen an electrostatic measure well in terms of distortion, if we use the same term used in electronics. ESL's' often _measure_ poorly but sound very good.

The strengths of electrostats usually include superb inner detail and articulation, low coloration, very good to superb imaging, and excellent pitch definition in the bass region. They tend to sound startlingly natural.

Very true. Those large diaphrams can really work acoustic magic. By avoiding floor, ceiling and side to side bounce they can produce some of the same detail as headphones.

Similarly, very wide panel speakers like the Sonus Faber Amati Homage can do much the same.