Quad ESL help appreciated!

[wee tee cee]

Have you tried a t amp?

My 57s and 63s both sounded really good with them in my room, which is compromised in shape.

When you mentioned the bass boom i thought maybe a mini t or temple audio bantum may suit.

I have run 57s on a kel84 power amp and mono blocks both sounded too bass heavy to me.

t amps work fine with statics-great midrange and imaging.

[wee tee cee]

bright speaker cable may also help-i ran silver plated fisual stuff with the 57s worked well in my room.

[jandl100]

Shame you're on t'other side of the country from me - otherwise I'd be happy to bring my Behringer DEQ2496 equaliser over for a play.
I'd post it but they tend to be a bit on the fragile side.

Go on - spill £40 on one of those little Behringers. It's GOT to be worth a try!

[Macca]

Might give that EQ a try as a last resort otherwise I might well be looking for speaker recommendations . . .

But, where do you go from a good sounding pair of 57's?! . . . .

I've had horns up there too quite successfully (Loth X) but something tells me its likely to have to be a compromise . . .

You can get conventional box speakers that come close to the ESL for midrange clarity nowadays. But you could just be getting into a different set of room-related problems. The digital EQ will work but it is going to involve a fair bit of trial and error.

[jandl100]

I replaced my Quad 63 stats (of 7 years ownership and well maintained by Quad) with the then-new ProAc Response 2 speakers. The ProAcs beat them in every way, imo.
People get latched onto one particular thing - "oh, I could never go back to XYZ" - but in reality there's usually a lot of choices that may even beat your favourites.

[Opti-cal]

Have you tried a t amp?

My 57s and 63s both sounded really good with them in my room, which is compromised in shape.

When you mentioned the bass boom i thought maybe a mini t or temple audio bantum may suit.

I have run 57s on a kel84 power amp and mono blocks both sounded too bass heavy to me.

t amps work fine with statics-great midrange and imaging.

I must admit I haven't heard or know anything about T-amps. I'm just reading about them now actually and the Temple Audio Bantam looks superb value. Correct wattage for the ESL's too.

I would be reserved about moving away from tubes for them as I've not heard anything SS or digital get close harmonically. However if you've tried them with 57's and 63's and been happy they must be decent.

Thanks for the recommendation Tony, I will look more into this.

[Opti-cal]

Shame you're on t'other side of the country from me - otherwise I'd be happy to bring my Behringer DEQ2496 equaliser over for a play.
I'd post it but they tend to be a bit on the fragile side.

Go on - spill £40 on one of those little Behringers. It's GOT to be worth a try!

Really kind offer Jerry but as you say, for the money might be worth a shot to just get one!

Might be the only solution to keep my tube amps and the 57's in the loft . . .

[Opti-cal]

bright speaker cable may also help-i ran silver plated fisual stuff with the 57s worked well in my room.

I did try some old western electric stuff to see if it made much difference as well as some chord rumour 2. No difference really. Maybe I will see if there's any thin silver plated I can try.

Cheers Tony.

[walpurgis]

T Amps and other Class D amps can object to low impedances, so best to check specs against anticipated loads before use.

[Opti-cal]

You can get conventional box speakers that come close to the ESL for midrange clarity nowadays. But you could just be getting into a different set of room-related problems. The digital EQ will work but it is going to involve a fair bit of trial and error.

I did try some more conventional box speakers in their place and the boom was gone. It must be the rear output from the Quads causing most of it I reckon.

I know some box speakers can sound very good up there actually its just when the Quads were running pre-service they were so significantly better than anything that I had to completely reevaluate my perception of hifi.

I wish I wasn't compelled to go to the length of rearranging loads of pillows/blankets etc behind them, moving them a couple of mm every 2 minutes and lugging heavy amps up and down stairs all the time for three evenings straight. But this is the hold they do have on me.

I've never sat in front of another pair of speakers and thought, thats it. Apart from them.