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Electrostatic Speakers

I have been lusting after a pair of electrostatic speakers for my entire life. When I was a kid the Infinity Servo Static was the big dog in town. I heard a pair of stacked (4) QUAD electrostatic when Mark Levinson was saying they were the only speakers up to his standards.

So, It was with great excitement when I ordered a pair of QUAD ESL-2912 speakers. I set them up in my listening room and they were fantastic. Even the bass was impressive, tight and went very low. However not the bass output one would get from a big powered sub-woofer. One night I was playing internet radio and I heard thunder. I walked outside and there was no rain. The thunder was coming from the speakers! Not loud but deep and tight.

I have owned lots of speakers over the years. I sold stereo systems for years when I was younger. I worked for AR for a few years. In all those years I have never heard any speaker that came close to the QUAD ESL-2912 for clarity and transient response.

Then one day the party ended. One of the speakers made a loud single CLICK, just one and then back to normal for days. Then it got much worse. It clicked and thumped every few hours. Then it clicked and thumped every few minutes.

I sent an email to the Distributor asking what to do. No answer. I sent a few more emails, no answer. The clicking was making me nuts so I removed the back cover and disconnected the panel, there are five, that was making the noise. All was back to wonderful except the left speaker was a bit softer in volume than the right speaker.

Over the next few months I sent more emails and my tone turned angry. Finally they sent me a replacement panel. Before the replacement panel arrived more panels went bad in the first speaker and then the second speaker.

Next we shipped both speakers to the factory repair center. Six months they returned with banged up cabinets, torn speaker cloth and one speaker still not working!

So my $ 13,000.00 dream speakers have bitten me. Years ago I had KLH 9 speakers (also full range electrostatic) and never had trouble with them until they died and couldn’t be rebuilt.

Any of you have experience with QUAD electrostatics? Some people say a rebuilt pair of the old ones are way better than the new ones. I assumed that new modern manufacturing methods would have made the new speakers super reliable.

Thoughts?? Am I within my reasonable rights to sue these guys?
davidclarke
jhills
618 posts
 
One of my first loves in speakers was the Quad ESL63. I got a pr. back in about 1984 and had them for 20 years, until having to sell because of a down size in living space. They performed flawlessly for 20 years and were still going strong and sounding great when I sold them.
A sad deal when Quad moved their manufacturing to China, their stats haven't been up to the same standards since.
Recently mooving back in a larger space, I got a pr. of the Maggie 1.7s; much the same sound and character as the Quads, but do need a sub. I'm considering an upgrade to the larger Maggie 3.7s or possibly the Sound Labs. The Maggies, Sound Labs and Sanders are all great speakers, but the Sanders (more so than either the Maggies or Sound Labs) do require a good deal of power to drive.
Best of luck.....Jim
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,379 posts
 
@jhills IMHE, they all require plenty of power. The older SLs require more than newer models. Some of the smaller Maggies, a bit less than the larger ones, but 3.x and larger need a pretty good push to get their best out of them.
ESL63s were my first electrostatics too. They brought tears to my ears with small jazz, vocals and acoustic rock LPs, but on orchestras and prog rock I always felt like something was missing and I was listening to small speakers.
For me, SLs provide so much more dynamics and weight without sacrificing the strengths of the Quads. I'd say the Sanders do similar. My friend, a Philadelphia Orchestra pro, told me that his Maggie 20.7s don't hold a candle to my 30yr. old A3s; I agree. Cheers,
Spencer
twoch
429 posts
 
go ahead Sue these guys
watch what happens   walk away Sue Happy 
davidclarke OP
43 posts
 
I would prefer to just have the speakers I paid real money for working as advertised. 
sksos
162 posts
 
I’ve been an electrostatic guy for many, many years going back and forth with panels and conventional speakers over 35 years. Had the original ML CLX (had no bass but boy a midrange to cry over) and then Sequels and Sequel II. Just couldn’t get the bass/panels to integrate well. Then 20 some speaker later I bought the new Sound Lab Majestic 545’s (had them custom made in Birdseye Maple) was very excited but after 3 months and with many different amps just could not get them to sing. Roger West was kind enough to take them back. Boy I really wanted them to work. Went back to cones then about a year ago decided to try the Sanders 10e speakers. WOW! WOW! Yes amps make a huge difference and finally have settled on ones that make me forget about everything but the music. Maybe just maybe I’ve found audio nirvana at least I’m not looking or even dreaming any longer.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to ALL

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