[BruceSB]

I looked at the Audiostatic site last night and found that they have a new full range electrostatic, the DCIi.
It looks nothing like what they have been making for years.
It is shorter, wider and cheaper than before.
It appears to be the latest stage in their development as it incorporates all that they have said about their products in the past but with some extras.
Does anyone know anything more?
Has anyone even heard one?
Maybe Steve might know something on the grapevine as he seems to have his ear close to the ground with regard to what is happening in planar land.

[SteveFord]

I'm like Sgt Schultz on this one: I know nothing!
I'll try to find out, though.

http://www.audiostatic.com/index.html

This really jumps out at me:
  •Frequency range 25Hz-22kHz


http://www.stereophile.com/content/audiostatic-es-100-loudspeaker

http://www.quadesl.com/es50.html

[SteveFord]

No response from the manufacturer - perhaps someone else will have better luck?

[doug s.]

what really jumps out at me is the lack of specs:
- what is the efficiency?
- what is the power handling/max spl?
- what is the +/-3db frequency response?

doug s.

[Dracule1]

It took the Audiostatic over two weeks to reply to my email.  I would assume the manufacture would be eager to sell their speaker and reply right away.  Makes me have second thoughts about product support when manufacturer take this long.  They have no distributer in the US, and it would cost about $400 to ship the speaker to US (not including duty fees).  Imagine if something goes wrong, you would have to spend at least $400 to ship back to manufacturer (hopely Audiostatic would cover the return shipping). And this is a new speaker with no reviews whatsoever and no proven track record. Unless they establish a distributer in the US, it would seem too risky.  But then again, I have been known to take risks rarely if the product is really really appealing.

[BruceSB]

Disappointing about the slow response.
Did they tell you anything additional, like how much better they consider it to their previous models, power handling, or whatever?
Although I would have expected a manufacturer to tell you (in great detail!) how their product was the latest & greatest, did they in fact do that?
Is there anything additional that you found out that you could share?

[Dracule1]

Sorry, no to all your questions.  The propoganda is on their website.  Selling internationally is a hard sale.

[BruceSB]

It is amazing what you can find with a little searching.
Here is some information from the hifi forum in the netherlands.
"The impedance of the DCI i wobbling between a minimum of 3 ohms and 40 ohms maximum. Required amplifier power is 200 watts into 8 ohms, said Ben Peters.
The new model is aimed at a very affordable full-range electrostatic in the market.
To my questions about the step-uptrafo's got no clear answer, even after pressure. The only thing he wrote was: "The interface has a better link, higher efficiency, and can handle a higher power."

[FullRangeMan]

Nice static, but it had a ''Direct Coupled Interface, so no big capacitors nor coils in the signal path (US Patent 4461931)'', that seems a transformer or any powered device to match impedance like M-L.

[BruceSB]

I have just noticed a couple of interesting things.
They have changed the name to MDi, which I assume is an abbreviation of Mirror Drive Interface.
There is a little more elaboration on the specifications, 3 kg added to the weight, and a link to the Stereophile review of their model ES-100.
Would still love to hear from someone about how they sound.

[Roger A. Modjeski]

I am making my direct drive amplifier available for the ES-100 and other Autdiostatic speakers. Read this post and reply if interested.   

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=107869.0

[SteveFord]

If you haven't seen it, that's a really interesting thread.

[Hank]

I posted this on that thread, but will do the same here: 
I bought a pair of Model 3 Acoustats a few months ago and now have the parts to upgrade the caps and resistors to upgrade the interfaces.  This direct drive topic is interesting, BUT I can't afford this $4500 amp.  Is there a make and model DD amp that is affordable and will do the job that I could look for on the used market?