My ears are bleeding

We all know that electrostatics don't do bass and they don't go loud, but they're great for string quartets.

But... I've been playing with my ESL63s tonight. These speakers have cost me less than £600 including some minor refurbishment. Anyway I was going back a few years and discovered an old Oasis CD single with 'Cum on feel the noize' (probably why I bought it). It seemed quite loud, so I got the meter out. Between 98 and 101dBA on the fast setting of an analogue RS SPL meter. For the entire track. Possibly the most compressed recording I can remember. It was probably just like being there. Oasis on Quads....

Paul

 

oasis and no mechanical noise

I like your post.
I too love Oasis but cannot listen to them through cone drivers. I think the problem is particularly bad through cone drivers because Oasis are an all guitar fronted band.
But play them through electrostatics or bending wave transducers and you're in another world. Freed from all those mechanical noises and false overshoot characteristics of the cone driver.
Ha bliss

 

Where was that measured from, the seating/listening position?

I've measured from my usual listening position in the past, which is about 3 or 4 meteres away from the speakers, and was getting a fairly steady 92dB (C-weighting/slow setting) on a fairly constant level rock track at the time. A loud but comfortable level for me i.e. could listen to whole album at that level without discomfort.

 

At least the first 3 Oasis albums have pretty shoddy production .
It's not the worst but it certainly detracts from the music on occassion.

I do have a funny feeling that they may be alright on vinyl but I've never heard any Oasis music on said format .

 

I've always found Oasis sounds better on cheap crappy mini systems so you can't actually hear any of it

They play Oasis stuff in one of the clubs I go to and it sounds ok in there oddly enough, but on HIFI I think the vocals and guitars are just too bright for my tastes.

 

From the listening position, which is only about 2m from the speakers as they're setup now.

What was striking was the constancy, and of course this is 'A' weighted and this track has a huge amount of 'upper mid' noise...

Still to see the meter go over 100 with a pair of unassisted 20 year old Quads was entertaining.

Paul

 

I too find oasis hard to listen to on my system, always sounds flawed, sounds fine on crappy headphones through a PC or on my old aiwa mini system though.

 

Tebbs, agree completely, have "whats the story morning glory", one of the worst mastered discs I own, god awful, best on a crappy midi system for best effect

 

A good hifi will allow any good music to be appreciated whatever the abominations committed in the studio. So of course my own system makes 'What's the Story....' an emotional rollercoaster of a listening experience.

Paul

 

so does mine

 

Me too

 

And there was me thinking it was a pair of sawn off ugly spuds, trying to emulate the Beatles, how wrong I was
I'll be honest, the disc is awful, even on a pair of Briks it's bad, and there about as coloured as speakers get, oh well I need some atc's then

 

All of my cd's are very enjoyable on the car stereo, on the PC (even more so now, thanks penance), and I enjoy the radio on my ten quid alarm clock radio too.

I hope I never care so much about the sound quality that it effects what Im going to listen to, or when.

Sound quality is just a bonus, thats all.

 

Evil Jules says...

I'm really looking forward to seeing how these stand up to some nice hardcorpse gabba :JOEL:

cheers


julian

 

Are ESL loudspeakers the answer to every classical fan dream?

When looking for replacement speakers reading a certain journo lead me towards buying pairs of a certain speaker with Vifa & Scanspeak drivers because that journalist claims it to share the attributes of ESL63 tonal accuracy and capability to articulating the smallest details.

Perhaps it is time for me to actually go and listen to the real legend. Go on tell me more. What does it do that dynamics speakers can't?

 

Are ESL loudspeakers the answer to every classical fan dream?

I would say yes, if you dont mind a compression of dynamic range, restriction in GrahamN type volume levels and lack of real bass extension and impact.

They are superb speakers with an almost total lack of coloration, superb tonal colour, fantastic detail and thay can create an amazing soundstage.

if you are into classical, they are must hear. A bit boring for rock/pop/dance music IMO.

Cheers Robbo.

PS, nice to see you talking about something other than you know what for a change

 

Wow. That is very dispassionate indeed. Actually it makes me wants to seek out a pair more even just to confirm your views.

As for the other subject see the other thread. It is not my fault. They are the one who keep urging me to continue.

 

As long as we don't go the blind tesing route 989's arnt bad at all, very open and plain disappear, tonaly very good, even do dynamics quite passibly (more alive than than any stats I've heard), bass is still a unreal and 'woody' to me (WM term for not as it should be), they can do bass depth, but as robbo says big classical pieces Mahlar/Sochtcovictic ?? etc, really they get a bit lost, as does very complex musical interplay, but for a stat pretty good, I would use a decent to amp to get the best out of them though, but they are happy with lesser stuff to a point.
Worth a listen, take a blind fold too, although if you can't tell them from others you'll need Penances organic cotton buds. Wm

 

Well, I have to admit that I haven't a clue what the technical differences are between A and C weighting, so I done another measurement this time with the A weighting setting on my meter.

I think it was left on the C setting as I use to use this to set-up the levels on the speakers on my av/surround system before I got rid of it. C seemed to be the recommended setting for that application, although I have no idea why.

Anyway, yes, the C weighting reading seem a bit exaggerated in comparison (or A gives a more conservative reading compared to C)....

Where I was getting 92dB(C) before, I was now getting 88dB(A). Leaving the volume setting the same and moving to within about 1/2 a metre of one of the speakers I was getting nearer 96dB(A). Hmm, so yes, 98-101dB(A) is pretty damn ear bleeding loud (for a domestic situation of course). :JOEL:

Still, what with the limited dynamic range and bass output that some commentators generalise of, maybe ESL owners (and any would be ones) are all dellusional and should swap them for a standmount/mini-monitor which as we all know are far superior in those 2 aforementioned areas!

 

Hi HenryT,

Our hearing is more sensitive at certain frequencies than at others. Usually more so round the 1khz to 4khz range. The dBA weighting on a sound level meter has a filter that is like the response of the human ear. This is the most used. The dBC is a more linear filter.

Have a look here for a lowdown on sound pressure.

The meter is more sensitive to a wider range of frequencies when set to dBC than on dBA.


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