Printer Friendly Forum Posts - Electrostatic car audio speakers

I'm a subscriber to CA&E and read an article about a company that started producing electrostatic speakers for car audio. Sadly, I lost that issue and havn't been able to find the company producing them again despite extensive googling.

If anybody can point me in the direction of this company I'd be greatly appreciative!

Thanks

I remember seeing a company that showed one(or rather their photo was a CAD drawing), but can't remember who they were. But to be honest, I don't think it would be practical in the vehicle due to size and power issues.

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Mass Engineering makes electrostats for the car. I personally have one of the very first 5"x5" electrostat panel kits. they do present an install challenge but the sound is amazing!

https://criticalmassaudio.com/catalog/index.php?act=viewCat&catid=17

Hmmm, $25,000 a speaker is a little out of my price range...

How much did you pay for your 5x5 kit?

if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. I used to work for Circuit City and when the cell phone dept was in the car audio section, anyway our cell phone rep would give us commission on activation so we would save up and get a lump sum (more on this later). I went to CMA which was an install school run by Wade Alfarone (I hope I spelled his name right) in Orlando. he had a BMW with the 3X5 panels in which sounded amazing. Wade would let us purchase the complete set. So...I used the commisions that I got from Circuit City to purchase the 5X5 panel set for:

ready for this-$350

my panels look a little different but the transformer is the same.

Who the heck uses those things for that price?

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Tell the Snap-On guy I'm not here!

Not sure if those prices are correct ??

There is no way in hell some one would pay that money for any car speaker. So why would they develop / market them??

I have seen some subs like theirs.... Are they made "in house"? As the ones I have seen in SE asia look the same but unbranded.

Serious audiophiles and competitors will pay that much.

I dunno bro haven't heard of a competitor that has those things. I mean $25,000 for speakers! I think the alpine flagships or were like $5,000 for the center channel if I remember correctly. Those speakers better come with dancing girls.

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Tell the Snap-On guy I'm not here!

There is no way on earth a company will do all that work to sell if possible 2-3 sets a year. I have NEVER heard of them. And posting on a Uk forum and a Asia forum no one has ever seen a set in a car!!

I could get the guys who are "ment" to be the finest "Quad" (Uk speaker company) restorers to build me a Panel of any size for less than $400.00. Then it will need the "Box " of tricks.. recon no more than $300.00 . Cant be much in it?

But would love to know what voltages are used ?? !! As my "Quad" 57's have thousands of volts inside them !!

london luke wrote:

There is no way on earth a company will do all that work to sell if possible 2-3 sets a year.

Au contraire! A company certainly would do such a thing even if they didn't expect to sell ANY of them. Just for the fact that they did it and were the first to do it.

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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

Ok... yes its a good point. It puts them on the "map"

But if no one can afford to buy them then its a waste of time. I spoke to a American banker (Client0 today who lives in London. Now this guy is the biggest kid in the world !! he wants TOYS TOYS TOYS !! and can afford th elot. He laughed about these speakers !! No way in hell would he pay that amount for a car speaker. Yet he has a Full mcintosh, and genesis systems in most of his cars.

I love electrostic speakers.. But they ar enot easy to work with and can be dangerous !!

I still recon a company could do it all in for less than $1500.00. But would they sell???

I would love to listen to the companies demo car !!

I'd like to ask another few questions about the kit you have. What frequencies do your speakers play? with a 5"x5" kit, can you play down to at least 400 hz? How loud do these things play? Do you hook them up to normal car audio amps? How many watts do you push through them?

Thanks

Oh, and in response to london luke...

Phoenix Gold produced an amp that retailed for $100,000 to $250,000.

Also, one more question I forgot to add in my previous post; who produced your kit?

the 5X5 kit is designed to play down to 500hz if I'm not mistaken. the transformer presents a 4 ohm load on the amplifier, any car amplifier will do. when I had them in my saturn I had them running off a JBL GTS150 amp and the electrostats were screaming! I was really shocked how loud they could get. these speakers are not for everyday car audio but if you have the desire and skills to integrate these speakers in your vehicle you will have an ultimate front stage.

Luke, you are right about the dangerous part. I had been "bit" a couple of times by the electrostats when they were playing. if you want to feel what it's like just put your finger in a house outlet. that's just a taste.

jph1121 wrote:

Oh, and in response to london luke...

Phoenix Gold produced an amp that retailed for $100,000 to $250,000.

Also, one more question I forgot to add in my previous post; who produced your kit?

It's actually $99,999 for the MPH 3600. A one of a kind amp handbuilt just to be built.

And the TiElite10k is close to completion. That's 10k watts for $10k.

Is this all about "My toys cost more , so must be better than your"??

Its all a Joke !! Its like putting the "Rolling Stones PA in your house. Will sound loud... But you wont be able to sit and listen to it !!

Having so much power in a car with all th erelated batteries and stuff. renders the car usless. I have always laughed at how car hifi seems to come up with all these stupid power ratings etc.

Domestic hifi folk stopped this ages ago.... we plod along with "real" figures .

I'm still hoping to find out who produced your kit! It wasn't critical mass was it?

At this point I'm looking at building my own electrostats for my car as I have a guide that appears to make the process pretty easy.

I'm planning on running the electrostats for my front stage and swapping out the 6.5" in the rear with diamond audio hex midbass drivers to provide the lower end with a couple of JL 13W6s pushing the super low frequencies. Most likely looking at JL slash amps or diamond audio D9 amps all around.

I figure that should give me one hell of a sound stage!

at the time it was Mass Engineering who is now Critical MAss.

Does anybody know of another company that produces electrostats?

How about some comments on my proposed system?

Does anybody know of some better midbass woofers? --Hopefully between <50 and >500 hz--

Would I be better off putting a full range 2 way speaker in the rear and the midbass in kick panels up front?

For electrostats, do you have to have rectangular speakers or can you have speakers that are other shapes?