Ho ho, this is what happens when Steadman doesn't have his eyes open when he gets out of bed.

Not that I couldn't knock up the odd (probably very) Lowther cabinet but I was referring  to cones!!! I just got my comment in the wrong place. Richard will be out here in a few weeks so he could collect them if he so desires!!

Yes - they were a good find - bit of veneer fraying at the bottom of one, but nice looking and (as best I can judge) properly made.  I also really like the way they sound now, and in theory that should improve as the new driver runs in.  And actually, they're not THAT big. Physically the footprint is not that much more than a big stand mount, and they like being within 15cm of a rear wall (bloody heavy though).  On the 15 minute silver bullet audtion Sue has now dismissed them, but even she took 3 tracks in silence to reach that conclusion.  Whilst its nice to have a 2nd opinion, I think she is too fixated on one aspect, one "identifier" and fails to see the bigger picture.  The Lowthers do some things really well.  So its head to head ESL to Ventrical, but I shall be hanging on to all 3 for a while before parting with a pair.  The ESL's were lovely - but needed bringing into the room to a position where they can't live permanently to be that lovely.  And still were not like my "idyllic memory".  Don't tell Gordon, for heavens sake, but I just wonder whether the 57's on stands might be better here.  The ESL's have that magic transparency - that subtlety of not sounding like anything is playing, which can almost sound "soft" - as a fault.  "Dark" to borrow Martins term for "not bright".  Easy to feel its lost some "life" or "bite".  But I think that's just "natural" and "right".  Not so easy to judge with rock or blues because the music is delivered by moving coil speaker amps, and so the music amps add that "bite" and it doesn't sound wrong on moving coil reproduction (ie played on your hifi).  But probably, really your HiFi is over-egging the pudding.  On classical music, where the home system is trying to play the sound of acoustic instruments, that "softness" is a "perfect rightness".  Borodins Polotsvian dances last night was beautiful.  However, this "softness" had me wondering at one stage whether the Dynavector was a bit "dark".  I think not.  I think its just that ESL gentle treatment of treble.  When a cymbal rings out, it rings true and clear.  It just seems to be physically further away from you - not quite so "in your face".  I'll do some listening to CD's I think.

This makes me appreciate 2 truths which are an unwanted complication in my plans to "sort it and forget it" and just get back to listening to music

1) I have 3 very good pairs of speakers on my hands.  In particular, I have been seriously underestimating how good the Ventricals were through 20 year complacency (although I should have maybe known, given there are any number of posts on the web along the lines of "biggest regret was letting Ventricals go" - including one nearly to that effect on this forum already).  Not just how "good" - how very very close to ESL63's. They're not the same - and in a perfect world with no domestic constraints the ESL's are untouched.  But the Ventricals are a bloody good fake.  If this was old oil masters, not speakers, I'd be expecting to have my collar felt for palming off fakes.  So there are aspects of all 3 that are attractive relative to the others, and all 3 I could live with and enjoy, and none of the 3 are perfect.  Bugger.  I wanted a clear cut result

2) Right back to my reactionary roots, you build a HiFi starting with the room, then the speakers in the room, then sort the rest of the components around that.  And rooms are different.  So - what works in one room may not be the best solution in another.  Which means the idea of sorting it out here, and then karting the solution to France is fundamentally flawed.  Bugger.

If we view the house in Lapradelle next month, I shall be measuring carefully to see if the ESL's will sit in front of the French windows and still allow traffic to pass through.  But if they won't, I'll know I'm not missing out too badly if I take the dainty Ventricals.  Or the "slim" Lowthers.  Why is life never easy? 

They have some presence don't they !

(You will be assimilated !)

So pinkie...

what's the verdict on the 63s. I have  to admit I can't remember being so undecided as I was 5 minutes before the end of that auction. I have a pair of ESL3s form a kit I built in 2003 to do a review for hifi world. At the time I'd auditioned a few pairs of 63s so I was well placed to compare with the ESL3s. The ESL3s had it by a tad, but the 63s had far more WAF.

The ESL3s have been in storage for a few years while my youngest gets the 'seek and destroy' out of his system, so I'm still pondering about 63s, WAF and more child proof...

ESL3 story here www.vitalstates.org/diy/electrostatics/vsl-electrostatics.htm

So, if you ever want to part with them.......

My wife and I have been watchinG the Harry Potter films for a bit of harmless fun this week. It must have sunk in as Ronnie asked me why I was still listening the Teufels when the Quads are available.

I told her I thought they sounded very good and not far off the Quads to which she replied "yup they are good but in a Muggle sort of way, they don't do magic"

That's fair comment - although the favourite speakers are probably Quad, and I'm fairly happy with a (modified) Quad amp, and a Dynavector cartridge.  I expect if I looked hard enough I could find speakers I preferred to the Quads too.  So its all relative to what you get to experience.  In a way its a bit like Alan and Gordon with their love of electrostatics.  All of us at PT had the same tastes.  There is a definite "Pink Triangle" (mostly Arthur K) sound, which not everyone likes - a bit light and delicate and "electrostatic".  I had (and will almost certainly get again) Stax headphones too.  So does Arthur.  So does Owen.  Westlake was maybe the exception being a bit more of a "big and bouncy" fan.  But the designers were aiming for a sound - and there was an extent to which the place was a magnet.  If you liked the stuff you were drawn there and made more of it.  If you didn't you bought or designed Linn gear instead.

There's lots of other stuff that's good, and I think this speaker dabbling (which included the Kef R900's) has reminded me there are several ways to skin a cat.  For me, it's about finding something you like, can afford, and where nothing irritates you, and enjoying it.  Instead of picking and fiddling forever trying for the best or something new for the sake of it.  I had a system I was happy with for years before.  It fell apart through age and a bit of babysitter vandalism.  I've been working out how to get back to what I like.