Final is back!

[DocG]

Sorry Doc, Maarten is not the best contact for your questions and he's up to his eyeballs in manufacturing issues so his mind is occupied at the moment, please dont take it personally.

I did the sales and marketing for Maarten between 2001-2004 and I am back to do it again. Yes I am based in St. Petersburg, FL. please dont hold that against me. I am happy to answer your questions, we are just getting started. You can reach me directly at bob@essenceelectrostatic.com Thanks.

Yes, the line is forming for Belgian demos of this fine Dutch product. Do you have a favorite dealer where you want to get a demo? Thats a good place to start the conversation.

Ciao,Bob

Hi Bob,

The line forming for Belgian demos of this fine Dutch product... that's me! Scheduling a demo with Willy Van de Velde in Antwerp for this summer! Just drop me an email when they're due to arrive!

 

[bobrapoport]

Hi BigH and OL, we publish the MSRP in dollars because the USA accounts for 50% of the total sales of all high end gear, the other 50% is divided by the rest of the world. We cant ignore the UK, Russia, Germany, China, or India, these are all good markets and understand the US price is a starting point, not the end result. Taxes, duties, transport costs all play a role in the cost locally.

We also publish the price so nobody will have to write to us to ask that question. Its the first thing people want to know; "how much?" We would be doing that all day long if we didnt.

80% of the total sales of goods worldwide is done through retail stores. We would be foolish to only sell direct and in fact discourage it, we are building a network of what we hope will be the finest audio dealers in the world. There is an occassional exception, like the farmer in Idaho who has no store nearby and prefers to pay list price and deal only with factory trained people. Most consumers prefer their local dealer, they can haggle with them, not with us. Sometimes the dealer will take a trade in, most manufacturers are not set up for that either.

Ciao,

Bob

 

[bobrapoport]

Perfect, Willy and I are old friends, he is who I would have recommended too. First production run is sold out, expect to hear from me in July. I dont have your email address, please send it to my inbox, thanks.

Ciao,

Bob

 

[char_lotte]

These look absolutely beautiful.....may just rekindle my interest in HiFi.

Very interested in how they sound.

 

[John Duncan]

Perfect, Willy and I are old friends, he is who I would have recommended too. First production run is sold out, expect to hear from me in July. I dont have your email address, please send it to my inbox, thanks.

Ciao,

Bob

Hello Bob, and welcome to the forum. Could i ask you please to make your trade status clear in your signature, as per house rules.

regards

JD

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

Hello to all our old fans from the Final days, thanks for your interest and comments about the new Essence. Rather than say Final is back, it might be better to say Final has evolved to become the new Essence. Maarten Smits founded Final in th early 90's, achieved some success in the early 00's, but ended up losing control of the company to some predatory investors, not an uncommon story in the audio industry.

Now Maarten is back, his new design is the 4th generation of his work. He's solved the problem of how to get good bass from an electrostat that doesnt cost a fortune or take up th whole room, keeping the same classic industrial design with some enhancements. The stators are now acrylic, offered in several colors. These are wider than the last generation but that alone cannot account for the bass output down to 48 Hz. Although not visible, the spacers are wider in the bass section, increasing the excursion by 50%, a clever way to solve an old problem. No sub is required above 50 Hz, that would only disrupt the equisite detail and imaging in the stats range. We recommend an electronic x-over and a good small sub for the last octave of bass should it be required.

I am the sales director and general contact, Maarten has his hands full on the manufacturing now, shipping begins in the next few weeks and you can reach me directly at bob@essenceelectrostatic.com if you have further questions. They are beautiful and the sound is nothing short of amazing, but I am biased so take that with a grain of salt.

Ciao, Bob

Hi Bob and welcome to the forum.

I have a query with regards the bold part. no salt will be needed if you could provide some performance measurements of your speakers. I would imagine Maarten, as the designer, should have some up his drawer? I would imagine some test have been made at design stage? I'm most interested in:

* naturally on axis frequency response. if possible at 3m rather than typically 1m. FR response for a planar speaker at 1m meter is pointless. also if you had access to both anechoic and in-room FR measurements that would be great (it could be your room )

* off axis horizontal FR (anechoic). no need for vertical

* CSD

* impulse response

* THD vs. frequency (at 1W and 95dB for comparison)

* impedance plot versus electrical phase angle

IMO evaluating this set of measurements should give you a clear view on how the speakers would sound without listening to them first. furthermore, test equipment is free from any bias so it will only show what the sound the speakers actually produce.

thanks in advance for your help :wave:

 

[RinMotion]

Rookie question here but can the old Final Sound f90i speakers and S110 subwoofer accept both 110 and 220 voltage?

