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ESL for DIY

Cosmos

Cosmos

Speakerholic
Subscriber
Hello fellow audio geeks..

I have toyed with building some Electrostatics for several years, ammassed a collection of books and articles..

Now the question I have is.. has anyone here tried building them?

I would love to hear comments and suggestions.. Please Please Please..

:music:
 
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I probably have the same books! But never delved into building a pair. Most seem to be Maggie knock offs?
 
I hate to admit collecting the info and still feeling skidish..

But, alas, I do..

I probably have spent twice as much money on the books and in time as what I could have bought some maggies for.. LOL

It would be impossible to explain to a rational person how the lure of building the "perfect speaker" has me tempted to DIY.
 
Cosmos said:
It would be impossible to explain to a rational person how the lure of building the "perfect speaker" has me tempted to DIY.
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Thank you Cosmos, you just made me realize I´m an irrational person.
I´ve built several speaker through the years, mostly quite conventional 2/3 way boxes. The latest I´ve built some 7 years ago are slightly less common. I think they are close to my ideal, but not quite there yet, so I have dreams of building huge horns that will include my listening room´s walls.
Anyway, my wife agrees with you on that I´m irrational, to put it mildly. :D
Me? I just don´t care.
Jorge
 
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The walls? What about the ceiling? A peaked ceiling would seem to form a natural horn. As would the space below a staircase.

I'm not making fun of you, this is a concept I've been picturing in my mind for a while, I just don't have the space or the means. If I were wealthy and idle my imagination could get me into a lot of trouble.
 
WhiskeyRebel,
Ingenious thinking, I must admitt.
The bellow the staircase possibility never ocurred to me before, and it sounds good, if for nothing else, at least for a mono horn sub-woofer. It won´t do for me though, as I live in a one story house, which also has a terraced roof, as many houses here in sunny Portugal do, so the ceiling variation is also out of the question for me.
What I do have is some unused garden area beyond the wall against which my speakers are set in my listening room, hence the idea for concrete bass horns there, using up that useless garden space.
I guess that, just like you, what keeps me out of trouble is an empty pocket and a busy life.
Jorge
 
Wineslob: Electrostatics operate in a completely different way from planar magnetics like Maggies, and its the magnetic planars who are late arrivals -- the electrostatic idea is a very early one, though all the problems involved limited it to use as tweeters for a long time. Full range electrostatics weren't really practical until plastics appropriate for the diaphragms were developed. The planar magnetics might have been workable with alnico, but it has gotten so expensive that they weren't really practical until rare earth magnets became common.
I am also attracted by the idea of building both electrostatics and magnetic planars, since the actual construction doesn't seem that difficult, but I am undone by the prospect of high voltage power supplies, or sourcing and affording magnets, so its more fun to read about.
 
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Wow Nat, nice short dissertation on planar speakers. I now feel like an idiot. I have seen Magnpans around for years, heard a few and never (not once) realized they were not ESL speakers.

The whole ESL market is so rare that I don't know of any friends that have them. My listening has been limited to the showrooms of dealers in other cities (no dealers here carry any ESLs).

I think I like the sound they produce, but frankly haven't been around them enough to say that I love the sound they produce.

I have many (un-counted) pairs of speakers, guess it's time to breakdown and try on a set of ESLs.. My wife believes me to be more than irrational..

Does anyone have any favorite models/brands that aren't rediculously expensive.. (like Martin Logans.)

Thanks
 
I will also admit publicly that I was once obsessed with building a set of ESLs. I collected the books, photocopied the articles even ordered the mylar for it. Never happened. We had kids and the high-voltage thing scares me a little and the wife alot so it's on hold for a few more years. If anything, I'll buy a set of Magnepan MMGs (yes I know, planar magnetics, hence no HV) one day.

One thing is that I began to realize that it would take a lot of time and effort to get them right, that to work well you need to bi-amp with a subwoofer, and that after doing the accounting it was cheaper to buy a set of used Quad ESL57s and resell them if I didn't like them or couldn't live with them.

There is a website out there that has a nice little DIY explaination of building them. Sheldon Stokes runs it....

http://www.quadesl.com/diy_esl1.shtml

Lots of other good stuff from this DIY over-acheiver on that web site too.
 
Charivari turned me on to Maggies and I got a set of MGII's and a MK sub and it is by far the best sound I have heard to date. I actually have trouble listening to "box" type speakers now. I got my entire setup for under $300 and a day of driving / some repair... well worth it. I am powering this with a mint Pioneer SX-1010 and anything I throw at it sounds wonderful. From hard rock to smooth Jazz it all sounds spectacular.
 
If someone wants to play with a set of ESLs, then drive on over and I'll give you my KLH Nines. I has an issue, possibly the rectifiers.
 
Brian said:
If someone wants to play with a set of ESLs, then drive on over and I'll give you my KLH Nines. I has an issue, possibly the rectifiers.
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Ohhhh you, you, you...generous fellow! are you trying to ruin my life! wish I could, but I can't....can you hold them for me, for like 10 years or so?
I bet Mr. Stokes could rebuild them for you.
 
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