Carver & DIY ESL two channel system

Jazzman53

Well-Known Member
Hi all,
Below is my vintage Carver two-channel system with homebuilt ESL speakers and rack.
The signal path is from a Logitech Transporter into a Behringer DEQ2496 and DCX2496 and (4) Carver TFM-25's driving homebuilt wire-stator ESLs and homebuilt Ripol subs.

The ESLs are hybrids with a unique 'beam splitter' transmission line bass cab. And the stat panels use segmented wire stators that electrically curve the wave front; giving wider and smoother trending dispersion than a curved ESL, or even most conventional speakers for that matter. The details and build photos are shown on my webpage (link below).

Video of my 'Beam Splitter' speakers at Carverfest 2016
Jazzman's DIY Electrostatic Loudspeaker Page

jazzmans system.jpeg
 
Last edited:

Jazzman53

Well-Known Member
I just built my dream speakers for life and I'm updating my system post to show them:

I've sold my old beam-splitter transmission line ESLs and my new system is now fully dipole, with OB mid-bass woofers and Ripol subs. The panels are wide-dispersion, symmetrically segmented wire-stator electrostats, and the mid-bass woofer is a Peerless SLS 12 on a semi-H baffle. The front and rear grills are magnetically attached. The step-up transformers, bias supplies, and segmentation resistor networks are visible under plexiglass covers.

And of course; I'm still driving the system with vintage Bob Carver signature power amps.

Below are some pics:
left speaker .jpeg system grills on .jpeg grills off .jpeg back.jpeg rack.jpg
 

the sound of Tao

Well-Known Member
Jul 18, 2014
3,620
4,838
940
Congratulations Jazzman, big job... must be great to get to the point where you put on the music.

A question if I may, which subwoofer drivers did you go with in your ripole?

I’ve been thinking about going a n section ripole rather than a w (just to fit the system and room better here) but with sub driver choice it seems that a qts of somewhere between .35 and .5 and with a larger x max (say 8mm plus) might be a good choice. What have you found to work well?

tia
Tao
 

Jazzman53

Well-Known Member
Yes, I'm very happy with my new speakers... they are the culmination of 13 years and many iterations of building ESLs.

The Ripole subs also use the Peerless SLS 12 woofer. For a cheap woofer, the SLS is quite impressive-- just does everything well. They are advertised as subwoofers (fs 27Hz) but they can also play cleanly to 2kHz, so I used them in my ESLs and they actually blend pretty well. They also have a good excursion and a progressive suspension, which makes them fairly robust in an OB or Ripole application.

The Peerless SLS is very popular with Ripole builders on the DIY Audio Forum.
 
  • Like
Reactions: the sound of Tao

the sound of Tao

Well-Known Member
Jul 18, 2014
3,620
4,838
940
Thanks for that Jazzman, looks like it’s all come together well... Enjoy kicking back with your new setup. Well done.
 

treitz3

Super Moderator
Staff member
Dec 25, 2011
5,459
961
1,290
The tube lair in beautiful Rock Hill, SC
So, Charlie. These are not the ones I heard a couple of years ago?

Tom
 

Jazzman53

Well-Known Member
So, Charlie. These are not the ones I heard a couple of years ago?

Tom

Tom,

In 2015 (or maybe it was 2016) I brought the big beam-splitter ESL's to Carverfest, which you may have heard. But I believe the speakers I brought to Carverfest two years ago were the ones I built for Martin Fringe, which were the prototypes for the new ones shown above (and below)-- but the new speakers are not identical to Martin's prototypes.

These use a different woofer, different wire for the stators, the segmentation network was modified to narrow the dispersion a bit for better imaging, bias voltage is increased from 2.7kV to 3.2kV for better efficiency, designed/printed circuit boards replace the prototype boards used in Martin's speakers, and the frame depth was reduced from 3.25 to 3.0 inches.

These are the finest speakers I've ever built.

The min-buy for the wire was a whopping 3,050 meters, so I decided to give in to several people who have begged me for years to build them some speakers, and I built (4) pairs concurrently. The other three went to Ed (Sea), Don, and Jerry, who I believe you know from Carverfest.

I wish I could build speakers for all my Carverfest buddies, but I had to limit it to the first three who asked because it was such an exhausting build (five months of evenings and weekends). Even one pair is exhausting—four was just insane.

BTW; this project healed my psychosis for speaker building-- I don't feel the need to improve anything and I'm getting too old for such exhausting projects, so I'm hanging it up.

Here's some porn for the planar pervs:

SPEAKERS.jpg
 
Last edited:

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing