Final-Audio New Series electrostatics

Many of the current FINAL owners in the US market are introverted and not particularly active on the forums unlike some of us!

I'm very introverted, but this thread drew me out.

Arcing is one of the common problems with electrostatic speakers and modern designs, including Final Audio, typically include various protective measures to prevent that.

I know what arcing is. I've heard of it happening to folks, but I've never experienced with Acoustats in the 40+ years I've been around them.

I generally listen around 75-85 dBC and at those levels I have never had a problem with arcing.

That's where I listen too, maybe even a touch higher than I do.

And I occasionally listen with peaks going into the mid 90's without any issue.

Another anecdote. Last year seemed to be Chicago themed for me. I'd never been and then I had 5 trips. On one of those I managed to catch a Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) performance at their hall downtown. It was marvelous. It turns out there is a recording of one of the pieces they played by the CSO in that hall decades ago (so likely not the same players, and conductor). So I queued it up at home and listened. First of all, In the hall was louder than I prefer, but to try and see if my system could do it justice I cranked the volume up to where I thought it matched what I heard in the hall. This was with my Acoustat Monitors (4 panel speakers) driven by some heavily modified direct drive servo amps. It was very close. I think the imaging in my room was a little fuzzier than what I experienced in the hall. It still imaged, but I think I was able to pick out placement a bit better in the hall (of course maybe it helped that I could actually see the players). Everything else was there. I had the dynamics, the tonality, the volume, the detail. I was very happy. But, I've now moved and that room is gone. I'm starting over from scratch on the setup.

I have heard lots of ESLs and I just prefer my Quads

I was in the same camp with my Acoustats, even though the different models also sound different. My 4 panel Acoustats sound warmer than my 3 panel Acoustats. My Spectra series Acoustats have higher frequency extension (at least with strong enough amps) and better imaging than my non-Spectra series Acoustats. I think the key thing to take away there is for folks to keep in mind that specific implementation is just as important as fundamental theory of operation. We can't completely generalize away all electrostats as sounding the same or even having the same capabilities. Value is then at least one more step away from that. If you value midrange, and someone else values top end sparkle, you're going to come to different conclusions on which electrostat is any good. I think of Acoustats as a hell of a deal, but that's in-part because they're 30+ year old gear and the manufacturer is gone. If you get ahold of set now, it's likely you're not the second owner, but the fourth (or more). I'm happy we have a diversity of brands and offerings actually on the market. I will continue playing with my Acoustat gear, but I've bought into Final to see if they're "spiritual" successor to what Acoustat was in the marketplace. I anxiously await hearing Popori as well.

Why none of the newer ESL manufacturers are designing their speakers to be used with direct drive amps is something I am curious about.

I think Acoustat serves as a warning. They did that with their first models. The marketplace wasn't so accommodating. Audiophiles want to bring their own gear. They want mix and match to their preferences. At best you treat them like active speakers and traditionally those haven't sold as well to audiophiles. Acceptance of large speakers isn't high so we're a niche of a niche. If you need to sell well enough to be a viable company you need to work in terms of what the market expects to be able to do.

Twinstatic Audio in the Netherlands can build such an amplifier to be used with Final, which is an option I was looking into.

I'm actually quite keen to see if we could do some direct-drive on the Finals. It's my understanding that Twinstatic's amplifiers are highly modified Acoustat designs, but I've seen so very little discussion on them over the years. Their page mentioning Finals predates these new models in Final's re-introduction to the US market, so I don't know how different these new speakers configuration is from the old Finals. Is that still something the Twinstatic amps could be configured to drive? If so could some of the Acoustat direct drive amps be reconfigured to do the same and how hard would it be? I know there have been folks use them to drive other ESLs. I've even talked to a guy that used a modified SoundLab interface on his Acoustats.

@madtrader I owned a pair of Acoustat 2+2s.  When I auditioned them at a friends house I thought they sounded fantastic and asked the guy how much he was selling them for he said $2000 and without thinking or any further research I ended up buying them.  As soon as I got them home I knew I had made a mistake.  Lovely midrange but terrible bass and mid-bass and rolled off highs.  I ended up selling them a couple of years later for $600.  Live and learn LOL.

2+2 are a model I've not owned yet. Until recently, I didn't have the necessary ceiling height. I have heard some really sing, though. A friend had some about 25 years ago that he drove with the direct-drive amps. He had them in a brick and glass room with like 16' ceilings. Very nice, but that was a long time ago. A couple of years ago I heard another pair in a much smaller room, but driven by some stout VTL amps through interfaces and they were very nice. I know they're quite capable of bass. There's a pair of monitors (also 4 panel, just only side-by-side wide) I heard setup in a concrete and brick room (with direct drive amps) that surprised me with it's concussive capability. It actually hit you in the chest more like a dynamic driver can. Never experienced that before or since with any sort of dipole. My setups never hit hard, but certainly go low enough. In my previous room, I had a 29Hz mode my room would ring at and my speakers would ring it quite readily. My digital gear I could notch that out and it portrayed fantastic texture down low. But I also don't listen particularly loud.

@madtrader The 2+2's could produce bass but the quality of the bass was poor and unnatural.  In addition to a deeper, more nuanced and precise soundstage one of the key positives of the M35 is the quality of the bass they produce where they excel compared to my 20.7s which were no slouch in that department.  

Tim de Paravicini may have the Title the Godfather of Direct Drive ESL's, especially relating the Quad 57's?

I was to hear DD 57's in the early 90's and become smitten, I have been an ESL user shortly after the TdP experience, and had purpose designed Power Amp's produced to drive the ESL's, both remain in use today.