Very broad dispersion for a stat, exquisite detailed sound, excellent dynamics for a stat, huge soundfield, possibly the best sounding speaker in the world

Finicky about environmental conditions, questionable build quality, blow up membranes easily, no dealer withing 600 miles of the San Francisco Bay area, hard to pack and ship.

This is for the M-3, a smaller version of the M-1, but basically the same design. I purchased them directly as demos from the factory, toroid option, list price $9,100; demos $6,400. These arrived in large crates which were difficult to handle and moderately easy to assemble with the right tools. They are big (26" x 57.5") and heavy. They provide a very broadly dispersed sound unlike other electrostats, are full range, unlike other stats, and the detail is substantially greater than Martin-Logans or Acoustats, my previous speakers. Impeccable sound, possibly the best I've ever heard, exquisite detail, extreme clarity and naturalness, huge sweet spot, excellent dynamics for a stat. Everything I was hoping for as a stat fan, but.... My beloved McIntosh MC352, 2x350wts. wouldn't drive them louder than 80-85 db. without clipping. These are extremely inefficient speakers. No problem, I dropped $3.5k for an Innersound amp designed to drive stats, high volt/amp output. It hadn't arrived before a hole developed in the membrane in one speaker along with loud hissing and spitting. I followed all set-up procedures exactly, setting the bias and other controls as instructed by the factory. They are now on their way back to the factory to be repaired and I probably won't accept them back. I got in the chatroom at the SoundLab Owners Site and found that other SL owners had similar problems with membranes destructing while some had no problems. I also learned from experienced SL owners that SL's will not work well with many types of amps, are sensitive to humidity shifts (we live along the ocean), cannot handle direct sunlight for more than 20 minutes (they're near a window), may deteriorate from radiant heat (we have it), and easily destruct if the bias control is set incorrectly (I believe I got that one right). Many of these weaknesses are not mentioned in the owners manual. Further, the quality of construction in the panels was iffy in spots and the speakers weren't a matched pair; size of individual panels weren't matched, etc. The sound is unquestionably the best I've ever heard. The above problems complete negate the sound and I am returning them and getting my money back. I don't need speakers that change when the fog comes in and blow up membranes...and for $9k+ list, puleeze. Let's get some design and quality control here SoundLab. These are the equivalent of an exotic high performance car which requires constant attention and maintainance.

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Acoustat electrostats (functioned flawless for 20 years!)

Soundstage, Presence, Dynamics, Sound Quality.....

Not one!!

Well I want to start by saying I have put off this review till I had "experienced" the good and not so good days as an audiophile. I have a pair of the M1's with the Torodial transformer that are being driven by a pair of Wolcott Presence Amplifiers. My front end is a Rega 25 and a Jolida Reference Tube CDP. Magnan speaker cable and MIT 330 Shotgun Med. Impedence interconnects. Thor TA-1000 pre amp. O.K. now let me tell you what I hear. I hear excactly what is recorded. Good bad and everything in between. I cannot begin to describe how good good really is with these speakers. The midrange is truly unbelievable. Outstanding high end and the bass is present and commanding in its ability to convince. As you can see I have owned a few pair of speakers in my past. All had good things and some not so good. What makes the Millenium Ones SO good is that they do EVERYTHING very well. What impresses me most is the way it transitions so well. You really must experience it. No other way. I did not believe how an acoustic set or Jimmy Page for that matter on a major lick was right there. No muddy reverb, just clean. I walk around my room and from the left to the right, from sitting to standing the soundstage is excellent and the sound quality is present throughout without a big loss of soundstage. Low or high volume it is scary how awesome they sound. The build quality is to die for. I had mine done in natural birdseye maple. Folks they are lovely to hear and see.
I have received my Soundlab Dynastats and they are playing now. I am reserving that review for another day and after I have really enjoyed them. I must comment on the post by John Maltby. I do not know how anyone could say ANYTHING bad about the customer service. I feel like they are family. I had experienced a minor problem and let me tell you they did more than I could have ever expected in the way they handled things. Once they had talked with me they had me Fed Ex the part and they paid for OVERNIGHT shipping, repaired it and Overnighted it back. I know we all experience things differently but let me say that from Roger to Connie and Bret to Mary (They will all answer the phone if it is ringing and they Will answer e mail (at least mine they did)you are dealing with champions in the world of audio. I should tell you I am not a relative:-) I just love the product. And I like their uncompromising style of quality and manufactering. Enjoy the music.

