ESL imaging, soundstage, sweet spot ???

[michaelpage26]

I have a confusion with the terms Imaging,sound stage,sweet spot.

Soundstage is the 3D music scene of the music in the sweet spot?
When you just move out of the sweet spot will you lose the soundstage,apart from the high frequencies?

What is the Image or Imaging?
Why they say that electrostats doesn't have good Imaging?

Is the Imaging relevant to the sweet spot, the dipole effect or point sources?

Thanks for the info

[SY]

Why they say that electrostats doesn't have good Imaging?

People make all kinds of untrue generalizations. This one may date back to the KLH-9 days. In any case, the imaging/soundstaging of a 'stat depends strongly on things like panel geometry and room placement. Add in dispersion tricks (like the ESL-63 delay line or the Acoustat Spectra variable width) and suddenly you find that you can't generalize anymore.

In any case, I've heard 'stats with astonishing spatial capability (I own a pair) and others not so astonishing. Very, very few have great spatial capability and a wide sweet spot, but that's true of any speaker technology.

[michaelpage26]

any other answers?

[tinmanrrtx]

My intrepetation of imaging is how the speakers projecting the instruments or vocal where the mixing engineer was intended to be. One example will be to watch the Eagles Hell freezed over DVD and then listen to the CD or LP, you will find the instruments and vocal are placed very differently from the CD or LP to DVD. The engineer mixed the sound/tracks completely different so the sound stage and imaging are very different between DVD and CD/LP.

As for the sound stage, it is how the instruments and vocal are being placed. Like my Martin Logan SL3, it will project sound outside the speakers, from corner to corner sound stage in the front wall. It also shows the front to back placement of the intrument/vocal. Again this is all depends of the mixing engineer.

The sweet spot is where you sit to acheive the best results from the speakers. Like all panel speakers, my ML SL3 also have a fairly small sweet spot, 2 seats wide, compare to my friend's B&W N801 which is about 4 seats wide. Outside the sweet spot, the imaging and sound stage are basically disappeared but the transparency, details and tonality are still there.

Any how my experience is that if you have the ESL speakers, it is very hard to go back to boxed speakers. By the way, placement of the ESL speakers are much more critical and demanding than the dynamic speakers. I don't know why but it took me about a year to find the right spot then small tweaks and adjustment since then. You have to experiment if you want to get the best out of your equipments.

I hope this help, Happy listening.

[Audiofanatic]

Hi all,

My experience with ESL is that they sound good in a few minutes.
And Martin Logan's are the best sounding of all and have a wider sound stage. (no hot spot)

Final and Audiostatic has a terrible hotspot, after modification of the Audiostatic it can be better than the original, but not as wide as the ML's.

Just my 2

Audiofanatic

[michaelpage26]

You mean that you note how good they are in 2 minutes?

[Audiofanatic]

Originally posted by michaelpage26
You mean that you note how good they are in 2 minutes?

You got it
I work with, modify, repair and listen to ESL's for more than 18 years!
I got the hang of it! And love them

Audiofanatic