Essence™ Electrostats: Finally, Full Range Performance At An Affordable Price

The ultimate listening experience can finally be achieved at an affordable price without taking over a room. No big wood boxes, no woofers or tweeters, and no cross-overs; this is sound without compromise, revealing the most precise detail and realistic stereo image ever, in the highest resolution any speaker technology can deliver.

The new Full-Range Essence™ Electrostats from The Netherlands will begin shipping in June through high-end dealers around the world. The Model 1200 is the first to ship and has an MSRP of €3100 a pair (ex-VAT and shipping). The 1200 is 1240mm tall, 292mm wide, and 25mm deep on its floor standing base. The optional wall-mount bracket allows placement next to flat panel displays or around projection screens. The acrylic stators are fully transparent, the standard color is Eminence Grey. Essence™ offers some color options for the acrylic; Clear Ice, Blue, Red, Orange, and Green at a slight up-charge. The Essence™ is no hybrid, it’s a full range electrostat. By using new materials, production techniques, and years of exhaustive experimentation, Essence™ has extended the low frequency capability of their Model 1200 down to 48 Hz by increasing the excursion of the diaphragm. This level performance has eluded engineers for decades, it is revolutionary, no other electrostat on the market can do it. The frequency response of the Model 1200 is ±3 dB from 48 Hz to 23 KHz. Some may quibble about calling that full range but Essence has added 3 octaves of output from its electrostatic diaphragm, an elusive goal for decades. It has plenty of bass but for the last octave between 20-50 Hz, a sub would need to be added.
AV industry-veteran Bob Rapoport, who is directing the sales and marketing, said “It’s not every day a new speaker comes along that pushes the art forward substantially, most improvements are incremental and fail to live up to their own hype.’ “This is different. The new Essence™ is full range, it reproduces the most important octaves of fundamental sound and delivers them to the listening position in a more focused way, creating what many call the ultimate listening experience because the stereo image is so precise, a result of more direct sound reaching the ears before the later reflections arrive. Another benefit of focusing the spectral energy at the sweet spot is the increase in clarity and resolution with no interference. Reflected sounds arrive too late and too low in level to upset the image or cause any disruptions in the response.” “Because of its ultra-low-mass single Mylar film diaphragm, it can turn the digital signal into sound much faster and 100 times cleaner than typical cone-in-a-box speakers, its moving mass is literally 1/100th the weight of the typical electro-magnetic transducer. Other models will include an LCR and larger panel sizes, due by the end of 2013.” Essence is manufactured in The Netherlands. It will be sold through the traditional audio video specialists and custom integrators serving both the consumer and pro markets. Dealership and export inquiries should be sent to [email protected] or by phone +001 727-866-9767.

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