Promitheus and electrostatics

I am a returnee to music reproduction, as my children are growing and there is a little more space in the house for me to stretch my legs: so I was moaning to a friend that I knew nothing about current hifi (my last set-up was a Michell gyro (1983, I still have this), Impulse H2 horn-loaded speakers, Beard pre-power valve combination) and he said that I should buy a promitheus pre (dual set-up) and a pair of kingsound electrostatic speakers, and he would advise me further when he had time.

So I have the kingsound and I am waiting for the promitheus. My friend is in Hong Kong, and in prison now, so I am not expecting much more advice from him!

So, I don't know what to do now. I know nothing about passive pre-amps and how to match with power amps and sources (I have my Michell but no CD player or tuner) and how the speakers will behave in any particular system.

I listen to jazz, classical, Indian/Asian traditional music and world music generally.

And I don't tend to listen loud, but the room size is 18ft x 45ft, so I guess I need a reasonable amount of power to get decent levels, especially as the speakers are electrostatics and tend to dive down to low impedences at times, so I believe.

Oh, and I didn't mention, I work for myself as an ageing motorcycle courier, so I gotta keep the costs down. I am useless with anything electrical and can just about stick a plug into a socket, but usually need a cup of sweet tea and some biscuits afterwards, followed by a little sleep ....

Please help with any advice at all as I am stuck, stuck, stuck.

 

What Kindsound speakers doyou have? are they the full electrostatics (the Kings) or the hybrid with the small bass driver (the Queens).

If you are using the Kings then I don't think the prometheus will be the best bet. The queens are a different story as they are very easy to drive.

 

I have the Kings ... do you think that I should cancel the promitheus order. I was planning on using some high-powered transistor amps, and was considering bi-amping, with transistor for the low frequencies and valve for the mid and high.

 

It depends. The TVC will work best with an amp that has a very low input sensitivity [ under 1v min.]. most high powered amps however do not have verry low input sensitivity. You will also need a CDP with a a minimum of 2V output to drive the TVC properly. If all goes well only the Dual Mono version is worth it IMO. TVC's generally lack the weight and authority of an active linestage. They are highly detailed and a tad thin. The source is critical as the TVC will let you know how good it really is. Ruthless actually. If price is an issue the TVC can be a good solution. However if you can stretch your budget a good active will prevail. If you listen to vinyl a step up transformer will be required as well. Getting complicated.
If you decide to Bi-Amp, working with a S/S and valved unit can be difficult. Different gains, output impedance, input impedance, speaker crossover issues. Bi-amping with the same Amps is the ticket.

rollo

 

FWIW I used a Promitheus dual mono with electrostatics for a while and was very happy with the results

The amps were Sim Audio W5 (sensitivity quoted as 1100mV for 175W) to drive the electrostatics (Quad ESL 63s) above 100hz and Forte model 4 (no sensitivity figure quoted) to drive the sub-woofers (Gradient SW 63s). My CD player has an exceptionally low output voltage (its a Sony SCD 777, but it has the vacuum state mods which reduce output level considerably). Room is not as large as yours (approx 25 by 17), but I didn't have a problem with volume.

To my ears, TVCs and electrostatics are a marriage made in heaven (it may depend on your taste in music). I only sold the Promitheus so I could replace it with a Music First. Several people have said that TVCs are thin and others that they have no bass. The second point is simply untrue; one of the guys on this Forum who auditioned my Promitheus rejected it because he found the bass overpowering (in his system). I think I can understand what people mean by thin, but to my ears it is natural.

Although I am use a TVC to drive two power amps ,it is via an active cross-over with volume control for the bass. If you are not going to do that you'll need two identical amps or some other way of setting the relative volumes correctly.

 

The problem is with the kingsounds. They are a great speaker and i have sold them in the past so know them quite well. I'm also a representative and firend of Music First Audio. With th Queens I would have no problems and would recomend using a TVC. But the Kings need loads of gain to get them going.

How are you getting on with the them using the amps you have already?

 

I don't know if I made it clear, but it is simply that I have the boxes containing the speakers (as recommended by my friend) and am waiting for the boxes containing the preamp, and then I have to consider how to continue to build a system around what I have.

So, I do not have any amps or anything else at the moment ....