Speakers or Big Boys Toys?

Having worked with some of the very highest power amps and speakers as we as some of the worlds most expensive and exotic units I am very under whelmed.

They are showy but what about their sound?

I bet the have a Ferrari style price tag!

Not for $20k they don't, especially when it doesn't even have digital or RCA inputs! Still if your having a mid life crises, or have serious personal self esteem issues then I could see someone buying it. Perhaps that is the target market.

Quad an esteemed British company we at one time were the first to manufacture the electrostatic speaker ESL57. from memory. They still make an up dated version. There was a build tour own article in on of the Hi Fi magazines of yeaster year (no chance of do it now) too many people would take um-bridge. Safety my dear fellow all those nasty high voltage out put stages. Only 15 25Kv at 5 - 10 mA I said. Case closed fined £10,000,000 for contempt of idiot. The things I worked with were big 18" heavy beasts 1000W types. PA and loud music. Made in the USA Cerwin Vega. Amp to fry your breakfast on. Many an amp died because the wound them up to max and left them pumping out far to much hot base. Speaker cones ripped from the voice coils and some time too many times fried beoynd repair £150 £300 a piece. Ouch.

...cones ripped from the voice coils...

Which you cannot do with electrostatic. Your mentioned first Quad model was 4k pounds back in 1976.

A friend of the family bought them for classical music, but we played Gentle Giant and Johnny Winter, to his dismay.

"This is sacrilege" was his greening face's utter. We gave him a doobie to relax and enjoy.

I still have the original data on them and the local Hi Fi guy has several he is re building.

That sounds like a major blasket on the basey-profundole all the way to the trittly-most of the higher ever reachie.

ROFLMAO! PW, you're a hoot!

All hail the late great Professor Stanley Unwin! (And no, I won't attempt any Unwinese!)

I think that before I spend 20 grand on 1 speaker stack I'll shoot myself in the head for being an idiot. I don't care who's name is on it.

Electrostatics are the balls. I might try a couple of those Ferrari stacks to boost my midrange, but I'll keep my 2 kW bass units, muchas gracias. I like to feel my music. My neighbors hate me.

Definitely toys, not speakers. Good for the looks, that's it. The spec tells the whole story, I don't need to hear them to realize they can't do the bass you need for good music.

Get some Cerwin Vegas 18" 1500W RMS 2300 pk. They groove.

The man knows his stuff.