Electrostat Speaker Opinions Needed

[wilke87]

Im New To Ak Love The Forums I Have Just Recently Acquired A Pair Of Janszen Electrostat Speakers And Would Like Input On What To Power Them With Paying Attention To Cost ,i Currently Have An Akai Am2800 Integrated But Have Read Several Post About Powering These Type Of Speakers Properly . Any Suggestions Gladly Appreciated, Or Is The Akai Up To The Job.

 

[mhardy6647]

I really only know anything about vintage Quad ESL's. The Quads aren't efficient, but will arc with too much input power. The optimal amps for these are low to mid-powered tube amps, including the 15 watt Quad II (IIRC) and, I am told, the 35 watt Marantz 8B. I am using an EICO HF-81 (14 wpc) for mine at this point.

I would guess the caveats for the vintage Quads are pretty generic for ESL's (at least vintage ones).

 

[ehoove]

What model are they? Almost all Janszen speakers were hybrid - Electrostatic panels and cone woofers. Any amp will work with the hybrids, but they are very revealing of inferior equipment. IMHO

 

[brainsmasher]

I am running janszens as well so here are my $.02. 8 watts of tube power were nice but completely underpowered. 200 watts of solid state is too much but what I use. I would suspect that something of high quality in the 30-50 watt neighborhood would be fine. I probably run 10-20 watts through mine at any given time and they are quite happy with that. Unless of course you have a stadium to fill with sound.

 

[wilke87]

i do not have a model number . they were built by my uncle don kliewer who is known for building dlk,omega,domus, and soundmate speakers .my brother use to work there and remembers these were one off speakers he built ,they are about 4.5 feet tall walnut cabinets with a 10' sony cast high performance woofer insealed cabinets ,the electrostats are two slat style panels in a cube that are removeable from the cabinets by way of 4 plug connector .the only badge is a janszen on the electrostat cover

 

[kfa888]

:worthless

 

[wilke87]

trying to figure out how to upload photo ,give this a try

 

[Nat]

Because the Janszens are hybrids, they can take a fair amount of power without problems -- most of the power is going to the woofers. But also because they are hybrids, you may need to do more than the usual amount of work to find an amp that works well with them -- the transition from the dynamic (and relative to the tweeter, slow) woofer to the very fast electrostatic elements is a tough one to get right, and the choice of amp might affect how noticeable that transition is.