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Several Different Magnepan, Thiel, Infinity, Apogee and Klipsh La Scala.

Great Sound

Horrible customer support.

Great sound, requires large sound stage and a lot of power to drive. If you are going to spend this kind of money for speakers however you would think that Soundlab would return your emails. NOT. Also if you have a repair issue plan on waiting months for those repairs to be completed, and to spend a fortune on shipping. There is good reason why fewer and fewer dealers want to carry these speakers since they survive on repeat sales and word of mouth, Soundlab wants to sell you a product knowing that you will not buy another for several years and then either upgrade to a newer speaker or go to someone else. In essence you are buying a sports car and no one can work on it or get parts.

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Maggies

Sound stage, imaging, very musical.

Physically Large and needs a lot of power.

This is actually a review of the "M2's" which are identical to the "M1's" but a little smaller. When I first setup the M2's last October I had some trouble. I had them to far out into the room (12 feet), not toed in enough, very little wall treatments, and an underpowered amp (I had about everything wrong including impatience to wait for break in time). With the help of Dr. West, I resolved these problems one at a time. They are now placed on the long wall of my room, about 3 feet from the back wall and about 10 feet apart. They are toed in about 25 degrees. I've hung sonex panels on the back wall with curtains covering them. After this tweeking, the M2's were breaking in nicely and really showing there stuff. The music was absolutely beautiful however I knew my smaller amp (Krell KSA 100S) was not up to the task. It was constantly running at full bias and constraining the sound. My wife and son loved the sound stage and tonality but were never really engaged with the music.

I've heard tubes are the only way to drive these but my search for a power amp ended recently with the purchase of a used Jeff Rowland 9T. It is difficult for me to describe how everything snapped into place. Voices that were thin and weak are now full and rich. Bass is tight and seamless as I've never heard. Music is so engaging that we can no longer casually listen. The emotional impact is beyond anything I've heard (including many 100K+ systems).

These speakers will not disappoint you! I think you need some room, a decent power amp and a little tweeking and you end up with the very best.

Dr. West and the folks at Sound Lab are wonderful to deal with.

this is a follow up to a previous post. At the time I was extremely dissapointed in the service that I received from soundlab in regards to my speakers. I have to now admitt that the error was not on the part of soundlab but on my part. I have only a casual understanding of electronics and when i had a problem with my speakers I took them to a local audio repair facility in DC, a facility with an outstanding reputation for service and sales. They informed me that they were unable to get support from soundlab and after 4 months I picked up the speaker parts and did what I should have done in the first place, sent the parts to soundlab. After about 2 months of waiting the parts returned in excellent condition. A word of warning though, if you have no knowledge of electronics, don't play with these speakers, even unplugged they have a hell of a shock to them. As for the important thing, sound, they are like nothing that you have ever heard from a box speaker. Transient responce is incredible, highs unbelievably clear, they never sound loud, no matter how much sound they are making, and they look really cool. My father, who has seen me with a half dozen sets of speakers over the years and never said a word even commented on these.

they need a lot of room. The sound might not be for everyone, they sound different than any other speaker. They need a good amount of power to get the most out of them. Did I say htey need a lot of room, and they are heavy and awkward to move around. If you are in a small place, they might not be the speaker for you, and if your wife likes to rearrange the room a lot, get a book shelf because these things are hard to move.

great sound but perhaps a little weak on low end bass. Big and awkward due to their size and weight, but are great conversation piecies even before you turn them on. If you are looking for speakers you need to hear thes for a hour or so and then decide on what you want to buy. Once you here these you may never enjoy box speakers again.

