Electrostatic loudspeakers

Ditto @cynd11 - don’t really understand how it works but it looks amazing! Thanks for sharing the build pics as well as the final ones!

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Right on, we’re planning to going to Four Corners! I’ll PM you in the future and perhaps we can arrange it.

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Truly outstanding!! I have owned Magnapans (flat but not really electrostatic) and Beveridges (very nice), but never considered building my own. That’s a lot of zaps to deal with. I’m always scared some might get out.
They are gorgeous and I bet they sound as good as they look.
Incredibly well done. Congrats!

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Wow! Those look incredible, and I bet they sound great too! Nice job!

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I’m blown away by this. Amazing project.

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I still have a set of Monsoon PC speakers from probably 2002 that use electrostatic panels that are my main speakers because they sound so good.

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Totally amazing. My EE dad and brother would love to build these. I’m sure that I’d shock the heck out of myself.

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He wasn’t kidding about the offer being genuine, and these speakers sound as good as they look. They soundstage on them is incredible. He also walked me through some of the information on troubleshooting some old electrostats that I had come to own recently.

Thanks again for letting me stop by!

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It was a great visit! I look forward to hearing your adventures in getting your set restored…

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That is pretty amazing! How did you get the specs for how you curved the front of the speakers? Is there a page somewhere with some more detailed information you followed about how to build it?

Thanks!
David.

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The radius of the curve was a guess on my part. The curved ESLs you can buy commercially use a 30 degree arc. I settled on 20 because I was using a larger insulator thickness for a larger frequency range but at the cost of efficiency. It turns out that I likely could have gone with 30 because these can get plenty loud even with my little 70wpc RMS amplifier. At 8’ these are still pretty beamy (for the ultimate ESL experience). If you point them directly at your ears you can have a very nice solo listening experience. At 12’ and a little wider positioning you can cover a seating area for three listeners.

There is lots of information out there. There are also many approaches to designing and building. You will find plenty of documented builds and discussions on their results on various forums. The wonderful thing about a well built ESL is they all sound great, there are just small levels beyond that some people are willing to chase.

My primary resource was The Electrostatic Loudspeaker Design Cookbook. This is the original book my father got for me back when I first expressed interest as a teen. As ESL are actually very old technology, the basics still hold up and there has not been very much change to the fundamental design over the years, even by the extremists.

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Nice! Thanks for the reference. Will get it, I like the look of the speakers :slight_smile:

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Those look terrific @chevalier_jeanpaul!
@pinkfishfrog - Lots of additional builds and tech discussion here:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/planars-and-exotics/

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I still have a pair of Martin Logan electrostatic speakers. Seeing you work out the grills and the mounting brackets was very cool to see. Nice work.

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I love this project. (and anything that uses plasti dip for that matter) #necrogame

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Yes! this was a fantastic post.

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