[Holderlin99]

Has anyone heard his newer speakers? Years ago I heard the Eros, and thought they were great.

[BruceSB]

I was fortunate enough to be invited to an owner's house to listen to his sanders speakers and his sanders power amp.
Spent maybe three hours or more listening.
I was very impressed!!
They sounded fantastic.
I will comment on the common 'criticism' of the sanders speakers.
That is regarding the so called 'head in a vice'  criticism of its 'directivity'.
Now this guy had a single listening chair that had arms that came up pretty high.
I shifted my head around as much as I could and noticed absolutely no difference!!!
I took over some of my 'speaker testing' CDs and they sounded wonderful.
I could hear no difference between this guys sanders electrostats and my own spectra 22s.
And that is certainly very uncommon!!
Yes, I am sure there are speakers that probably sound better but I have never heard them and I try as hard as I can to listen to all of the speakers at every HiFi show that I go to.
Also, I have been fortunate enough to have heard the original ML CLS which was also great but I did not think it was as good as the sanders (or my spectra 22s).
One thing that I think needs to be said about the sanders is - hey, let me make that two things!
The sanders electrostats are absolutely incredible value for money.
Secondly, the owner Roger Sanders.
He is fantastic to deal with, and, ....
Did you know that he will paint them with your requested paint colour???
As regards the old Eros, I would expect the sanders electrostats to sound better and to be overall technologicly superior also.
But I have never heard the Eros's.
My good audiophile friend Tim has some Maggies which sound very nice but nowhere as nice as the sanders!
I would consider the sanders speakers and power amps as some of the greatest HiFi bargains available!
Hope these observations help.
Bruce

[Jazzman53]

I’ve haven’t heard Roger Sanders’ new speaker, but I do have extensive experience building and listening to similar flat-panel ESLs, including with transmission line bass, and I’m intimately familiar with the characteristic sound of that design.
       
BTW; I used Sanders’ Cookbook guidelines for most of my speaker builds, and Roger and I have talked  by phone a few times.  Roger Sanders paved the way for me and other DIY ESL builders, and he’s one of the smartest and nicest guys I know.   

Anyone who’s never experienced the tightly focused sweet spot of an unsegmented flat-panel ESL, would have no reference to even imagine how ultra-directional they are, or how coherent and pure the image becomes when early reflections that would smear it are eliminated.  That’s the upside of ultra-directivity. 

If there's a downside (debate-able), it's what some describe as the “head-in-a-vise effect”.   Frequencies with wavelengths shorter than the panel’s width (treble frequencies) become increasingly directional and beamy.  This is why  tweeters are typically made small—to spread the highs.  An ESL panel is necessarily much larger than optimal for treble dispersion, so the highs beam like a laser and become quite intense at the focus.   
 
As one moves away from the focus, the highs fall off rather dramatically, until one moves several feet outside the focal point where late reflections come into play to average out and restore the balance.

Physics dictate that flat panel ESLs behave in this way, and Sanders’ speaker will be no exception.

It comes down to personal preference and one's choice between compromises.  As for me; I loved the flat panel’s superior slam and imaging,  but I found myself wishing for a wider sweet spot whenever company dropped in.   So; I ultimately abandoned unsegmented flat panels in favor of wider-dispersion wire stator ESLs employing electrical segmentation to tailor the dispersion.   Of course; wider dispersion comes at the expense of giving up some of the magical slam and imaging an unsegmented flat panel gives.
 
Regarding sonic differences between Sanders’ older Eros design, which you’ve heard, and his newer Model 10; I will speculate that you might like the Model 10 better.   As I recall from photos; the Eros had  wings to increase the baffle width (essentially a U-baffle on the panel).  The wings would have lowered the frequency at which the dipole roll-off occurs, which is a good thing (less compensating EQ required).  However; the U-baffle would have a sonic signature which might be less appealing than the likely more open and airy sound rendered without wings (as in the Model 10). 

U-baffle bass sounds like a woofer playing in a barrel to me, and I suspect there would be an analogous signature if applied to an ESL panel.   After all; If it were better, then Sanders would likely still be using wings on his newer designs. 
     
Regards,
Jazzman

[Kilkil]

Last year I was at Rogers home for a demo.  At this time, my main speakers were Quad 2905 (now office speakers), these have beautiful midrange and i love female vocals.
Back to the demo, I enjoyed the speakers and they definitely had more bass impact than the Quads, though they lost some of the magic in the midrange i was used to.  I mentioned it to Roger and he said that he voices his speakers to be very neutral and he is an engineer at heart and believes the best quality is to exactly reproduce the music as best as possible.  I also noticed the Narrow sweet spot, ~10 ft from speaker and moving my head about 8 inches either way was noticeably out of the sweet spot, the lack of sweet spot is a deal breaker for me, as i don't really sit still.

I ended up buying Sound Labs and love them, I think the Sanders still win with Bass Impact.

[Jon L]

I also noticed the Narrow sweet spot

Yup, there's always a trade-off between flat panels and curved panels like Sound labs/Martin Logans.  With Sanders, one trades off sweet spot size for more defined imaging and probably resolution when one is in the sweet spot. 

[dB Cooper]

I heard them at a show and the stereo image fell apart completely if I moved my head two inches in either direction. Within that 3"-4" wide 'sweet spot', they sounded very good. Believe what you hear about the 'head in a vise'. That is exactly what I experienced.

[mick wolfe]

Yes indeed. When I heard them at RMAF a few years back, there was only a single row of chairs centered between the speakers. That pretty much told the story right there. Sounded excellent if you were perfectly centered. Probably sounded their very best if you were in that first chair.

[EkW]

What db and Mick said. very narrow sweet spot but great when you were in it.

[simoon]

Yes, everything said about the narrow sweet spot is true, although from my experience, it is wider than 2 inches.

But when you are in that sweet spot, the clarity and truthfulness of what is being heard is pretty mind blowing.

I've heard them at every audio show in LA, and the Sanders room is always one of the best.

[Blackmore]

I own a pair of the Eros and their sweet spot is fairly narrow but I can enjoy them off axis. There is one precise spot that they sound best and the rest is still pretty good for casual listening. I have updated to the latest crossover from dbx but I tend to like the woofer playing up just a bit higher than his recommended 172 hz crossover point.