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Quad S-2

Recently acquired a pair of these speakers to replace my trusty 14 year old Castle Richmond 3i's.  According to the manual they need 50 hours run in before sounding their best. I've got about 30 hours on mine to date, but am already really impressed with them and they are a significant upgrade on the Richmond 3i's, which were very well regarded in their day.  I haven't owned or heard many speakers in my lifetime for comparison, but these do sound extremely good to my ears and are highly regarded by the few owner reports that I've come across.  So, I'm a little puzzled as to why they don't appear to be very popular, at least I rarely see them mentioned on hi-fi forums.  I wonder if the reason could be that Quad are not a go to speaker brand like KEF, B&W or Dynaudio to name a few? Or, perhaps more likely, that people, especially those in the UK, tend to shy away from what was originally a UK manufactured speaker that is now a part of the IAG group and manufactured in China? Then again, the answer could be simply that the S-2 simply doesn't appeal to many folk, perhaps due to a dislike of ribbon tweeters?
moffer
wcfeil
464 posts
 
LOL
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,180 posts
 
I heard them at Capital Audiofest.   Very impressed with both sound and form!    Seem not many dealers in the  states though.    Hard to find.
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,778 posts
 
As we stated previously Mofi distribution is slowly increasing distribution.

The issue today is there are not a lot of brick and mortar stores left and many stores dont actively pursue bringing in new prodocts especially ones which may outperform their older established brand partners.

Our philosophy is to actively pursue what we feel are exceptional products.

We got the Quad S series after reading Ken Metcalfs review in Stereophile and we love ribbon tweeters.

Also we wanted to offer our clients something that looked more conventional then the Kef LS 50

So yes the Quads are hard to find but they are worth seeking out.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 

Yes, it you want some competent, modern, mainstream sound from loudspeakers, you could do worse than, say, the Z4.  Thousands less than other speakers that sound very similar.

At CAF, Tenacious Sound,  that's TENACIOUS SOUND,  a store with various branches, was featuring them heavily.


audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,778 posts
 
Yes twoleftears, Tenacious is one of their dealers so are we. I think your post was directed as stab against, us hence you nice use of bold type. Tencacious was and is free to write on these posts as well. 

We wiil be exhibiting at CAP next year.

There is one major differnce between us and them which is we sell most of the competitive brands in the price range, and so we are in unique position to answer questions on not just the Quads, we sell KEF, Dali, Legacy, ELAC, Paradigm to name a few. 

Which is one of the reasons we mentioned the new KEF line will be a fascinating comparison vs the Quads as they are getting huge accolades in the UK as the new speakers to beat at this price range. 

Twolefteares and of course Mr. Feil, it is because we sell most of the major players in each price range is why our posts are considered valuable by many people.

We will agree with you that the Quads are superb for the money, the Z4 were originally $5k at their new price of $4k they are a bargain.

The only issue with the Z4 and Z3 is they don’t go extremely low in the bass other than that they are rather extraordinary.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ


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