Thanks Jonathan,
Would you say an SL3 would perform better than an ESL Electromotion? Someone on my local CL is selling a pair for $800.
An SL3 definitely has a bigger panel, and larger woofer. However, you' have to factor cost for new panels and most likely new woofers and crossover updates. As I said, Gen1 is great for DIY at this stage of the game, not so much for just grab and use them for another decade.
An ESL Elecromotion will continue to deliver for a long, long time before needing any attention. And they are not bad, but as far as comparability to gen1's, I'd say an Aerius is more like it.
Hate bringing up an old thread, but...
My brother had "my" SL3's, then thought he would
upgrade to the latest Electromotion ESL. New technology, they just have to be better than 20 year old speakers he thought.
Well, even after about 2000 hours on the Electromotion's, they always had a cupped, nasally sound to them. Vocals sounded like they were in a cardboard box. The treble was decent, though a little rough around the edges. The bass was really good, light and agile. And not a complaint, but obviously falling short of that last octave or so.
The SL3's blew them away in every respect, to put it simply. And this was with all of the same gear in the same room. Nothing but the speakers were changed. Heck, even the little Sonus Faber Venere 1.5's that I had at the time blew the Electromotion's out of the water, except of course the ML's had not necessarily better bass, but deeper bass.
Needless to say, neither of us were impressed with the Electromotion ESL's. In fact, my brother tried talking me into trading my little Sonus Faber's with him, and I refused.
But now I am perfectly happy with the SL3's (I bought them off of my brother). I have them vertically bi-amped, just got the other amp in last night. I plan on going active with them and bypassing the internal passive x-overs here pretty soon.