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there are no silmilar products

For the past few months now I have lived with a pair of Millennium 1's, large (79" by 34") full range electrostats that are guru Roger West's most refined (so far) incarnation of the legendary A1 (except perhaps for the steel-framed Ultimate One). I remember the day I first hooked them up. To quote from my notes written that day:
"The sound check has lasted about five hours now. I have honestly never enjoyed reproduced music so much. I put on my harshest discs, I put on my dullest discs. I put on ones I didn't even like, so I wouldn't get caught up in the rhythm. And I forgot what I was doing and instead enjoyed them all! I found myself totally swept up in the music of old recordings that my audiophile ears had long ago turned their noses up at. I found myself jumping up and dancing, or nodding on the teetering edge of sleep, depending on what the energy of the music was. There was no harshness, even where I expected to find it. There was no loss of detail, only discovery of detail. Following a single voice or instrument was not only easy, it was a delight. I effortlessly listened through all those little recording inadequacies that normally distract me, because the music was so... so... present."

And my notes from the next night: "I continue to be amazed by these speakers. I have listened some at medium to high volume levels, and these things give me goosebumps. I mean, literally shivers up and down my body. I find myself singing along, dancing like a child, or overwhelmed with emotion. And, except for the singing along, this includes cuts I didn't like before! For example, I used to like only a few songs off Sarah Coles' "This Fire", but now they all move me, and I have no desire to skip any of them. These are the most emotional speakers I have heard."

And from a few days later: "These things are scary. Like a too-realistic halloween costume... I have a nice fat chair the same distance from the speakers as my normal listening area but slightly to the outside of the left speaker. I sit there to read sometimes, and I can still get a soundstage! With the SoundLabs' dipole soundfield I don't get a sweet spot, I get a sweet blob. Sometimes the vocalist is pulled over to the left, sometimes not, depending on whether or not they are "way back" in the image field (way back vocalists don't tend to shift laterally). This is another new experience for me... The experiences facilitated by [Dr. West's] unique speakers are as much spiritual as auditory in nature, just like live music. I spend my day happier - okay, borderline joyful - from the energetic infusion I get via the music, and I think this energy is subtly present in all my interactions. This is beyond mere pleasure and into other realms... My budhist/taoist side is richly amused, and my Freudian side no longer has subwoofer envy."

And finally a rather embarassing experience:

"The other day my window was open and I heard this very natural-sounding music. It sounded like one of my neighbors was cranking his system and it was mor or less in the same league as the SoundLabs(!). Hoping to discover a fellow audio person ("phile" seems so elitist), I went out to track down the music. Wouldn't you know. It was a live band! Any audiophile (elitism intended) ought to be able to tell the difference between live and reproduced music, right? Well, it's Dr. West's fault. He has raised my expectation of how good reproduced music can sound to where I almost made a total fool of myself, looking forward to meeting this guy with a system that sounded as good as my SoundLabs!"

Well, I could go on, but you get the idea.

Utterly natural sound

Can drop you jaw so far it bounces - wear a chinstrap.

Since posting my original review below I have become a Sound Lab dealer (my first foray in to retail!). But I had no thought of becoming a dealer when I posted it - so it's totally from the heart. Actually it would be anyway, but hey dealers are always a bit suspect, right? Anyway, I'm sorry to see John Maltby had a bad experience - I think there must be some miscommunication somewhere because I've found the folks at Sound Lab to be wonderful. They have given me and my customers superb service. John, perhaps I can help you with your situation? I do know that at least one time Roger West's e-mail account got filled up and he lost messages - perhaps that is what happened in your situation. If your dealer is unable to help you please contact me and I'll help all I can.

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Original Quads, Quad 63's (highly modified with Gradient subs), Maggie 3.6's,