Amp for Quad ESL 57

Duke (or others),

I would be grateful if you would "editorialize" just a bit more about matching an Atma-Sphere S-30 with Quad ESL 57s. I have a Stokes-restored pair of Quads and a fully-balanced Joule Electra preamp. I would love to try this amp, but some seem to recommend the more powerful M-60s instead. Not sure if this is for power or impedance reasons. Also, are the Speltz autoformers necessary (or strongly recommended) to run Quads with the S-30 (or the M-60s for that matter)? Thanks for any input.

Hello

The best amp I've ever heard on my Quads is a Futterman OTL. I've had Manley El84's, EAR 509's, Audio Innovations 2A3's, Lectron EL34's (JH50), Audionote Single Ended and an Audionote copy of the Ongaku using 211 valves. Once you hear a good OTL, amps with output transfomers seem veiled. Also OTL's love the high impedence of Quad 57's. Watch out for Croft OTL's especially the 3R which is supposed to be amazing. I heard a Series 3 which was great but not quite as good as my Futterman. Surprisingly too I think my Croft Twinstar Mosfet/Valve hybrid out performs any non OTL valve amp. There's a chap in London called Adrian Parsons (Audioflair.co.uk) who has led me through the maze of amps out there to where I am now and he's been right every time.

have fun SgtWilko

I was actually about to sell my McIntosh MA-2275 for an integrate EAR V 20, when a friend of mine told me it would be a huge mistake. His suggestion was to change a couple of stock tubes for my Mac, and get Telefunken. I did that, and the sound have improved. It's not more detailed and neutral. I like my Mac a lot, although I'd like to try the V 20 at some point. Giovanni

I tried 3 different tube amps and a ss unit. The best I found to power my Quad ESL 57's was the Cary SLAM 100 monoblocks. They ar 90wpc triode. Very warm and powerful enough for complicated passages. I tried Conrad Johnson, Manley and liked the Cary's the best.

I used to drive Quad ESL with Mc2275. Overall pretty good combo. If you use a separate preamp, TVC or passive driving the amp section, the amp gets a lot better. I ultimately sold to for midline Naim combo. I also tried VAC phi 110 and I am going to try Jadis 88S. Never heard EAR but Coolhand has more experience than me.

Also look into quad 2 eighty.