<center><img src="http://www.21hifi.com/revhifi/20061204/01h.jpg"></center><p>(Stock photo from the net - 2905s on the left)

At Stereo Unlimited in Point Loma, San Diego. Great dealer. They carry a wide range of really nice 2 channel (lots of vinyl and tube gear) and surround gear.

The Quads were driven by Balanced Audio Technology (BAT) tube amps and Pre-amp. The source was a VPI HR-X (with rim drive and posh ClearAudio cartridge) turntable and the record was Miles Davis 'Kind Of Blue' (what a surprise..)
When people say they want their gear to sound as good as a concert it makes me laugh, as most concerts don't have particularly good sound compared with a system like this (auditorium acoustics are largely to blame). The only time a live performance could sound this good is if you are in the studio with the band. Big outdoor venues and large indoor arenas don't come close to this type of sound quality. It's completely breath-taking.

Some people don't like the sound of electrostatics for various reasons. They don't go very deep in the LFE or enormously extended in the high frequencies and among the more common complaints (despite their being so many things ELS do in other areas brilliantly). Well, those issues are almost completely solved with the 2905s. I sat there listening intently to music reproduction that left me in another world, and wanting for nothing more sonically. It sounded so real, so alive, so detailed, so holographic, so musical and so encapsulating (a good pair of electrostatic speakers really can sound as though there are speakers all around the room) that everything around all but disappeared and I was just left with Miles Davis and his band performing all around me.

Hats off to Quad for this superb product. VPI and BAT are no slouches either, but I've heard many hundreds of different speakers and none of the dynamic driver/cone speakers have come close to creating such an accurate, room filling effect as these amazing speakers.
It was so good that when I closed my eyes I could easily convince myself I wasn't listening to a hi-fi system, just a great band.

<img src="http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20070530/teac2_1.jpg">
VPI HR-X (pictured without rim drive)

to me. Listen to someone play an instrument live, the sound doesn't envelope you, or sound like it is coming from all around, or like you stuck your head in the instrument. It has a point of direction.

I know just 1 of many things we don't agree on, that's why they make different equipment for different people. : )

I think it would be funny to stick a guy with a guitar behind a curtain along with a vinyl recording of him playing through a tube amp into electrostatic speakers and see how many people would pick the recording over him. I know it would never work, because all the ticking and popping would give away the record.

<ul><li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00003XAQ5/?tag=sacdinfocom-20">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00003XAQ5/?tag=sacdinfocom-20</a</li></ul>

Only dirty or worn records 'tick and pop'. It's not difficult to look after an album and keep it from getting plagued with surface noise.

And when you are in a room with a person playing a guitar, the sounds come from all around because they bounce off walls and other surfaces, which is what the effect a really good loudspeaker can create through great imaging and soundstaging, as well as it's sounds bouncing off said surfaces too. The Only thing that prevents you from accepting these sounds envelope you is the fact that your eyes are telling you the sound is coming from the point in the room where the guitarist is playing, but the sounds come from all over after a bit of travelling.

Also, stereo sound by it's very nature is 'parlour trickish'. If it wasn't it would sound only as though the sound was coming from exactly where the speakers are placed. Sounds to me like this is how you like your hi-fi to sound. There's always the mono button of course.

Nothing better than sitting in a room with the musician playing though. A concert hall is a different story though. Some gigs sound terrible.

Most of the SACD releases of 60's jazz remain 2 channel, just higher res and better mastering.

with a 2 channel release.

Depends on your preference. Either way it's bound to sound fantastic.
I have it on Sony 22BiT SBM Gold CD at that sounds incredible. SACD should sound even better so it'll be a fine purchase either way.
Some albums lend themselves to surround sound well, just depends on what the listener wants to hear. The most impressive 5.1 album I've yet heard is Neil Young's Harvest. Some really clever things were done with the front to back effects.
I'd like to hear Rush in 5.1 SACD. And The Wall.<ul><li><a href="http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://servercc.oakton.edu/~larry/miles/images/covers/sacd/kindofblueuksacd.jpeg&amp;imgrefurl=http://servercc.oakton.edu/~larry/miles/main/discography/sacddiscography.html&amp;h=500&amp;w=500&a

multi-ch seems to be best suited for psychedelic rock - floyd, nin, aerosmith (toys in the attic is surprisingly good), massive attack, etc.

there was also a separate pure-mono track that was lost.

have a look at this interesting article from S'phile.

altho I really doubt the multichannel SACD release attempts to recreate the original un-mixed multimono master tapes; moreso just a latter-day attempt to make many channels out of fewer source channels.<ul><li><a href="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/206fifth/">Linky</a></li></ul>

I'll buy both.

thanks for the link too, very interesting.

and then you'll *really* know everthing you could ever want to know about KoB!

to it/them to me through electrostatics. It's just a weird thing that would be better to explain in person as you were listening to them.

The biggest thing missing from electrostatics that I have heard is dynamic impact.

My friend and I had his coworker so mad after listening to the Martin Logan statements by saying that it just doesn't sound right to us.

I owned electrostatics for rear surround speaker for a while because I thought the sound worked well there, but have gone back to regular cone speakers now.