Electrostats have to be pampered to sound there best; they are a demanding speaker to get sounding right. 1.) they tend to be far more sensitive to speaker placement than many other more "conventional" electrodynamic transducer designs simlply because they are dipolar in nature. Play with speaker placement, read the owner's manual on positioning, etc. 2.) I'm not a big fan of AC conditioning in most systems; However, since electrostats plug into the wall they can make AC "grunge" audible through there panels. So a power conditioner may help. 3.) I'm not sure on your amp (whether its tube or SS), but Solid-state is generally a little better suited for driving speakers that present very low resistance at certain frequencies like the electrostats. 4.) There was a thread in the past 72 hours entitled something like "speaker cables and ESL" which it cites an article and which I posted another excerpt showing how cables can make an improvement with designs like the Quad ESL. And Lastly, like others said, experiment with the rooms acoustics. You may not have to buy acoustic treatment, depending on your furniture and the room and how you arrange things, you can still get good results. A large bookcase with books of different sizes will diffuse sound, a tapestry on the wall will help absorb it, etc. Good Luck!
improving my system, please help
I have just got a system together recently after a period of no system at all (wife factor). I currently have a CJ PV-7 pre-amp, Oddessy Stratus amp (120,000 uf upgrade), Adcom GCD-750 CD player, Martin Logan SL-3, Gronberg interconnects, Tara Labs (not sure the model) bi-wire speaker cables, isolation cones on the pre and cd player. I have no sound treatments, nor do I understand anything about them. I am on a more restrictive budget than most here on Audiogon. I am considering going to Stratus monos, upgrading to a CJ PV-5/BAT 3i or 5i/Rogue 66 or 99 and perhaps swapping out the GCD-750 for a transport/DAC setup. I am also planning on bringing in 2 dedicated lines and purchasing a HT-2000 for use with all but the amps. If I were to use the HT-2000, would I still benefit by using a dedicated line? any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.