Electrostatic/Planar Speakers

[Gerry]

I am so very impressed with my Maggies..

To be honest they are like nothing else I've listened to over the years, speaker wise

They are at pretty low levels at the moment, even though I know my neighbour is away tonight, and they sound so good

I predict they will be one of my better hifi purchases..

Welcome to the dark side....difficult to go back to boxes...

[Mike Reed]

Welcome to the dark side....difficult to go back to boxes...

Here's another convert, but to ESLs. I've had (usually large) boxes since the mid 60s, ending up with 133kg each ProAc R4s (shown in avatar). After having my Quad 2905s in service for 5 or 6 months, I re-installed my ProAcs.. Think they lasted 48 hours ! That after having them, and other big ProAc R speakers, for 15 years.

I'd say I've gone over to the bright side. Strangely, the relative drop in bass output was and is not a problem; otherwise it's all plus points; sound-staging, imaging and transparency, along with a more 'natural' and unforced presentation. (Amp'n: E.A.R. 912/509s)

Oh yes, another bonus; my cat can't sit on top any longer !

[jandl100]

It's about keeping the moving mass of the driver as low as possible and getting rid of colouration inducing cabinets - I've gone the carbon fibre route with my MBLs.

[Sherwood]

A pic of your home made plinths would be super when you have the time Geoff...

I can imagine that the original brackets with the 'lean' are not all that secure as the speakers are soo huge..

As promised. A couple of quick snaps, though perhaps I should have got the feather duster out first. They look better in real life than in the photos.

All made from 18mm mdf. Top is 50cm square, because that is the width of the 1.7s. Bottom is 50cm by 55cm. The bigger the surface area the better as this aids stability even on carpets, but you may wish to make stands for the width of your panels. The uprights are all 20cm high, though as you will see, the middle of the three sheets is shorter than 50cm for aesthetic reasons. The base is stable enough for the speakers to rest on without any other measures. However, a cross bar just behind the speakers pushes down on the t-bars to ensure no movement whatsoever.

Normally, I have a correx front panel to keep out dust but I have removed it to show the construction.

As you do not have the original feet, you would need to get someone to make up a metal L shaped bar with holes drilled to fix the speaker to the plinth. Hope this is useful. There are other ways of mounting Maggies, including tripods, but the plinths took me a couple of hours to assemble and do the job well.

Maggies on Plinth.jpgPlinth.jpg

Geoff

[TheMooN]

There are some unquestionably fantastic cellular construction transducers from the likes of YG, Magico, as well as Hybrids such as Gryphon Pendragon's etc.etc, all modern design concepts and production Marco however for my music predilections the transducer topology of choice tend to revolve around Apogee's , Maggies, Horns and of course ESL's

[Bksabath]

There are some unquestionably fantastic cellular construction transducers from the likes of YG, Magico, as well as Hybrids such as Gryphon Pendragon's etc.etc, all modern design concepts and production Marco however for my music predilections the transducer topology of choice tend to revolve around Apogee's , Maggies, Horns and of course ESL's

Funny U say that "Gryphon" .... for my pocket I could not find any better than the 1.7 for £3k in the UK (pissed off about price difference a bit)
Only snag I can mention is glue used for bonding WTF could they not thermaly bond the conductors between layers of Mylar film that should keep weight down No ?

[Bksabath]

Considering the price one can forgive the flimsy footing + Hey I can fiddle whit it factor

[Mr. C]

Marco,

I would suggest a pair of Apogee Scintilla's would cause you some reconsidering even the stages.
Though quality amplification is required due to the rather silly 79dB sens and 1 ohm load lol

Still have a pair of Scintilla's and Calipers for nostalgia purposes, great but not forgotten.

Maggies can be decent to with the right supporting cast, but Quad's sorry never bought the hype ever, too much missing and over indulgent reviewer's tripping over their fornicating postures towards one of the biggest hypes in audio.

Having had all of the models pass through at one point or another, the only one model that did sound ok was the 989 with the Russian cap mod, that was passable, but butt ugly and average.

What? how dare a young whipper snapper criticise a UK audio legend?, what blasphemy you must surely be deaf?

Afraid not gents, dear fire up the slippers and crank up the mogadon chaps. Its just never going to happen, rather have to listen to a all naim 500 system being played through Royd Doublets and naca 4 cable that have to listen Quad static speakers.

Now the Quad big guns will no doubt posture about those legendary four stack 57's that were tweaked with in an inch of their lives on mystical valve amps and wondrous ethereal renderings springing forth from the heights of mount Olympus.

Total Uber Cock spread by the disciples of the cult of 57 (further reinforced by the later improved cult of 63)

Well have been there and so what?, yes they sound better than the stock units, but for the effort? this isn't the psychedelic 60's of Funking 70's boys this is not the land time forgot. Its real here and now reproduction and Quads make great elevator music (Is there such a thing as great elevator music?) with that lovely disjointed bass timing (sorry Bass? hum slip of the tongue there, approximation of lower frequencies with a smattering of phase incoherence).

Quad speakers like LP12's utter hype (nicely done though to fool all of the owners for that long you have to admire the marketing even before Marketing was key in a product success rather than the product actually being any good)

Are you getting the impression I do not like Quads'? you maybe on to something, having to sit through JJ's Quad demo's was like having to fly a Vespa to the moon on 2 star with a head wind on a frosty morning.

Very rare for me to have a rant these days and I am having a ok day as well. Quad can likened to substance abuse once you have been indoctrinated (Who Salisbury must have been watching in the early years!) you are are locked into the cult of Quad where everything else is considered 'Not Quad' though to be fair St Julian of Verker did take this mantra to another level a decade or so later!

Quad static owners should have to have a permit to allow use in a private dwelling between the hours of 4 and 7.30pm much like caravan owners should be restricted to only road travel between midnight and 6am on full moons.

Sorry chaps, Quad statics are like a hipster craft beer, promise so much deliver so little.

[wee tee cee]

On this forum that is without a doubt the biggest pile of pish ive ever read....

[TheMooN]

There ya go Tony, Sitting on that HiFi fence again