Final-Audio New Series electrostatics

@madtrader I owned a pair of Acoustat 2+2s.  When I auditioned them at a friends house I thought they sounded fantastic and asked the guy how much he was selling them for he said $2000 and without thinking or any further research I ended up buying them.  As soon as I got them home I knew I had made a mistake.  Lovely midrange but terrible bass and mid-bass and rolled off highs.  I ended up selling them a couple of years later for $600.  Live and learn LOL.

2+2 are a model I've not owned yet. Until recently, I didn't have the necessary ceiling height. I have heard some really sing, though. A friend had some about 25 years ago that he drove with the direct-drive amps. He had them in a brick and glass room with like 16' ceilings. Very nice, but that was a long time ago. A couple of years ago I heard another pair in a much smaller room, but driven by some stout VTL amps through interfaces and they were very nice. I know they're quite capable of bass. There's a pair of monitors (also 4 panel, just only side-by-side wide) I heard setup in a concrete and brick room (with direct drive amps) that surprised me with it's concussive capability. It actually hit you in the chest more like a dynamic driver can. Never experienced that before or since with any sort of dipole. My setups never hit hard, but certainly go low enough. In my previous room, I had a 29Hz mode my room would ring at and my speakers would ring it quite readily. My digital gear I could notch that out and it portrayed fantastic texture down low. But I also don't listen particularly loud.

@madtrader The 2+2's could produce bass but the quality of the bass was poor and unnatural.  In addition to a deeper, more nuanced and precise soundstage one of the key positives of the M35 is the quality of the bass they produce where they excel compared to my 20.7s which were no slouch in that department.  

Tim de Paravicini may have the Title the Godfather of Direct Drive ESL's, especially relating the Quad 57's?

I was to hear DD 57's in the early 90's and become smitten, I have been an ESL user shortly after the TdP experience, and had purpose designed Power Amp's produced to drive the ESL's, both remain in use today.   

In relation to DD ESL's, Emia Audio have their design for a stacked Quad 57 ESL.

The person who was the first to demonstrate to me stacked 57's, and who was totally adept at refurbishing the 57 Speaker, was informing me of their design for the stacked 57, which from recollection would share similar design used by Emia.