Benchmark ABH2 amp and full range electrostatics, e.g. CLX or Soundlab

I believe Swisscables are pretty new to the US. Arizona Hifi in Phoenix is a dealer and there are probably others around that work with the same distributer (wish I could remember their name).

These are not inexpensive cables but also not stupid level, maybe about Nordost Frey 2 price level. 

For another take from another Arizona audiophile they're discussed a little in this review: https://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2019/12/07/hifi-review-vinnie-rossi-l2i-se-integrated-amp-review-with-dac-a-magical-experience-awaits/ Steve is always a little over the top in his reviews but in this instance I agree with him.

The Mogami speaker cables I was using before were a Coaxial design and worked well but the Swisscables are just amazing (assuming your goal in transparency that is). 

Soundhound:
Go to PS Audio website, "Copper Magazine," and read the series of articles by Galen Gareis. (Something like issues 53 or 54-56 or 57. Alternatively, you could just go to the Iconoclast website and read their white papers. Galen Gareis is a former Belden engineer. The level of time and effort he appears to have put into researching and developing cables impressed me. Now sold under brand name Iconoclast, these include a speaker cable with both low capacitance and low inductance. Each model they make has three price options, depending on the grade of metal one chooses. The top of their line wires are not cheap (to me, anyway), but they make Nordost's silly pricing look like lunch money. Best of all, everything they sell has a 30-day, no questions asked return policy and no restocking fees. I just discovered this option quite recently and do not yet have any myself, but how can you go wrong? After all the half-million dollar record players and speakers we've seen in recent times (e.g., Mr. Fremer's recent fave $50,000+ tonearms), isn't it time for just a little bit of common sense in high-end audio? I am as obsessive as any audiophile and more than most, but one of the smartest things I've done is use my own ears more and worry less what high-end fashion dictates. YMMV

soundhound
Benchmark ABH2 amp and full range electrostatics, e.g. CLX or Soundlab

Should be fine, but I would not use a "bridged ABH2’s" (mono’ed) into these sort of ESL 1ohm loads, as the stability won’t be as good and the current ability to drive into low impedance will be halved.
If you have two ABH2’s and the speakers have two sets of speaker terminals then you could vertically bi-amp the stereo ones.
http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/uploads/monthly_2016_03/7_Vertical_Bi-Amp.thumb.jpg.672f...

Cheers George

George,

The CLX is not an easy speaker to optimize.  I had concerns regarding whether a single AHB2 amp could properly drive the CLX and like you whether the doubling of output impedance would pose a problem in regards to the very low impedance the CLX has above 8 kilohertz.  I have ordered an AHB2 amp will compare to my Coda 15.5 amp which is an excellent match.  Martin Logan has used bridged AHB2 amps to drive their hybrid speakers at various shows and apparently has not had a problem with bridged amps.  Nor has kstaken who in an earlier post on this thread communicated that bridged AHB2 amps are an excellent match with his CLX's.

Thanks for your thoughts.

jeffreyfranz,

I appreciate your suggestion.  I have done a little investigation regarding the optimal electrical parameters for full range electrostatics most of which behave like a large capacitor.  Roger West and Roger Sanders who know a bit about full range electrostatics have both advocated speaker cables with both very low inductance and low capacitance.  This is not easy to achieve.  Roger Sanders used to sell a dual coax speaker cable with such characteristics.  The Nordost cables published specs also have both low inductance and capacitance; I was curious about Nordost 2 cables and tried a combination of Heimdall 2 speaker cables and interconnects together in my system.  I selected the Heimdall 2 as a midlevel Nordost cable which would give me an idea of the signature of this brand.  They are excellent cables but have a distinct sonic signature.  I am aware of the Iconoclast cables but have not tried them.  They use Belden wire to fabricate their cables.  I looked at the Belden catalog and noticed that Belden Coax 8268 has 13 gauge central silver coated copper conductors and also very low inductance (0.077 microH/ ft) and low capacitance (30.8 pF/ft).  It is gotten expensive for raw cable, $6.90/ft from RF Parts.  I used xhadow spades for terminations.  It works surprisingly well and I found no advantage to the considerably more expensive Nordost and is perhaps slightly more transparent.  I cannot tell anyone else whether this cable will work in a given system but for full range electrostatics you might give it a try if you can properly terminate the cables and can deal with the stiffness of this cable.