Electrostatic or Dynamic

An electrostatic loudspeaker is more accurate. In fact the Quad 63 is the only speaekr which can pass a swuare wave. I have heard the orchestra members turning the pages in a 3 dimensional space. However if a rcording was made in a studio not in a "real" space and monitord on dynamic drivers with electronic amplification then dynamic driver will be the best tool to repeoduce that kind of music. I blew up my ESL57s while listening( quite drunk) to a Rolling Stones broadcast concert. Wrong tools for the job.

I have a great plan. I purchased a used pair of Quad 63's and added subs ETC ETC. There are probably some equally good options out there but I now own classics and therefore why worry about the newest best. New Quads, so what. I have classics that reviewers still refer and judge by. Sure there are upgrades and different cables and such. But the speakers are classics and with a little work they sound "AS GOOD" as anything new today. Every time I have to putter with my 65 Porsche or a friend tells me about there new Boxster, what the hell, I have a classic. I have been doing this for over 20 years and the newest best is really just different, not neceassarily better. Just a few rationalizations that have worked for me.

It is available in one unit. Von Schweikert VR 7's have all the tranparency of my Maggies with wonderful low end authority flat to 22hz.

Why not get the best of BOTH worlds. I think I may have the answer to your problem. At the last CES show I heard a speaker that sounded as open and transparent as an electrostatic panel, the drive and bass of a great dynamic speaker. I listened to them on two different occasions and both times after listening to good stat panels (Sound Lab New 3 series & Martin Logans). No matter where I sat the sound was as real as anything short of a live performance. The frequency of 25Hz-160Hz was handeled by a pair of VIFA 10" woofers and from 160Hz to 30Khz by a strange looking transducer with a star pattern on it! The speakers were Manger "Zerobox 103/3" made in Germany. I can see why they call it "Zerobox", the music just floats in space with beautiful layering. Anyway to make a long story short, I have ordered a pair this week and when I get them in (3-6 weeks) I'll let you know how they sound in my system. They are rated at 91db @ 4 ohms, so they should be an easy load for my VAC PA100/100.

Philefreak - I'm currently suffering from this dilemma as well. I currently have a pair of Martin Logan reQuests and a pair of Talon Khorus sitting in my listening room (despite the fact that I can't afford to keep both pairs). The reQuests and Khorus are both fast and transparent. However, IMHO I've found the Khorus are smoother and more detailed, generate a wider and deeper soundstage, go lower, play louder, and generally sound more full and natural (i.e., lifelike) than the reQuests. Not surprisingly, the Khorus are the speakers I use almost all the time now. Nevertheless, I occassionally find myself craving the crisp, edgy liveliness and incomparably tall soundstage of the electrostatics, so I still play them once in a while and haven't been able to bring myself to sell them yet. Thus, for the time being, I'll have to agree with some of those above that we can't have it all, even though there are some speakers that may cover most of the bases pretty well. So to finally answer your question, I feel many of us who've lived with both speaker designs can never really be fully content with one or the other. Other than dual ownership -- or constantly trading/selling back and forth between dynamic and ES speakers -- perhaps the most sensible approach is to identify the 3-4 sound qualities that are most important to you, and go with the speaker that does the best at providing those qualities. Then, when you find yourself yearning for some other quality, this will serve as a gentle reminder that there's always more to life and music than what's in front of you (not trying to be preachy or philosophical, just rambling). By the way Philefreak, I thought I read on one of your other posts a while back that you were using Khorus. If this is correct, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how you think they compare to electrostatics.