Sanders Model 10e Hybrid Electrostatic Loudspeaker
A Different Approach to Speaker Design
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The Sanders Model 10e is the culmination of decades of work by designer Roger Sanders towards perfecting hybrid electrostatic design. And a culmination it is, indeed. This is one of the best speakers ever made. Forget that the price of it is modest by contemporary standards for speakers aspiring to be as good as possible. Within its design brief of producing a relatively narrow radiation pattern that emphasizes direct sound, the Sanders 10e’s are as close to perfection as any speaker system I have ever encountered, outside of installations where room and speakers were purpose-built as a unit. For domestic purposes, you can spend a great deal more money, but I do not think that you can buy a better speaker if this type of radiation pattern is your sonic goal. . .
. . . The review that follows is going to be analytical. A speaker that sounds this wonderful tempts one to go all gushy with adjectives—I shall do this a bit near the end. But mostly I am going to describe as well as I can how the Sanders speakers do what they do, my ideas of why they work so well, and what the results are literally. This is a serious speaker design, one of the most serious, and it deserves a serious description, not just some sort of golly gee-whiz write-up or salesmanship package. But be assured that in my view the Sanders are a benchmark of speaker design, a design that is superb in all respects and in some respects raises speaker design to a level never reached before. As conventional drivers have improved, new possibilities of excellence have opened up for box speakers made with cones plus tweeters. Some of these are wonderful and are very satisfying musically, especially if one is willing to listen to them at close range to get rid of room effects.But the Sanders offers things that no speaker can really do unless it has a large enough radiating area to make it directional, as I shall explain. Please just take the “golly gee whiz” for granted, and let us get down to the serious business of what this speaker actually does. . .
. . . But if you wanted to call the Sanders 10e the best speaker ever, you could definitely make a case. Within the category of speakers that emphasize facsimile reproduction of the direct arrival, the Sanders system can surely claim to be the equal of any and far superior to most. And when you consider that even if you buy two Sanders Magtech amplifiers—one comes along as part of the $17,000 package—the total cost exclusive of source components is $22,500, and that you can adjust the speaker to suit your room and your tastes, this system seems to me to be not only a wonder but also a bargain. tas
