Michael on the podium: Electrostatic adventures

By Michael Jones

June 2008

Audio thoughts and ramblings from AudioEnz editor Michael Jones

Quad ESL2905 electrostatic loudspeaker
Stax 2050 electrostatic "earspeakers"

I’d been longing have a decent listen to the new Quad ESL2905 electrostatic loudspeakers for some time, but I’d been stymied at every turn. There was no dealer in Auckland and a request to the distributor for a review pair was returned with the useful answer “You’re welcome to listen to them here next time you’re in Christchurch.” Hmm, not quite the answer I was after!

Fortunately, a couple of months later Soundline Audio in Auckland received a pair. Making full (mis)use of the good nature of Soundline manager Palmer Baines, I invited myself and an audio buddy (AB from now on) in for a couple of hours of listening.

Quad ESL2905’s are very different from your typical box speaker. For a start there’s no box! The speakers are wide (695mm) and tall (1430mm) and being a dipole (equal amounts of sound are radiated behind the speaker as is forward) they require a lot of space behind them. This is no “stick them in the corner or behind the couch” speaker.

Palmer already had the pair set up and playing in his large demo room. The source was a Marantz SA7 CD player with a large Marantz PM11 integrated amplifier driving the Quads.

AB and I played a wide variety of jazz, classical and rock music through the Quads. What struck both of us was the sheer ease of the sound. This was not surprising really. The spec sheet of the 2905 contains a specification that you rarely see published for loudspeakers – that of speaker distortion. Quad claim a distortion level of a mere 0.0015% above 100Hz, and at a high 100dB level. Most conventional speakers you’d be looking at 1-3% distortion, which explains why that specification is usually absent.

The results are audible. There’s a grain-free sound to the 2905, just as there was in the original Quad, now unofficially known as the ESL57 – no wonder people hang on to their old firescreens!

We heard detail, lots of it, but in an easy, unforced way. AB, an experienced listener, said that he heard things on his CDs that he hadn’t heard elsewhere. I suspect that some people hearing the Quads for the first time will think that they’re dull, mistaking the cone and dome breakups of conventional speakers for real detail. But it’s all there with the Quads.

I’d love to hear them some more, so I’m off to pester the distributor yet again. Maybe I can get a pair in my lounge.

The second electrostatic adventure I’ve had recently was with the Stax SRS-2050II electrostatic headphones (or “earspeakers”, as Stax prefer to call them). John Groom had recently written about them in his Private Ear column on headphone listening, so I invoked editor’s privilege in grabbing them before they disappeared back to their distributor. I refer you to John’s review for a rundown on the 2050s.

I have a love/hate relationship with headphones. I love the way that they can lay open a wealth of detail in an intimate way – a friend once described a pair of headphones as “the best $10,000 speaker you can buy for under $1000”. But listening to the Stax reminded me of the almost subliminal annoyance of the cones and dome sounds from conventional loudspeakers – or headphones.

There was a “rightness” to the sound through most of the spectrum that was very alluring. That lack of normal driver sounds allowed a wealth of detail to be presented. This detail wasn’t thrust into your face, the way that can happen with products that people describe as “ruthlessly revealing” – usually more ruthless than revealing, in my experience. Instead, the detail was available, if you chose to listen into it.

For example, string tone on well recorded chamber music CDs was spot on, with that slight edge to the sound without being artificially edgy. The behaviour of the Stax made for a great LP listening experience too. The inevitable surface noise from LPs was there, but not thrust forward as can often happen with headphone listening.

Like John, I felt that the bass end of the Stax let them down. My aging Sennheisser 580s give me a lot more information on what’s happening in the bottom end of my rock CDs.

But they are very moreish headphones.

Michael Jones has published audio magazines and web sites since 1986