Solid State Amps for Quad ESL 57?


My system is feeling pretty tube-y and I was looking for suggestions of a solid state amps that people are liking with their original Quad ESLs. Looking for more speed and more of the bass I know the Quads can put out if set up right.
dhcod
nyame
But this is the first time I have heard of stacking 3 pairs of Quads.


Why stop there ?

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The funny thing is that when I had my Quads I was never aware, while listening to music, of any deficiency in the bass or treble. It was only when my brain kept telling me the bass did not go low enough and that the high frequencies were rolled off.

My rooms are adjacent to one another. I can have the same music material running at the same time for fun. There are matrix 800’s in the adjacent room. I can tell you and so can others that there is no roll off in the HF’s with the RM10 and 100% functional Quads. The room treatments between the two rooms is also very different.

Now the bass.

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Interview with Peter Walker

Interviewer : For people who would like to use your speakers as mid-range and high-end reproducers - do you make suggestions about what they might add for moving- coil supplement below 100Hz, say?

PW: We try to keep out of it. Two or three people have made good attempts at this, adding woofers. It’s not that easy to do. Initially it’s quite impressive, but to try to give this a homogenous sound is difficult. Another thing people do is to use two of our panels, one above the other. This is quite reasonable because it is really a strip source, you can extend the strip source without deteriorating anything. All you do is add 6dB at the bottom end and 3dB everywhere else. It gives you a louder sound, a more impressive sound. That’s all right. Adding woofers has never been very good.

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So it gives you 6 db more in the low end, and 3 db everywhere else. So it is not linear, and they still don’t play any lower than 45 hz .
Peter Walker never heard today’s subwoofers.

I had one occasion to hear stacked quads. Whether the setup or one of the panels was off a little, the magic I hear with two was lost. Seemed like a lot of effort and risk (multiple panels) _ to me at the time and the reason I pursued the sub route for db levels in the larger room. The secret for me in my space - to have the single pair panels elevated so they are 44 inches off the ground at the mid panel point. .

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@Kalali
there is no such thing as a good deal with Quads. I would never buy any without seeing. and hearing them, along with the paperwork for when they were restored. Also removing the back panel to determine if they were a smoker. Would you buy a car that was owned by a smoker ?

Cheers

One great way to add bass to the 57 is with a pair of Magneplanar Tympani bass panels. They take a fair amount of floor space, however---each is 32"w x 6'h! That's what Harry Pearson mated with the m/t panels of the Infinity IRS to create his hybrid super-speaker.

Another way is with the GR Research OB/Dipole Subwoofer, the world's only Open Baffle/Dipole Servo-Feedback Subwoofer. Very special, and very good with planar loudspeakers. But it's available only as a DIY kit. Worth the effort!

bdp- Pearson also waxed over the maggie bass panels with the Crosby Quad 63. For one issue or so. And then he moved on. What always killed me about The Absolute Sound in the glory days was the promise of a follow up after a sneak preview, which never happened. I used to read those things religiously back in the day, along with an assortment of other stuff, Montcrieff, etc. 
Yeah Bill, Pearson had really high ambitions and aspirations for TAS, sometimes unachievable. Moncrieff had his own unique reviewing and writing style (which was to beat a subject to death, saying the same thing three different ways)---whatever happened to him? I think I heard he was in a very bad car wreck, and hasn’t been the same since. The same thing happened to the Bay Area’s leading Hi-Fi dealer in the 1970’s and 80’s, John Garland, who had the Wilson Audio WAMM speaker in his sound room! Another interesting mag was Art Dudley’s Listener, his publication before joining Stereophile.