Why Soundlab over other planars? Convince me to buy Soundlabs :)

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capwkidd

  • Jr. Member
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Why Soundlab over other planars? Convince me to buy Soundlabs :). And if you happen to have M-3PX's, tell me why you purchased them over the larger models. Thanks :)

GT Audio Works

Full range electrostatic speakers have their own set of attributes, weather they are for you I cant tell you.
Having owned a few stats, my Sound Lab A3's had the best dynamics and bass of the bunch, their soundstage presentation is full and wide but do not have the image localization abilities of some planar magnetic/ribbon speakers I have had. This is not a bad thing ,they sound more like the presentation you hear in a concert hall. An analogy  I would use is the difference  between a focused beam of a light as opposed to a fluorescent bulb that bathes the area in light. Stat's in general have very low driver distortion ,this is achieved by push pull operation  and very little diaphragm movement,, hence the need for the panels to be large to put enough sound into the room. They also require the proper amplifier to perform at their best. I had 200watt mono OTL tube amps. OTL's and stats are a great match.
The first time I heard big Sound Lab stat's and a big OTL amps I was floored by the huge natural and powerful presentation they offered.
Placement and room acoustics can be tricky with large stats., I found they were not the easiest speaker to get good bass from, not that they are not capable of good bass, just the placement and room acoustics are very critical.
The down side is their size ,price, amp requirements, and reliability. I am sure they have gotten better, but I had an older set of A3's and the coating on the diaphragm had to be redone twice,,when it went a third time that's when I moved on to another speaker.
As far as which model, I guess that depends on how large your room is and how deep your pockets are.
I know there are not too many places to hear Sound Labs, but if you find a place ..it's wroth the trip.
                                                                                                                                                          Greg

capwkidd

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 201
Thanks for the info Greg.... I have never heard of reliability issues with stats.... So, how do you old speakers compare to Soundlabs & Magnepans?

I think the most important things to me are a natural/realistic tone, and coherence.... I am not a big sound stage guy, so, perfect definition of the placement of the band does not matter to me..... If something does not sound right, what do I care if it's in the right place?

GT Audio Works

My old sound lab A3's sounded very good , a very natural and coherent sound,,always pleasing to listen to. The biggest issue was matching  to the proper amp and room acoustics.
 I don't think the new models have the reliability issues my older ones had, I believe they now use a different process to make the mylar conductive, the old coating would burn off especially if you cranked up the bias voltage.
I cant compare them to the new ones , I have not heard any of them.

Compared to the Maggie 2.5 and 3.5 I owned , The sound labs  sounded smoother and more coherent but the Maggies had better imaging and better mid bass articulation and more airy treble, But the maggies had a certain something that always made the music sound real if the recording allowed. But for me the biggest issue with the maggies was a lack of coherence between drivers..a big issue for me.
One of the reason I designed my own planar driver, along with wanting to emulate the coherence of the Quad electrostat.   Greg