View Full Version : QUAD ELS 57 in for a service
One of my beloved QUAD 57 electrostatics has developed a problem with some distortion in the treble panel. I thought it was 20 years since they were serviced by One Thing Audio so I don't feel too hard done by. The Quad 57 was safely packed up and delivered to Steven at One Thing Audio in Coventry. It was great to meet Steven and talk about the Quad electrostatics with someone so knowledgeable about them as he is. He has a very high opinion of the 63 model which was interesting to hear but not so good an opinion of the later models saying they are very difficult to service. My Quad will be having the treble panel replaced. Steven was able to tell from the sticker he put on them when they were serviced by OTA and after referencing his book of services he found out exactly when they were serviced - it was 18 years ago almost to the day! Pretty good service I feel from my Quads to go this long without any intervention and they have not had an easy life with plenty of house moves and a year in storage when I was living in South America. I was a bit fearful about how long the job would take but Steven assured me they should be ready in about a week so that is brilliant service from him. Feel the speaker is in very good hands and I am pleased I have taken it there. Now really looking forward to hearing it back in the system fully functioning fired up with my wonderful Croft 3 OTL.
Light Dependant Resistor
23-11-2018, 22:49
Hi David
I am also a ESL57 owner, once heard they are hard not to enjoy. Good to know they will be back in your system soon,
doing what they do best.
Quad 57 with a Strata sub and an OTL amp - that has to be good, bet you can't wait to get them back.
As a side note, One thing audio used to own a shop in Coventry, My parents paid for my first decent amp around 1990.
It was a second hand Crimson Elektrik 115 w per channel.
I now live round the corner from Stevens dad who does the wood working for them. And his brother lives on the same street as my Parents
Ive not heard a bad thing about there service.
There was a rumor that they were working on a pre amp , not sure how its progressing.
Sure they will sound stunning when you get them back.
Following a experience I had a the Ramada HiFi Show, where I heard TPV'c Direct Coupled Valve driven 57's in the EAR Room, I was sold, and went of in pursuit of such wonders. I always believed the Valves used on the ones I heard were 845's. I have not in recent months been able to find any info to support this, I have seen info about anther valve, I think 519's.
I bought in the Late 90's/Early 2000's and still own them, a pair of 57's that were about one year old from a full Quad Service.
In the past year I have bought a 2014 OTA serviced pair of 57's, using OTEC Treble Panels.
These have been very impressive and have got my full attention as well as being the most used pair.
I have desired to Stack the Quads, searching out a matching OTA pair has been not so easy.
There have been very fair priced OTA Original Spec Treble Panel refurbs become available.
I am now considering combining, One Original and One OTA Quad per channel as a stacked array.
It should be a interesting experiment.
I can't recall listening to a speaker from the commercial world, that has had a impact, to make me rethink the Quad as my go to speaker, there are a Few OB's I have listened to in the past year, that have got me thinking and alluring me to find out more.
As to your own past experiences and now updated service, I'm sure you will be totally satisfied, and the experience of the rejuvenated 57's will be excellent.
I am now considering combining, One Original and One OTA Quad per channel as a stacked array.
It should be a interesting experiment.
I can't recall listening to a speaker from the commercial world, that has had a impact, to make me rethink the Quad as my go to speaker, there are a Few OB's I have listened to in the past year, that have got me thinking and alluring me to find out more.
As to your own past experiences and now updated service, I'm sure you will be totally satisfied, and the experience of the rejuvenated 57's will be excellent. [/I]
John G : Having a stacked pair is my dream but I am afraid it will never be realised. My wife is fine with one set to 57s, which I am very grateful for, but when I have even mentioned the idea of two sets she has put her foot down. I have heard that the direct coupled valves were a great way to drive the QUADs. Russ Andrews had a system with 3 direct driven amps per speaker if I remember but this is a long time ago. I have now gone down the OTL route with a Series 3 Croft amplifier from the early 90s. I picked this up from a hi-fi collector in Birmingham who was trying to clear some space a month or so ago. It is fantastic with the Quads in my opinion. I took it back to Glenn Croft to check it out and also to beef up the the output capacitors which he has done now so I am really looking forward to hearing my speaker back from OTA fully functioning driven by the Croft. When you have set up the stacked system I would love to hear it - is is doable from York to your place and if you are ever in the York area do let me know so you can hear Croft's wonder through my 57s. Regards David
As a side note, One thing audio used to own a shop in Coventry, My parents paid for my first decent amp around 1990.
It was a second hand Crimson Elektrik 115 w per channel.
I now live round the corner from Stevens dad who does the wood working for them. And his brother lives on the same street as my Parents
Ive not heard a bad thing about there service.
There was a rumor that they were working on a pre amp , not sure how its progressing.
