Realistic electrostat 2-a and li-song full range match made in heaven?

[Carbsandcaps]

So I’ve got these realistic electrostatic speakers that I picked up for $30. Ever since I got my Janszen electrostatic set at home I fell in love with the design. Maybe it’s the complexity that sucked me in, I don’t know. Rebuilt the power supply and crossover and I was on my way. I got my new work speakers.

Anyway, the stock woofer in the realistics are, well, terrible. I guess they’re ok for what they are but they don’t have enough bass and certainly not enough midrange to offset the high crossover for the tweeters (5k I think). I had 2 Jensen 8” Alnico woofers laying around so I gave them a shot. They certainly helped in the bass department, almost too much. I prefer a loose bass any day and these certainly provided that. Then one day I decided to do some tinkering inside and had a slight incident involving my soldering iron and a powered on speaker and BOOM my Jensen woofer had left the arena. I was able to push the cone back in and use some sealer to repair the surround temporarily.

This happy accident had me thinking though. It had the bass and it had the highs but still no midrange. I mean it was like ear piercing high and desk shaking low. I decided to go looking for a full range speaker. After some searching I came across this really nice looking full ranger on eBay that I’ve never heard of made by lii song? They are a Chinese company that offers speakers from $100 drivers to $7000 full speakers. They’re the same company as lii audio it just depends on where you bought it from. I figured for $120 for an open box pair I’d take a shot.

The model is “fast 8” they are an 8” woofer with an open whizzer cone and an acrylic phase cone. They retail for only $200 for the set and I would gladly pay that now that I’ve heard them. There’s some dispute online that they need time to break in or they sound flat and that may be true but I got great sound using the tone controls on my receiver which is a Sherwood s-7700 tube receiver. I believe they need a big box. Reviews online say they would benefit from a bigger box than recommended, and I think the cavernous open realistic box works nicely, they even call for open baffle which I may experiment with especially using electrostatic tweeters. They weren’t a perfect fit I had to remove the lower brace on the box to get them centered.

This isn’t a review of the realistic or the lii song speakers it’s just a comment that these realistic 2a’s should really have a full range speaker in them and the lii song seems to fit the bill nicely. Again these are work speakers so experimentation is the name of the game (don’t worry the wires are soldered under that tape).

 

[homebrew]

The Realistic electrostats aren't anywhere near the performance of the Janzen 'stats. Those Realistics were the first real speakers I owned. Bought them new at Rat Shack without an audition. (That was when I didn't know any better.) Major disappointment.

 

[Carbsandcaps]

The Realistic electrostats aren't anywhere near the performance of the Janzen 'stats. Those Realistics were the first real speakers I owned. Bought them new at Rat Shack without an audition. (That was when I didn't know any better.) Major disappointment.

I certainly agree they can’t hold a candle to the janszens. I believe the janszens use a membrane in between 2 panes. The realistics seem to use a single membrane on top of a single pane. I do believe the full range speaker made a huge difference though.

 

[Gnesen]

So I’ve got these realistic electrostatic speakers that I picked up for $30. Ever since I got my Janszen electrostatic set at home I fell in love with the design. Maybe it’s the complexity that sucked me in, I don’t know. Rebuilt the power supply and crossover and I was on my way. I got my new work speakers.

Anyway, the stock woofer in the realistics are, well, terrible. I guess they’re ok for what they are but they don’t have enough bass and certainly not enough midrange to offset the high crossover for the tweeters (5k I think). I had 2 Jensen 8” Alnico woofers laying around so I gave them a shot. They certainly helped in the bass department, almost too much. I prefer a loose bass any day and these certainly provided that. Then one day I decided to do some tinkering inside and had a slight incident involving my soldering iron and a powered on speaker and BOOM my Jensen woofer had left the arena. I was able to push the cone back in and use some sealer to repair the surround temporarily.

This happy accident had me thinking though. It had the bass and it had the highs but still no midrange. I mean it was like ear piercing high and desk shaking low. I decided to go looking for a full range speaker. After some searching I came across this really nice looking full ranger on eBay that I’ve never heard of made by lii song? They are a Chinese company that offers speakers from $100 drivers to $7000 full speakers. They’re the same company as lii audio it just depends on where you bought it from. I figured for $120 for an open box pair I’d take a shot.

The model is “fast 8” they are an 8” woofer with an open whizzer cone and an acrylic phase cone. They retail for only $200 for the set and I would gladly pay that now that I’ve heard them. There’s some dispute online that they need time to break in or they sound flat and that may be true but I got great sound using the tone controls on my receiver which is a Sherwood s-7700 tube receiver. I believe they need a big box. Reviews online say they would benefit from a bigger box than recommended, and I think the cavernous open realistic box works nicely, they even call for open baffle which I may experiment with especially using electrostatic tweeters. They weren’t a perfect fit I had to remove the lower brace on the box to get them centered.

This isn’t a review of the realistic or the lii song speakers it’s just a comment that these realistic 2a’s should really have a full range speaker in them and the lii song seems to fit the bill nicely. Again these are work speakers so experimentation is the name of the game (don’t worry the wires are soldered under that tape). View attachment 3337090View attachment 3337091

Interesting. I have a pair of Electrostat-2a's with rebuilt power supplies and I agree about their lack of bass. I tried a couple of cheap woofers from PE as replacements, but they didn't do much for me. Do the Fast-8s drop in without any modifications?

 

[Carbsandcaps]

Interesting. I have a pair of Electrostat-2a's with rebuilt power supplies and I agree about their lack of bass. I tried a couple of cheap woofers from PE as replacements, but they didn't do much for me. Do the Fast-8s drop in without any modifications?

Yes. I tried to bypass the crossover choke coil to get full range but it completely killed the sound so I just put them in as is and I can certainly hear midrange.

 

[kimbk]

When I was a Senior in High School, I went with my Dad to the Radio Shack in Lafayette, IN so he could expand his supply of crystals for his Police Band radio! In the showroom Cat Stevens Tea for the Tillerman album was playing through a pair of Electrostat 2a's. I was amazed with the realism coming from these speakers. Bear in mind that my point of reference was a Sears "Hi-Fi" console Dad had at home. 40 years later, similar Electrostats showed up on Craigslist. I couldn't resist, but on auditioning at home, there was no tweeter output. I happened to know an electrical engineer who was repairing stage and Hi-Fi equipment. He was interested in taking on the challenge of rebuilding the electrostatic tweeters. He was successful. Tea for the Tillerman doesn't sound quite the same, but that has more to do with my hearing loss rather than speaker deficiency. Assuming he's interested, I'd be happy to pass along his contact info if someone wanted to send him their tweeters.