Best Of

Never mind, I found out why. Apparently, he now has a full loom of Turnbull Audio cables. These were the ones he took out of the system.

Tom

The speakers are the Harold Beverage model III speakers which are electrostatic speakers with a wave guide to create an extremely wide dispersion pattern. The designer, Harold Beverage, was an audiophile who was an expert on radar and used his knowledge of radio frequency antennas to model the guide. The original speaker used an output transfomerless tube amplifier connected directly from the output tube's plate to the electrostatic stator, no transformers at all. When a tube amplifier is connected to an electrostatic speaker the output tube's high impedance is stepped down by the output transformer. Then inside the speaker the incoming signal is stepped up to provide the stators high polarizing voltage (2,000 Volts in this case). Kind of like first making tea, then using the tea to make coffee; lots of changes happen. The Beverage amplifier was designed by Roger Modjeski, a true tube expert and was located in the bottom of the speaker. The speakers were intended to be placed on the two side walls facing each other. The stereo image would be suspended in the middle, eerily suspended actually. I remember hearing a Laurindo Alemeida direct-to-disc recording on Crystal Clear records with these speakers and the guitar was right in front of me. No kidding it was there, "know what I mean, Vern?"
The version in the photo is the model III, I believe which doesn't have the internal amplifier and can be powered externally. If anyone is interested there's a pair for sale in Baltimore:

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/938120197677000?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp:6784a4f4-8baf-4214-8800-1fbc33cd80a6

I was skeptical about the potential benefit of separate subwoofers for each speaker, thinking it might be a marketing money grab from Rel, but after thinking about it and seeing it in action there is merit to what they are calling a 3D bass system. But I also "grew up" thinking a single huge subwoofer banging away in the corner was the only/best possible approach for good home theater sound.

The subwoofer for the center channel doesn't have to be placed beneath the center speaker. It could be placed anywhere in the room using a high level connection, even behind the main listening spot, to be able to produce the full range of sound that's put in a movie soundtrack just for that speaker. Rel makes a wireless transmitter connection system to make this easier.