Will rebuilt Quad ESL 57s take the place on a great $30K dynamic speaker?


In the ‘90s I lived joyfully with Quad 57s for 10 years. Have always missed them.

Especially since Electrostatic Solutions rebuilds came to light, I have looked for a used pair. My system today is far better than what I had back then.

I was very curious to hear what they would sound like now.

I love my current speakers, but have experienced some fatigue in loud, full passages. And I realized that most of what I listened to was acoustic Jazz and Classical. But with a good amount of Pop singer/songwriter.

The Quads beautifully reproduce solo or otherwise “gentle” music. They are magical with voices. Eg.: Opera that I never got into much is now sublime. And voices in general.

But on something like Peter Gabriel, the fall apart. “So” which was a favorite recording is problematic at best.

I am leaning toward the Quads since they do “moderate” unlike almost any.

But I do miss the dynamics. Bass and treble.

 

 

 

mglik

 

useful context and food for thought given this discussion of q57’s... hang in there this is worth the watch, relevance directly to this thread is at 11 minutes in ...

@jjss49

Great video… I appreciated the first topic most… although his comments on the Quads are correct to my memory as well.

Wonderful speakers, I've owned two pairs over the years, the last pair about a year ago.

For my tastes, I could only keep the Quads if I maintained two systems. They're just not suited to about half of what I enjoy - Genesis, Rush, etc, played at realistic volumes. But for smaller-scale music, jazz, some classical, folk, etc, they're hard to beat.