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In Reply to: RE: AK fest.. posted by Steve O on May 04, 2008 at 19:11:13
Steve
Not according to Doug Duescher and he definitely said the quads were better with tubes overall..Now if thats the case,the ASL amps weren't good for that room possibly or needed work,
The VanAlstine SS gear was ABSOLUTELY Nauseating on those 12k dollar speakers..If those are the ones you are referring to,you better go back to listen because they couldn't even snif the performance of the 2905s andit wouldn't matter what electronics was being used..Those 2905s were phenominal for coherence,balance,stage,top to bottom and even the bass was incredible.Those are my next speaker without any further listen.I have the martin logan to use with them so I will have plenty of dynamics..It seems review on those speakers everyone comes to the same conclusion..They are just that good.Six mooons review.
First signal to the electrostatic panels was by way of Cuatro con Cuatro where oud, guitar and cello provide a nice spectrum to voice the loudspeakers through positioning. From the first note, the fantastic clarity of the 2905 proved seductive. Instead of jumping up to correct the placement of the black doors, we listened. We went through the complete CD almost forgetting to breathe. Karim Baggili's recording was extraordinary already on the 107dB Duo Omega, now it gained further airiness. Where the horn-loaded Avantgardes are lightning-fast, the ultra thin membranes with their concentric circles driven by time delay circuits are faster yet. Mid and treble tones possess an eerie precision. Bass, real bass coming from the full-range electrostatic speakers is just as fast as the higher frequencies and goes deep well enough. Con arco cello on open strings? The full depth and impact are there, just behind the guitar.
Where the Avantgardes are a looking glass on the music, the Quads are microscopes. Have you ever seen the film Microcosmos? The Quads, even in their preliminary position without any tuning or fretting give you that sense of immersion in a world usually unnoticed.
Miles Davis' The Cellar Door Sessions are great recordings and can give the illusion of being in that Cellar Door studio. This proved ideal to start moving the 2905s around to wring the last drop of juice from these flat, black gates to the music.
In our room, we obtained the best results when the front of the speaker was 1 meter from the wall behind it. This wall is covered with large oil paintings and not a hard reflective surface. A very slight toe-in of about 3 degrees offered just the right balance between too much ambient sound and focused soloists. Just another little adjustment to the rake in the vertical plane and presto, we were happy. Music maestro!
Music with the Quads seems to originate from a point behind the transducers. When the term point source was coined, it must have been while listening to a Quad ESL. This point source is not just radiating middle and high tones. Bass too comes from that one hole in time and space. This is not a given for all electrostatic loudspeakers. Only Quad as far as we know employs concentric rings in the membrane to produce a literal ripple effect for the wave launch.
In the lowest frequency range, something quite remarkable happens. With dynamic drivers, bass response needs space and thus time to build up. Listened to from very close up, a dynamic loudspeaker system often lacks bass. The large membrane of the ESL however can very easy build up enough air pressure to make liquid bass possible from such a position. Bass tones are created with unbelievable ease, without any boom or exaggeration whatsoever. Integration of bass, middle and treble is unique and completely time-coherent. The usable extension to roughly 40Hz is more than enough for most music. The most incredible virtue of the 2905 is cohesion. Bass and treble are almost one. The liquidity of both ranges is equal. The bass is - well, just lower.
The treble at first seems a little modest and shy. It lacks the in-your-face character many tweeters exhibit. On voices however, it has a great sense of naturalness. These 2905s with their mild highs make long listening sessions possible without any fatigue setting in. And with the 2905s, you have to listen long, that's how addictive it is.
Did we mentioned that the ESLs are fast, very fast? Transients build up instantly and out of nowhere. There is a point of origin that is very pleasing to the brain which isn't shocked. After the attack, the sustain of the tone is neither warm nor analytic. It simply reveals the timbre of
the instrument. At the end, the decay is just like its origin - the tone dies off and back to the point whence it came.
With its wonderfully natural smoothness, its amazing focusing capabilities, its rare time coherence and absentee fatigue factor, the 2905 seems like the ideal loudspeaker. It is, in fact - with a few restrictions.
The ESL 2905 does not like loud music. If you don't either, you're in business. At about 98dB/1 meter, the 2905 thinks it's time to close shop and shut down. As sound pressure builds up towards this 98dB threshold, there's a terrible sonic fallout at first. It's like a damaged CD where samples fail. If you ignore these early warnings and fail to immediately turn down the volume, the Quad protection system will taker over and shut you down. Too bad, you've played too loud. However, a German magazine documented that using 5 ESLs in a surround setting can produce enough SPLs to blow your mind or eardrums.
When you have a moderately large room of around 40 to 50 sqm (360 to 450 sqf) and think that 90dB is great for listening for hours on end to well recorded music in your favorite listening chair, then your'e a Quaddie. Once you've heard a 2905, there's no further room for controversies. Where Kubrick had his black monolith as the Philosopher's Stone, we have the 2905 as the Musician's Stone. Magic time!
It doesn't matter how you stir
the pot, Bullshit in always equals Bullshit out!!
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