DBLs or ESL 57!s

You certainly couldn't have picked two more opposite speakers 

DBL....big, ugly, heavy, may be confused with coffins; but needs coffin handles on the sides to facilitate moving.  ESL-sleek, art deco, sexy; may be confused with radiator

DBL....Plays very loud, goes very low, midrange is colored, no sweet spot but can be listened to way off center, or even in the adjacent room. . ESL....plays at moderate levels, rolled off , the most natural midrange existant, sweet spot is about 2mm wide, no significant HF anywhere off center. 

DBL....tweeters are fragile at high volumes. ESL-panels arc and burn up at high volumes. 

DBL...need at least one high power amp and preferably six of them. Even a 500 can run out of steam. ESL...a Nait 1 has plenty of oomph...a 250 may cause damage. 

DBL..another box speaker.  ESL...light years ahead of its time. 

DBL...fastidious requirements of how it sits on the floor. Just shove it along the back wall. ESL...fastidious requirements of how it is positioned in the room, can improve from being lifted way higher than its built in stand allows.

DBL....price is a fraction of what it was new. ESL...price is multiples of what it was new. 

It would be great to get a Snaxo 242 crossing over around 80Hz...send the LF to the DBLs bass cabinets and the rest to the ESL. In fact an early Levinson system used the ESLs as midrange drivers only. 

Years ago, I once sat in on a demo that compared the ESL vs the Isobariks. The prospective customer didn't want to like the ESL but in that particular demo, had no option but to admit it did things that the Isobariks did not know even existed. 

Nicely done Ron. 

So a pair of NBLs then?

Not for me

sticking with DBLs wouldn't even consider anything else

lyndon posted:

just wondering on the plusses and minuses between the two 

what do the ESLs bring to the party that the dibbles don't ?

just curious, that's all, not got the strength or inclination to lift these monsters again

lyndon

Cor - talk about chalk and cheese

Ron Toolsie posted:

DBL....big, ugly, heavy, may be confused with coffins; but needs coffin handles on the sides to facilitate moving.  ESL-sleek, art deco, sexy; may be confused with radiator

DBL....Plays very loud, goes very low, midrange is colored, no sweet spot but can be listened to way off center, or even in the adjacent room. . ESL....plays at moderate levels, rolled off , the most natural midrange existant, sweet spot is about 2mm wide, no significant HF anywhere off center. 

DBL....tweeters are fragile at high volumes. ESL-panels arc and burn up at high volumes. 

DBL...need at least one high power amp and preferably six of them. Even a 500 can run out of steam. ESL...a Nait 1 has plenty of oomph...a 250 may cause damage. 

DBL..another box speaker.  ESL...light years ahead of its time. 

DBL...fastidious requirements of how it sits on the floor. Just shove it along the back wall. ESL...fastidious requirements of how it is positioned in the room, can improve from being lifted way higher than its built in stand allows.

DBL....price is a fraction of what it was new. ESL...price is multiples of what it was new. 

It would be great to get a Snaxo 242 crossing over around 80Hz...send the LF to the DBLs bass cabinets and the rest to the ESL. In fact an early Levinson system used the ESLs as midrange drivers only. 

Years ago, I once sat in on a demo that compared the ESL vs the Isobariks. The prospective customer didn't want to like the ESL but in that particular demo, had no option but to admit it did things that the Isobariks did not know even existed. 

With DBLs I hear the crossover point and ELS I don't.  For me the crossover points introduce obvious unnatural distortions.  DBLs produce music with a phisical impact that ELSs can't touch!