Do Electrostatic Speakers Ever Quit Changing?

[cyclone]

It seems like my system sounds different all the time just subtly, wether it's the stats, the tubes, the environment or just my frame of mind I couldn't tell you.

 

[karma]

Sparky,

I know that when I clean / destat my cables and connections, the system sounds very different. More open but texturally drier, less liquid. I think if you have tubes in your system, as I have had from time to time, you will hear the tubes "aging".

After being an audioholic for some 25 years, I've come to the conclusion that the hardware / software is simply the messenger and if you enjoy the message, that's all that matters.

GG

HI Gordon,
Having run my high end repair shop for over ten years, I have tested many, many tubes in my Hickoc (SP?) 339 laboratory tube tester. I have 9 tube manuals, most of which are collector items in their own right. I recorded test data and tracked the measured performance of my customers tubes in a data base. Over time, the data for individual tubes showed a performance/life curve that has a characteristic shape and proved typical.

Tubes age in a strange way. When a new tube is first put into service, especially the high power output tubes, they go through a rapid change period that lasts for maybe 15 hours that may change their measured and sonic performance by up to 10%. Then they settle into a stable period that lasts for approx 90% of their useful lifespan. During this stable period, sonic changes are minimal. Are they zero? I can't make that claim. I doubt it but they are small.

Then a tube goes into a slow decline into old age that becomes audible and alerts the owner that new tubes are needed. It's funny. I almost mourn the loss of a tube. They are like friends. They provide so much enjoyment.

I know, I know!!! Get a life, right. Worry not my friends, I have a good life beyond audio.

My point is that sonic changes due to tube aging in my system is not as much of a factor as you might think.

BTW, my Audio Research D-250 MkII Servo power amp has special circuitry to counter some of the effects of tube aging. The "Servo" in the name refers to a servo circuit that maintains a constant bias level on the front end amplifiers and driver stages to correct the bias due to tube aging. It works.

So this amp tends to display sonic changes due to tube aging less than other tube amps.

As for listening to the messinger, I totally agree.

Sparky

 

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Get a Bose!

It seems like my system sounds different all the time just subtly, wether it's the stats, the tubes, the enviroment or just my frame of mind I couldn't tell you.

I host a weekly music listening session for a circle of music enthusiasts of several dozen people. Some weeks there are just a few of us, at other times ther may be 12-15 people in the room. Many participants have been coming by for ten years or more and have themselves become avid collectors of outstanding and rare recordings. Some are avid audiophiles, others know a stylus as a needle and only use boomboxes at home.

Most know the sound of my system by now as well as I do. Everyone agrees that there are significant differences in sound from week to week, all things being equal (no new tweaks or equipment changes).

One can always tell when the sound falls in place; no one leaves until all the wine has disappeared or I turn off the power. My wife has been known to play the terminator role at times but sometimes she is as reluctant as the guests to refrain from asking for one more John Cage or Shostakovich sonata before turning off the lights.

At other times people drift away early, even when there is still a nice Cabernet or Sancerre sitting around.

I have never been able to pin down the cause of the discrepancy between listening sessions. I remember Enid Lumley's column in the Absolute Sound of yesteryear (before it became a trade ad rag), claiming that small causes such as that the setting of her water heater influenced the sound and thinking, this can't be true, she must be listening to her own mood rather than to her sound system.

I know that small things matter: don't use lights with dimmers anywhere, don't run fluorescents even the bulb variety, don't run dehumidifiers and turn off the refrigerator. I have even kept a record of barometric pressure and relative humidity but I have never been able to establish a repeatable cause and effect between utterly captivating sound reproduction and just another record.

Invariably the group always seems to know and votes with it's feet. Not wanting to say something like: "get a Bose". There seems always to be a perfect consensus and I have no way of foreseeing how the evening will unfold.

I should say that I use an all tube set-up, 58 tubes in all, from phonostage (Aesthetix) with two separate power supplies, preamp (AR RefII mark II) to AR V140 monoblocks into a pair of Summits. No digits, vinyl only.

So Enid was right after all, but she stopped writing audio and I have no intention of quiting listening; there is always another night.