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Setting up Quad 988 right

Hi all,

I got a pair of Quad 988 for 2 months now. Enjoy it a lot, however I feel I might not have set it up right. My problem is I feel that the image height is too low. Is this true for Quad ESL speakers. Does anyone experience this. My speakers are set up around 6 feet apart, toe-in considerably, listening position is about 8 feet from speaker plain and the speakers are tilted up as well. Speakers are 4-5 feet from the front-wall. Please kindly share your experience. Also my room dimension is 17x21 feet.
haipo
wc65mustang
524 posts
 
Having owned 88's I would move them farther apart if enough clearance from the side walls is available. I never tipped mine up or down but I did replace the factory feet with brass cones and discs. As you are discovering speaker placement is critical for optimum performance and it may take a great deal of experimentation to find the right spot.
What is your amplification? This is also critical.
kw6
692 posts
 
There is a good review of how to set up the 988 on Audioreview.com written by Audiogon member "Jordi".

Good Luck!*>)
Post removed 
jeffreybehr's avatar
jeffreybehr
805 posts
 
With my 989s in a larger room, I discovered that the soundstage (SS) got bigger the farther from the front wall they are; mine are now SEVEN feet from the wall in my 19-feet-deep room. And I too sit fairly close to the plane of the speakers altho mine are farther apart in my 21-feet-wide room.

Quads are NOT tall speakers and the drivers are POINT-, not line-source. Many owners of the '63s and now the 988s find the image and SS height too low. Some kind of stand about a foot high would help. Gradient made an apparently-fine-sounding dipole subwoofer built so that the '63s stood on them; you might investigate those. I see that Sound Anchors does not list a stand for the 988.

I sure love my 989s, altho I confess I just ordered a pair of ET LFT-8s.
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