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Electrostatic pros and cons.

I recently saw a feature on the program, "how it's made" on electrostatic speakers and it piqued my interest in them. I was wondering the pros and cons of them, their placement, space needs, sound, etc. Any advice would be appreciated.









128x128giantsalami
audiokinesis
2,713 posts
 

@erik_squires , I use measurements every time I design a speaker, which is fairly often. Sometimes there is a discrepancy between my observations and the measurements, and in those cases I try to find the explanations. I remember my first attempt at designing a speaker using decent measuring equipment, and the closer I got to "flat" the worse it sounded. My measurements were accurate, yet there was more going on than what my measurements were telling me.

Often a particular measurement doesn’t tell enough of the story, but attempting to understand "enough of the story" is inevitably a descent into the technical.

Of course I could be wrong at any point along the way.

Duke

clio09
3,343 posts
 
You don't want hybrids because you will never achieve the proper integration

I can say that hasn't been my experience.
clio09
3,343 posts
 
@bdp24: Yes that was him and those were the speakers. IIRC Sean told me he worked on the Beveridge 4.

In addition to being on the side walls the speakers were positioned equidistant from the front and back walls. You could sit on either side of the room and listen to the speakers.
erik_squires
15,662 posts
 
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! :)
whart's avatar
whart
2,967 posts
 
Is tricky though. I never solved that equation back in the day with my original Quads, but that was before 1990. I didn’t bother with the Quad 63. (I do like the bass on the original Quad and room positioning can make a difference- what’s there is taut and tone-full). I used to have them on ARcicI stands which really reduced bass but made them ear height-- I know people still like to get them up a bit but one answer is to sit lower. :) The little feet that are stock give them a proximity to the floor that helps the low end. 
With the horns, I found that adding an additional set of woofers, beyond those integrated into the Duo, helped. Adjust position, crossover point, phase and I cheat and use DSP on the external subs. Still took some time to get it right though.
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