Tube amp forethought

I recently watched the Guttenberg "audiophilliac" interviews with Nelson Pass and really enjoyed 'em. Pass, Atma Sphere Ralph, the Schiit guys, Dennis Had...all refreshing and hip as...well...you know...

Overwhelming to say the least !
:0)
i have been into Home audio since my good friend was spinning Kiss destroyer through a HK receiver and small Advents, my guess 1976ish/1977. I was smitten !!! Blown away by the orange glow of the receivers light and the music coming out of those little Advents was glorious to say the least. I had a panasonic portable 8-track player, and a home “all in one” unit.
this changed everything, i HAD to have this sound in my life.

40yrs later, just putting the finishing touchs on my 3yr build of my HT, and im just thrilled at the thought of new gear getting me even closer to my music, excited is to say the least, im taking notes !!!!

thank you all for the great 1st hand knowledge on tubes and esl’s.

Now, please continue. I have no idea of which Quad, but it will be, im not afraid of rebuilding, im a tweakahaulic

Picked up a VTL st-85, impressive power and lovely tube sound.

Btw, how many ESL models did Quad make, i found these:

57
63
988
989
2812
2912
2805
2905

Kg, it must be around 6 by now. The current ones are the ESL-2812 and 2912. They are now owned by a Chinese company somewhere in Shenzhen and they are made in China.  The 2912's are something like $14,000. At that money the clear choice would be the Sound Lab 545 which is about the same money but is a seriously better loudspeaker in all respects and it is made here in the USA. 
The first Quad was the 57 and you definitely want to stay away from those. They are way too fragile. Next is the 63 which is much more reliable than the 57 but some would argue do not sound as good as the 57. I think that is probably romantic brains talking. Then there are a few in the middle which have a good reputation but I have never experienced them so can not comment on their sound. By then I was deep into Acoustats and not really paying attention to other ESLs. Acoustat is out of business. You see them pop up once in a while. Most of them have been broken up into parts. They were relatively inexpensive and audiophile hobbyists bought them up and tried to rearrange them into speakers they thought would sound better. A clean pair of 2+2's would be a real snag.
Sound Lab speakers come up on rare occasion but most of their owners consider them permanent purchase. Where else you going to go?