Sure they will sound stunning when you get them back.
It is nice to support a business like Stevens who is so totally committed to the service they are providing and is so knowledgeable about the speakers. He told me he has trained an apprentice now so the support for the Quad electrostatics will hopefully run for a lot longer and see me out!
Quad 57 with a Strata sub and an OTL amp - that has to be good, bet you can't wait to get them back.
Martin - the bass particularly with the Croft amp is very tight and tuneful even without the Strata V sub. I have set the sub at quite a low level so if just fills in the lower end but is in no way obvious in the mix. It is a good sub and is very easy to set up with the remote control but is does make a difference to the overall feel of the music in a positive way.
David
We can make a date in the New Year.
It would be great to help you listen to a Stacked Pair. Traveling to Yorkshire for a HiFi experience, is not new to me. My stands will be robust, but not Living Room wife friendly, so I might not be able to help with convincing your case. The Stacked Pair of OTA OTEC Treble and I think I am correct in saying OTEC Bass 57's I listened to in Oxford last Xmas, was quite something, the stands were very living room decor friendly as well, built out of a attractive grained Black Walnut.
I was also fortunate to be invited to listen to a Original Stacked Pair of 57's recently, local to my home.
These were very good performers as well, and the afternoon was a good one.
For the uninitiated, the Quad 57's like a warm up period, and will only reveal their best after about Seven Hours of playing, improvements are heard before this, but I find close to Seven Hours the magic moment.
If I plan on serious attentive listening, I usually switch on the mains supply a few hours before I plan to play any music through them.
For another date in 2019, I think you would like the Owston Show that will take place on June 1st and 2nd.
Plenty of good folk at that gathering.
John - I will try and keep the 1/2nd June free so I can hear your set up. What amp / amps do you use to power the QUADs. I know I will never convince my wife that I need another pair but it would be great to hear what I am missing. Heard back from Steve at OTA today and it appears there is no problem with the speaker. He is taking the front off tomorrow just to check everything is OK and give it a hoover out as well I think but good news.
Stacking Quad 57s has advantages as well as disadvantages.
The most obvious advantage is the sheer palpable sense of presence that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up - akin to the sound of a good sample of a Decca cartridge. Once hard it is hard to go back to a single pair.
The second advantage is doubling the number of speakers doubles the maximum output. OK, so a maximum SPL of 106dB is still not enough but it does help with dynamics and scale. And although the bass response remains unchanged, subjectively the bass performance does appear improved.
The downsides? Well the obvious one is that stacked Quads are visually imposing - in my case they would block out most of the light from the patio doors behind them. Second, wiring the stacked speakers in parallel means above 10kHz the load impedance will drop to less than 2 Ohm. Not many amplifiers are happy running into such loads. Valve amps will fare better, but the best way is to use identical two channel amplifiers for each stacked pair.
But the difficulty of most concern is the exact stacking geometry. Quad, amongst others, recommend maintaining the curve of speakers, or perhaps arranging for both speakers to be vertical. The problem is Quad 57s have very narrow dispersion in the vertical plane (+/-15 degree), and doubling up the speakers by stacking in the vertical plane will exacerbate the 'letterbox' effect. Better to arrange the pair so that the lower speaker is tilted slightly forward with the upper speaker tilted even more forward so that the two treble beams reinforce one another at the listening position. Clearly this will require a fair amount of experimentation, but it will be worthwhile.
So if you have the room, amplification that can handle the difficult load and the patience to experiment, stacking Quad 57s can create an illusion of the original performance that once heard, little else will be found to be as satisfying.
The second pair of stacked Quads, that I heard recently, which were the Original Version, had been stacked on a weight lifting frame, a frame type that is used for resting the weight bar during Squat Exercises.
The frame is rigid, robust and strong, and will certainly cause a few memorable moments, if being sold to
' Ones Better Half ' .
I research the frames after, and thought they are reasonably priced, having a wider market if a resale is required. They are multi adjustable, in relation to width and height, and I recall working out a couple of further easy to achieve adaptions, that I thought would improve on them for a further adjustments to help fine tune the alignment of a Stacked 57 Set Up.
Got my speaker back from Steve at OTA yesterday after the fitting of new treble panel and clamp board. Sounds great now. I will probably get the other speaker serviced in a similar fashion in the New Year so I will then have a perfectly balanced pair. The service from Steve was fantastic and the work he carried out was very really reasonably priced. Thanks Steve - really appreciated!!! The speaker should be good for another 10 years at least now I am sure. As said before if anyone wants to hear the sublime match of the Croft OTL amp with the QUADS more than happy to demonstrate if you are up in York area. Maybe I should bring the combination down to Shalford - would be best is show to my ears anyway!!!!!
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