Any opinions or comments on Acoustat Spectra 1100 speakers?

[Timothy Smith]

Just bought some old Acoustst Spectra 1100 electrostatic speakers.

Sounded great in the previous owner's living room.

The owner had modified the crossovers for biamping. I want to restore to original configuration as a starting point, so I removed all the jumpers and owner modifications.

My first electrostatics. About ready to fire up. Hoping for no white smoke.

Anyone owned these or other Acoustat models? Comments/ observations?

Thanks!

[schwarcw]

I think you will be very impressed with the right positioning. These speakers need some room to breath. I heard one pair of Acoustats, not sure which model and they sounded very nice. Enjoy!

[SCompRacer]

Congrats! I own a pair of hybrid ESL's I may keep to the end. Kind of funny cause when I was young I heard a pair of Acoustat 2+2's and said I'd never own ESL speakers. (Beware of absolutes!). The Spectra series was considered by many to be an improvement over the earlier Acoustat models. Here is some linkage to an old thread at The Audio Circuit. The fellow answering claims to have worked at the Acoustat factory.

http://www.audiocircuit.com/Forum/Ac...oustat-speaker

This page has more topics to sift through. You have to be a member to download the brochures and schematics listed at the top of the page.

http://www.audiocircuit.com/Home-Aud...tat/Spectra-11

Njoy!

[MrAcoustat]

Cancelled post

[MrAcoustat]

Nice start Tim but if you can give the FULL RANGE models a try you have a choice between 66 inches high or 94 ALL 94inches models are the tops you have a choice between 2 - 4 - 6 - or even 8 panels per side but those need a very big room here is a picture of mine they are the 1+1s the smallest of the double stacked models ( 2 panels only ) 14x94 inches all steel frame and weigh 200 pounds.

PS: You may see more models in my Flickr photo galery here ----- http://www.flickr.com/photos/mracoustat/

[Timothy Smith]

Well I finished removing the "improvements", fired them up and and guess what...no white smoke!

I really like the sound. Something like the clarity and detail of my previous Maggies but not nearly as "beamy". Also, better bass extension. Going through all my favorite music again - one of the best parts of this hobby.

Thumbs up's from all friends that have heard them.

Must be somewhat power hungry because they make the heat sinks on my 200WPC Sumo Andromeda pretty warm to the touch after a few hours. Never even slightly warm before with my DQ-20's and other speakers.

Only one problem: After seeing Mr. Acoustat's 8' tall Acoustats mine look, at least, 2' too short.

[Joe08867]

They call that Speaker Envy!!!!

Get yourself a small cooling fan for the amp. Electrostatics are very power hungry.