So you listen on Quad ESL 57?
Yes.
in Room B
Room A is using Matrix 800 speakers. Room A is my main room since '94 with my main turntable.
The pic is from recent discussions on my system thread of successfully integrating the sub nearfield with the Quad 57. I am very excited about this :^)
The arrows point to sub locations I have tried. More pictures of both rooms with equipment lists can be seen if you click on my system link.
My wife does not share my audio passion but she recognizes the audio problem, so she lets me use the basement. :^)
Dedicated space (The Room) is very important for optimizing music. But what is more important long term, and what can not be see by pictures is how the dedicated space can keep your marriage together in a case like this. Well so far...lol...How do you put a value on that ? I guess it depends o the marriage.
Word on the street....married guys are in general a happier lot......they are just more willing to die :^)
There were some highly regarded german SS amps that worked as a current source.
This is interesting. I would of been very interested to hear them if they were available here. After SS amps - American, Canadian, Japanese, plus also Quad's own SS plus a couple tube amps; I am using an American tube amplifier - Music Reference RM10. The designer Roger Modjeski designed and built the RM10 for his own Quad 57 speakers. A total new world of listening opened up with this amp/57 combo.
For those more interested in this ESL /Amp requirements world, Roger Modjeski does IMO a very good short one page summary
here
See the first post.
A couple good points from the link. Recognize he is pushing his own direct drive amps in the 3rd paragraph.
Roger Modjeski
2. This second class of ESL speakers is multi way using panels of different dimensions and often different voltages to obtain line source dispersion. By adjusting the panel size and shape flat response can be obtained without the need for EQ. All the QUAD speakers do this having much larger area for the bass than the treble. The 57 is a 3 way line source where the 63 is a two way point source. I prefer the 57.
The Quad 57s are only 200 pF and the 63's are low also. In general the ESLs that use full range panels have the highest capacitance and are therefore least efficient. The multi-way ESLs (that means mulit-way in the electrostatics themselves) tend to be low capacitance and much more efficient. The extremes are the QUAD 57 needing 15 watts of drive and the Beveridge needing 1,500. Trumpet music is most demanding. Being a little in disbelief about the 1500 watt number I measured a half amp at 3000 volts. No wonder these speakers can't be driven any other way. The QUAD on the other hand needs the voltage of a 15 watt amplifier (at 16 ohms) but from a 4 ohm tap. In my experience that although the QUAD 22 amp was made to drive the 57 speaker, it was rather rolled off at the top due to the fact that the speaker impedance did fall to about 4 ohms. Not everything QUAD did was exactly as they said, contrary to the rather perfectionist philosophy proposed in the QUAD book.
One nice thing about my direct drive system is that by changing just 2 capacitors in my crossover one can set the brightness of the speaker to his desires either more or less than the standard by as much as 12 dB in either direction. Far more than one would need.
I am using the 8 ohm tap on my RM10. The room is made with the heavy right curtain in the pic, into an irregular 20 x 22 feet (6 x 7 meters). Speakers are 7 feet from the front wall. I am able to do an easy 90 db at the chair + peaks with the RM10 and nearfield sub. I listen around a 80 - 85 average db average.
