Jon L

I had an Absolute Power unit that looked almost exactly like the one in the picture. Obviously, one can go nuts and buy $140 outlets for these, but a solid $30 to 40 one will do just fine. Mine had the typical HF rolloff and lack of focus (which most of these units exhibit IME), which improved a LOT when I bypassed the cheap high frequency capacitor filter (Green board) and installed some decent power cord instead of the puny stock cord..

I *have* tried, which is what brings me to the conclusion I prefer speakers with less complexity. One may be a genius speaker designer, but once you start throwing in 23! drivers per side (Nola) and insanely complex crossovers with a gazillion caps/inductors/resistors, the results just don't sound right to me, especially when one actually places these speakers in a real-life room. To my ears, speakers with one or two drivers, sometimes a "full-ranger" with a supertweeter or bass driver, with just a simple crossover with nice parts sound much like real music. Of course, I'm making unfair comparisons to my reference, which is single-driver, full-range without room interactions, e.g. electrostat headphones. After you get used to the coherence and lack of phase problems of 'stat headphones, listening to these complex multi-MULTI-driver speakers can be a rude awakening

Across Head-Fi and Audio Asylum, Morph201 *STILL* hasn't answered the simple direct question of his relation to Jena Labs. What a piece of work

" ****Alert to moderators!!! This is the beginning of a troll thread, that started on head-fi of all places. All of the information is unfounded, and is part of a viral marketing scam! Beware! " That was fast.. "head-fi of all places"? WTF? Why do I get the feeling I know who posted that

I wouldn't exactly call those line array. Maybe these custom LS9's. There's somebody claiming the Magnepan MG20's sound better than MG20.1, which if true, would be great for me b/c one can buy used 20's for like $5 to 6K, and *that* is a real planar line array and sounds like music, too. I do hope one day somebody will market large electrostat speakers with good sensivivity and no dang cone woofers

Well, looks like it's gone over to Audio Asylum. Was it one of you? http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/cables/messages/13/135986.html I expect a lot more defenders of Jena Labs on AA, seeing how most of JL royal customers hang out there...

Nola Grand Reference. They are like $140K. What I don't understand is why talented designers continuously feel the need to increase the driver count and box count as well as complexity. The ASR Emitter's do sound pretty darn good.... , for SS

Heck, you get a beating anyway! For giving up on 'stats and selling off your Stax SRD7 MkII so quickly Oh, well, maybe later.. once HE Audio cleans up their game.

Was Ken (in photo) of ALO the "customer/victim"? I really don't know why Jena Labs continues to get customers and great reviews in mags. Their "teflon" copper wire is one of the most colored sounding wire I've ever used.

Great pics! Any speaker output posts on any of these amps, esp Balancing Act ? Also, what's the reason there's no 'stat amp in the stable. Anyone ask Craig about it?

Dang, HP2 same level as K701/HD650? Are you drunk as you type this? I would personally put HP2 a couple levels above, but for some reason I *really* like extremely neutral solid state amps for HP1000's, though I'm usually a tube lover. As far as 'stats, looks like people will have to stick to the usual expensive suspects for now, as the $1000 HEAudio one so far is not parting the Red Sea...

No respect for AKG from me until they announce the return of K1K (MkII?) or an electrostat.

With taste like that, why not a great 'stat? I like L3000 a lot, but for that kind of $$, one could buy quite a 'stat..

There's really not much competition to the AV123 X-Statik's at $699/pair (Satin Black). But if you like the VSA sound, the VR-2 + nice sub can sound amazing. I sometimes think the VR-2 was too good compared to the VR-4, which is why it was discontinued

?? Who has actually been "discouraged"? I'd like to know if that's true since I've got one on order..

Man, your ES1 has FAR better looks than ES2 IMHO! Seriously, who has done careful A B testing with the two with approproate tubes, same cables, etc?

This is not really a specific enough question. Distributive justice exists, period. What manner of distribution of what to whom to satisfy what definition of "justice" is what people disagree about. For example, a system where you get more when you work harder and more efficiently is employing one variant of distributive justice.

The only similar device I would be interested in is Eastern Electric BBA, which is more of impedance matching device with variable gain. Very interesting concept... http://www.dagogo.com/EasternElectricBBA.html

Amen, brother. I will also add that as much I despise political hacks here in America, the political hacks in other countries are far, far, FAR worse, especially in countries where politicians have heavy influence on the media. That brings up another point. As much as I despise American media hacks, the media hacks in other countries tend to be far worse. Damn, I LOVE this country

Heck, maybe I need to move to your area to practice. Seriously, here in CA, I work with and know dozens of MD's. Practically none drive 100K MB and live in 2 Mil houses. Those who do are the older ones who made their money before the HMO's and have dozens-year-old private practices that basically run themselves. The newer docs (like myself) often live "comfortably" with common cars in "nice" homes unless you are fee-for-service such as Plastic surgery, Dermatology, even Dentistry. I can't even afford a decent electrostat amp, for God's sake! Inefficient system of course is a huge problem, but you underestimate the costs of defensive medicine. I and *EVERY* doc I know order tons of tests, CT's, MRI's fully knowing they are not really needed in many cases to cover ourselves, and these costs translate and add up to humongous numbers. I see these costs as a huge portion of the Pie graph every time I attend the med group financial meetings.

Well, arguments are bound to ensue in these discussions. I disagree with your definition of "social liberalism" as the "conventional" definition. I agree more with the following statement, which I easily found and quote from, of all places Wikipedia "Classical liberalism, believes that the provision of negative freedom, that is freedom from coercion, constitutes liberty, and is therefore, a strictly laissez-faire philosophy. Social liberalism however sees a role for the State in providing positive liberty for individuals. [5] They believe that lack of positive rights, such as economic opportunity, education, health-care, and so on can be considered to be threats to liberty.[2] Social liberals, therefore, support a mixed economy of mainly private enterprise with some state provided or guaranteed public services. In the process, it expects legitimate governments to provide a basic level of welfare or workfare, health and education, supported by taxation,"

I type this already regretting it. But I feel I need to say it b/c I hear the above statement so frequently, i.e. I'm a fiscal conservative (similar to libertarian on economy) but a social liberal. The two are not compatible with each other b/c most social liberalism (welfare, free healthcare, etc) requires tons of money, which cannot help but come from taxes of some sort, which is the F word for libertarians.

What amp are you using with Omega and K701? I do have K701 which I haven't touched since last year. Something is definitely not right somewhere if acoustic instruments and vocals sound better via K701..

In that case Strata Mini is out b/c they don't come alive until healthy volume levels, and even then they need largish space to sound their best. And before you buy any single-driver speakers, I highly suggest you audition them. They can be wonderful, but it's definitely a personal preference thing.