Final-Audio New Series electrostatics

Just a to clarify a point.  Magnepan does not and never has manufactured an electrostatic speaker.  Magnepan is a magneto-static design more like a traditional cone or dome driver.  Eminent Technology is magneto-static.   Both sound. fundamentally different that an electrostatic.  I own and enjoy both magneto-static and electrostatic designs.   Each involves pros and cons.  

Full disclosure, I own the first Final M35 imported into the US as a retail sale.  The M35 has a somewhat different design than the remainder of the M series.   The design differences were required to extend the low frequency.  Like others, my original order was for the M15.  After research and conversations with the importer, I changed it to the M35.  I have no regrets. 

what color frames did you choose?

I know this wasn't directed at me, but maybe this adds to the color of the conversation: white. I've been on something of a kick lately with buying white gear when the opportunity exists.

Sonically these are great sounding speakers with some limitations.  I have had trouble with arcing in the panels playing classical music at very loud levels.

Could you share the tracks and what you mean by "very loud"? I do listen to classical often, but I don't listen loudly. I rarely play where peaks above about 85 dB, but sometimes the occasion calls for loud :) .

Not only is that brand name a little confusing given the iconic Japanese brand 

I don't recall the details, but the brand is fairly tenured. I think they are over 25 years old, but Ravi is helping to reintroduce the brand to the US market. If you search, you can find some of the old speakers come up for sale occasionally. There was something about Philips buying the brand and letting it flounder and Martin coming back and reviving things.

why would one go all this random stuff if one is going electrostatic?

You've gotta hear electrostats to understand. Preferably some large ones setup well, but it's not strictly necessary. I'm not saying you'll like it, I've encountered plenty of folks that don't -- it's too jarringly different for them. Additionally, as with anything, brands tend to have their own flavor. I am not really a fan of Martin Logan's flavor, but I've heard them setup in some really great demos. Both 2 channel and multi-channel setup, even including their Neoliths. It could very well have been the source gear I didn't like. Electrostats have a clarity and transient speed that's difficult to match with other driver types. The coherence of a single driver is also uncommon, but that can be heard with other drivers. There are trade-offs, of course, like all technology. I was literally raised around electrostats (Acoustats specifically), so that's my reference.

I have a funny anecdote that plays into the electrostat stereotypes. At AXPONA 2024, when I got to hear the M15s, I was in the room and Martin gave a little spiel about the technology and what they were doing and then they started to play some music that I'm not familiar with. I think it was from SACD. The fellow sitting next to me (I didn't/don't know him) starts asking how low in frequency the speakers play. There were sub towers, so good question. Ravi unplugged the towers and you could then hear how low the M15s were going. This fellow started "flipping out". He was gobsmacked. He stood up and sat down a bunch of times. He walked up to the panels (both sides) and kept going on and on about how he didn't think that was possible with electrostats. I've never seen anyone so beside themselves about hearing something. It was humorous. I wished there were more electrostats at the show to hear the different flavors.

@madtrader I'm not really sure it would be responsible of me to share the two tracks that caused arcing in my M35s.  I have no idea if there is something specific about that music/recording that might damage other speakers.  It is possible there is clipping or square waves or something specific to the music.  Anyhow, the first time it happened I was entertaining an audiophile who wanted to hear orchestral music at "realistic" levels which for him meant well over 90 dBc, much louder than I normally listen.  The second track I was playing with peaks in the high 80s I would guess, again loud but not something that I felt was inappropriate for the music.  Remember live symphonic or jazz performances frequently have peaks over 100 dB.

This track has unusually deep and reverberant bass guitar and it caused buzzing in one of the panels and it was probably playing in the mid 80s dBC.  I imagine dBA would be at least 10 decibels less and when music is this bass heavy it often needs to be played at a louder SPL to sound correct to our ears.  I suspect any speaker that had a low frequency resonance might vibrate to this track.  https://open.qobuz.com/track/2574377

This second track is one of my standard reference tracks and I never heard an issue with it until I tested some cables a friend lent me that have a much more pronounced bass response and I heard buzzing in the left panel in the first 20 seconds of the song on the plucked cello (?).  I don't hear that on my second system or earbuds so I assume it is the panel but I would be curious how you hear it.  That is with peaks around 83 dBC slow.  https://open.qobuz.com/track/11235714

I am a big fan of the M35's bass response which is much better than the Magnepan 20.7s.  However I do use subwoofers that I think are well integrated.  But when I played this track I felt the bass was a little too prominent so I muted the subs and I was surprised to find the very low nearly subsonic bass didn't just diminish, it simply didn't exist anymore.  It points out the limits of even well designed electrostatics and I suspect quite a lot of conventional designs as well.  My guess is that unless you have subs or speakers that go down into the mid 20 Hz region you won't even know that there is information there.  https://open.qobuz.com/track/127028098  And that track doesn't cause any problems I hear with my M35s. 

As I said, I have had my M35s for 7 months and played more than 1000 hours of music and I have only heard issues with those 4 tracks.