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Power handling capability of original Quad esl 57s

After many years of hearing about how wonderful the original Quad esl 57s are, I finally found a near mint late serial number pair. I'm in audio heaven! I used to own the 63s and the 989s, and these are much better ( in the sweet spot).

Now my question: what is the power handling capability of the 57s? There seems to be some confusion here. According to the original manual, it is safe to use any amplifier as long as it does not produce more than 33 volts at any impedance. This is an interesting specification because it does not differ from the 63s.

Ok, let's do some math. At 8 ohms, 33 volts into 8 ohms gives us
33^2/8 = 136 watts! At higher imoedances, power must drop, so at 30 ohms, the speaker can only take up to 30 watts.
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ct0517's avatar
ct0517
2,041 posts
 
Lists are great tools but just first base in this hobby.

I have no idea how good the hearing is of anyone that comes up with these lists or what their room, speaker placement and other gear is - in that order. I trust my ears only unless I am helping a friend set up speakers, in that case its his or her ears.

I listen around 85-90db with my 57's. Which means peaks above that getting close to their limits of 100db from what I have heard. They are a ridiculously easy load to drive compared to my other speakers.

As far as the 405 is concerned when put in a system that taxes that amp - I dont know never tried - maybe that is where some of the remarks come from. In my system with my panels I hit my db levels very easily. Its a piece of cake for the properly functioning 405 I think. For what you can buy them for anybody starting out with these speakers I think would be foolish to at least not give it a try with matching Pre and listen to what Quad "wanted you to hear". Then when u are ready get that nice little tube amp - there will always be someone waiting to buy your 405.

YMMV - My opinion only
Cheers
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
Years ago in a galaxy far far away I drove them with a pair of Eico HF-12 integrateds (12WPC).

Sounded great but that was a long time ago.
lacee
811 posts
 
When I had a stacked pair of %&'s I used an old Bell 2481 tube integrated,circa 1961 and stock 18 watts.

I also used the AtmaSphere S 30 OTL amp.

In my experience, a tube amp around 30 watts is fine.

Solid state amps around the same wattage have also been reccommended(Bedini 25/25 etc) but I've always found out that tube amps sound louder than their similar wattage solid state contemporaries.

Trying to push a 30 watt solid state amp to the same volume as a 30 watt tube amp may make for a nasty surprise.
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