Advice please - speakers to suit Quad IIs

[Dirty]

Hi

I've recently reactivated my system http://bit.ly/2vgDqvx but minus speakers so I'm after some advice as to which ones would be best. I can't remember what I used to have, they weren't great anyway and have disappeared somehow along the way.

I bought my amps from Station Sounds in Hove (does anyone remember him, tiny little shop full of vintage treasure and located on a platform at Hove station?) and at the time he had them wired into a pair of vintage electrostatic speakers. To this day I regret not buying them as the sound was lovely.

Anyway now I'm in your hands. What would you have? I don't mind if you want to suggest something out of the price range of all but billionaires, I enjoy looking at hifi Porn as much as the next enthusiast as long as it comes with a few more realistic options.

Thanks in advance :D

Damian

[struth]

was a set of electrostatic quads for sale here. dunno if they are still available.. think they were london area too

[walpurgis]

I bought my amps from Station Sounds in Hove (does anyone remember him, tiny little shop full of vintage treasure and located on a platform at Hove station?) and at the time he had them wired into a pair of vintage electrostatic speakers. To this day I regret not buying them as the sound was lovely.

Damian

Those were almost certainly Quad electrostatic speakers and would of course be a perfect match to your Quad II amps. It just happens that a member has a pair for sale at a very reasonable price. See here: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?53076-FS-Pair-of-Quad-ESL57-electrostatic-loudspeakers-in-black-finish

They are in Ealing and as you are in London, probably not too far from you.

[Audio Al]

I use Quad 11's with my 57's and 63's , nice match

[Edward]

I think I saw Guildford Audio flogging a pair of ELS-63 for about £800 - can't find the post now.

Also there is a guy in Notts somewhere flogging a pair of ELS-63 (http://www.hifi-intouch.co.uk/products/2341/65/electrostatic-speakers/quad-electrostatic-speakers-els-63.aspx) for £600 (ono) described in 8/10 condition.

[Dirty]

Thanks everyone. This has been great. ESL 57s it is.


I use Quad 11's with my 57's and 63's , nice match

Out of interest, perhaps a future consideration, 57 vs 63 - thoughts?

[walpurgis]

ESL 57 I'd say. To go with the Quad II's. Seeing as they were designed to work together.

[Audio Al]

57's are better in mid range > high range and have a definate sweet spot for listening
63's are a bit more bass slightly less in the mid and high range

[walpurgis]

I've never heard the immediacy and transparency of the ESL 57 bettered by ANY speaker!

[Yomanze]

I've never heard the immediacy and transparency of the ESL 57 bettered by ANY speaker!Nothing compares to electrostatics in that regard, but you do lose out on slam, sweet spot, and macro-dynamics, there is no free lunch. [emoji14]

[Audio Al]

Nothing compares to electrostatics in that regard, but you do lose out on slam, sweet spot, and macro-dynamics, there is no free lunch. [emoji14]

My 57's have a sweet spot :)

[Yomanze]

My 57's have a sweet spot :)

He he, yeah, you know what I meant though. :P

[Barry]

He he, yeah, you know what I meant though. :P

I don't. :scratch:

Barry (Quad 57 user for the last forty years)

[Yomanze]

I don't. :scratch:

Barry (Quad 57 user for the last forty years)

You'll know they have a tiny sweet spot then, ideally aligned with a listening chair!

Me, I walk around a lot when music is on, might be in the dining area rather than the living area where my system is, and don't always sit in the same position, so as a result I have gone for a much wider sweet spot in my system.

[Dirty]

Well I've gone for a pair of 57s thanks to this forum and Mauro. I'll probably give them the 'One Thing' treatment at some point but for now just looking forward to getting my amps back next week.

Thanks for all the help and info.

[DSJR]

Please be warned regarding ESL63's - the glues are coming undone and rattly or faulty panels are becoming the norm I understand - they're not cheap to refurbish either sadly...

It would be wise to check what One Thing do with the hf panels these days, as the early restorative early work they did as reported by HFW lifted the already pinched hf region by 5db, which is a hell of a lot, even if Pro-Ac and Kudos were doing it for years to give a greater sense of 'deeeetail...'

I used Epos ES14's with mine connected with Naim A5 speaker cable (spit - due to its price more than anything else). it was a marriage made in heaven as the 14's offer a benign load from memory, the sharp sounding tweeters and cable perfectly balance the mellow Quad tones and the mids of the package were to die for. I used the Es14's close to a back wall and with sponge bungs in sideways, offering more warmth than as supplied with a aperiodic-style of resistive loading via the foam but not fully open as they sound off like fog-horns at around 80Hz I remember if you don't have 'something' in the ports - (long story, but I did have extensive conversations with Robin Marshall at the time as he was local to us and I'd known him for years prior to that - I do know what I'm on about here!).

[Macca]

Well I've gone for a pair of 57s thanks to this forum and Mauro. I'll probably give them the 'One Thing' treatment at some point but for now just looking forward to getting my amps back next week.

Thanks for all the help and info.

Refurbished QUAD II with ESL57. You got a great system there and the speakers were a crazy bargain to boot. Enjoy it, man.

[Dirty]

Another question if I may......

For a while I thought I was all set then I realised I need some speaker cable. A little research revealed the complexities involved so I thought I'd short cut it and ask those with similar set ups to post some recommendations :)

[walpurgis]

Nothing fancy. Me personally, I'd go with plain copper multistrand cored cable and avoid anything with highish capacitance, the ESL's are a tricky load for some amps as it is. Although I doubt the Quad II amps are very fussy.

[drSM]

am guessing Audio Note speakers should be good match.
I one heard the AN E s put in corners at AN room in a hifi show and they were superb

[Macca]

am guessing Audio Note speakers should be good match.
I one heard the AN E s put in corners at AN room in a hifi show and they were superb

probably would be a good match but I have also heard them in the corners at shows and did not like what they did. The necessity for corner placement meant they were too far apart so you could hear each speaker working independently and the mid-bass hump generated by this positioning coloured the sound unacceptably.

There is nothing in the design of them that makes them suitable for corner placement, unlike with some of the Tannoy corner speakers, for example. I've experimented with putting various models of speakers in corners and they behaved exactly like the AN speakers do. Some may like that presentation of course, and that's fine by me, but I really don't get it.

[drSM]

at least from the point of view of efficency and the fact that they are marketed by a valve system manufacturer should make AN speakers suitable to the Quad II's 15 wpc.

Re the AN system i heard. It was one of the Ongaku integrateds 18 wpc i think, CD source, driving AN E s
Hotel room one spkr was in a true corner the other in a sort of semi corner .
The guy played any CD anybody chose from a big selection.
It was the most impressive room to most of us at the show (KLIAV last year)
I take yr point the room dimensions have to be right