I may be lucky enough with the opportunity to get into planar speaker world with this system. I am living in Hong Kong where the voltage is 220v. I will have a lot more questions to come so get ready. :help: :rofl:

 

[RinMotion]

Never mind the question above now. I am now auditioning the used F90i speaker system but there are a few problems.

The speakers do not appear to have been well taken care of. Looks like they must have been exposed to quite a bit of UV or sun beause all of the red connectors have faded to a very light pink colour. There are little scratches throughout the speakers and on one of the "right" side speakers (out of four), almost all of the left and right connectors have been snapped off so that it is almost impossible to connect speaker wires to it.

In addition to the above, the other "right" side speaker does not work. I thought it might be the power connection but it worked on the left side speaker so I ruled that out as the problem. So that makes it, problems with both of the "right" side speakers. Since they are marked as left and right, I assume that they should be placed accordingly? I remember reading a review of one of the higher model Final Sound speakers and the reviewer said that it makes a difference if they were not placed accordingly. Could someone please confirm?

I have two different systems to try and connect the F90i speaker system (including the S110 subwoofer) to. I am new to audio so I would like to know what is the best way to connect the sub and speakers to the following two systems:

1) Home Theatre: Denon AVR 2113

2) Audio 2 Channel: MacBook Air => Line Magnetic 201CA dac => Line Magnetic Mini 218IA.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

Never mind the question above now. I am now auditioning the used F90i speaker system but there are a few problems.

The speakers do not appear to have been well taken care of. Looks like they must have been exposed to quite a bit of UV or sun beause all of the red connectors have faded to a very light pink colour. There are little scratches throughout the speakers and on one of the "right" side speakers (out of four), almost all of the left and right connectors have been snapped off so that it is almost impossible to connect speaker wires to it.

In addition to the above, the other "right" side speaker does not work. I thought it might be the power connection but it worked on the left side speaker so I ruled that out as the problem. So that makes it, problems with both of the "right" side speakers. Since they are marked as left and right, I assume that they should be placed accordingly? I remember reading a review of one of the higher model Final Sound speakers and the reviewer said that it makes a difference if they were not placed accordingly. Could someone please confirm?

I have two different systems to try and connect the F90i speaker system (including the S110 subwoofer) to. I am new to audio so I would like to know what is the best way to connect the sub and speakers to the following two systems:

1) Home Theatre: Denon AVR 2113

2) Audio 2 Channel: MacBook Air => Line Magnetic 201CA dac => Line Magnetic Mini 218IA.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi Rin Motion and welcome to the forum.

to answer your questions. it's a good think you decided to go for ESL speakers. but I personally wouldn't go for the ones you found. so poor condition on connector is unacceptable. if the owner can't ensure that the connectors remain in good condition there's all the chance he wasn't taking care of the panel as well.

it seems that two left speakers for stereo only are not an option. I don't know for sure but judging on the photos of Final speakers they might be segmented to reproduce higher frequency content over narrower fraction of the panel. and it looks like high frequencies are reproduced on the inner most section. therefore you need righ and left speaker.

as for the amp. your Denon will be very good option for a 2.1 set up. the amp will let you set up xrossover frequency for the sub so tha the sub will only get low frequency content and the mains will get the rest. this arrangement is particularly beneficial for the main speakers as they don't need to strugle to replay deep bas any more. this will hugely make integration easier to do and will make the speakers to play clearer.

as for the tube amp. if you plan on going ESL route drop the idea of buying a low wattage tube amp. first of all you'll have difficulty to connect a sub in this configuration. second of all an ESL panel needs and amp wich is both powerfull, because an ESL is naturally quite inefficient device so you need a plenty power to reach generous volume levels effortlessly, and and amp that is stable into low impedance loads, because an ESL panel presents such a load particularly at high frequencies.

hope that helps.

 

[RinMotion]

oldric, thank you very much for your time and effort on your response. It was very helpful and informative.

I was afraid that the speakers might be position specific (between the right and the left).

I forgot about the ability of the Denon to be able to set the crossover frequency for the subwoofer. On the subject of the S110 subwoofer, I noticed that it makes a noise when I lift it upside down as if there is a loose ball-like object in it. Is that normal? There appear to be quite a few buttons, switches and connectors on this sub but I do not really unerstand what they are for other than the really obvious ones.

I was hoping that I could try this speaker system with my Mini 218 integrated amp but it only has two RCA for input and six outposts in total (L/R 0ohms, L/R 4 ohms and L/R 8ohms). I don't think I can connect the sub along with a pair of the speakers with this amp. Could I connect the 502CA dac to the S110 using RCA to RCA and then connect the S110 to the Mini 218 using RCA to RCA? And then use the dials and switches on the S110 to adjust the crossover frequency and whatever else it is able to control?

Is there a certain life span to these speakers? Can mishandling (lack of proper maintenance such as dusting/cleaning or whatever else) have a significant affect on the life span of the speakers?

Thanks again for any help.