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Quad ESL 57 in small room (with my pix now working)

Rosewind

Rosewind

Lost in Translation
Hi.
I have eyed a set of ESL 57s. I have always wanted to have a listen, and I have read that it will actually work as near field monitor, so I am tempted.

The first real problem is the dimensions of the speakers. In many ways the ESL 63 would be better for me because of its proportions, but The QuadESL 63 needs to be placed well into the room as far as I know. Is it possible to place the ESL 57 on its side?

Another challenge will be the demand of the Quad ESL 57s on my Amcron/Crown D150 Series II amp. Any pointers? I have had a FirstWatt F4 in the pipeline for the longest time, so I would also like to know if this will be able to work well with the Quad ESL 57.

Thanks!
 
I’d certainly not place them on their side as that would make the horizontal dispersion terrible (conventional installed ESLs have very poor vertical dispersion). A panel spealer cancels at the sides, so they can actually go surprisingly close to side walls, but being a dipole they kick a lot of energy out of the back, but you could damp some of that fairly successfully with room treatment.

I don’t know anything about the amps you mention. ESLs can upset some solid state amps, though its not a power thing, they di not need much and are fairly easily damaged. They are at their best with the likes of Quad or Leak tubes, 303s etc IMO, i.e. the best stuff of their era, but as long as the amp in question is stable both into high and low impedance you should be ok.
 
I used to use them in a room that was about 8ft 6in wide and no more than 12ft long. I had a single bed and 2 Ladderax stacks either side of the door. The speakers were about 2ft in front of the Ladderax angled at the chair at the far end of the room.

Used to drive them with a Sugden A48. Normally this was regarded as a stable combination. I did have problems but my electricity supply voltage could change according to the time of day.
 
I used my ESL57s in a very tiny room with great success. Main points to keep in mind is the fact that the standard 'legs' angle the speakers upwards and assume a listening distance of about 12 feet or so. The proximity to the floor helps the bass to a degree, but I found that using stands that raise the speaker up, and tilt them more upright, works well in a small space. Sidewalls are not a problem at all, and I found that the rear radiation is perhaps less of a problem than I'd imagined, in a small room. Imagine them as a pair of very big headphones, and you will be blown away. I used a Linn Sizmik subwoofer, and the 57s in a room that was about 8ft x 10ft and it sounded amazing...
 
Thanks for the replies. I knew I could count on PFM.
If I go for them, the ESL57s will be used in my 12 by 8 feet study, and I intend to change whatever needs to be changed to accomodate them in the room. Bookshelves will be halved in height etc. They will be slanted in on either side of a desk in from of a window 5-6 feet apart (when I am sitting there), and they will be elevated to work as giant headphones much like Jem describes. The ones I am looking at are original. I will have to have a listen at them at the dealer's and try to work out how old they are.

If the ESL57s really are for me, then I can always change the power amp to something more suitable.
 
I have a set of stacked quads and my room is 12 by 12 feet I have no problems and have heard nothing yet that would want me to change them.

Midrange is we’re it all happens and I think there sublime for that.
 
I'm not sure that the ESL57 is as amplifier fussy as some people make out. I've run mine with: Leak Stereo 20 (sublime), Naim NAP 250 - worked brilliantly, but watch the volume control, Gainclones - work really well, Class D 'T-Amp' - oddly don't work well, and my Yamaha home cinema amp works remarkably well. I nearly didn't sell my EAR890 as I wanted to use it with my Quads. Eventually, if I have the money, and he's still doing it, I will send my Quads to Tim at EAR and get him to build his OTL valve amps into the back of my 57s... I've heard this combo, and it's almost perfect.
 
I see no problems in a small space, but as above unless you are sitting on the floor I would get them up as high as possible and tilted forward to be at 90 degrees to floor before expecting full performance of what they can really do (but you will be impressed even on their stock feet if you’ve never heard them before ;)).

One caution - if they’ve never been serviced then at very least they will need new EHT units. Simply if messy to DIY, but not massively expensive to buy new ones either. They do break down, affecting the performance.
 
Have used ESL 57s in a 10.5’x12.5’ room, and agree with what’s already been said. Mine sounded better with taller legs, and a slightly more upright stance. Placed them close to the side walls, and about 2’ from the front wall. Also used large absorption panels behind them.
 
The Firstwatt F4 is a unity gain buffer, if you use it you'll need a preamp that can swing 14V AC on its outputs, with at least +20dB gain.

But I would think any of the Firstwatt 25W amps would be good with the Quads.
 
The main thing will probably finding the optimum location, etc, for the speakers in the particular room. i.e. the usual need to experiment patiently until you can get the best results. Once you do, you'll know! But it can take some patience.

The amplifier issue really has two sides.

1) A high power amp is OK *provided* you don't wind it up too far. Having onces set fire to an ESL57 I'm aware of this. 8-] If in real doubt buy a cheap rms-reading DVM and monitor the levels. Allow a fair factor of say 10 for the peaks being bigger and it'll give you an idea if you're needing to worry.

2) Some amps may not be unconditionally stable and will ocillate at ultrasonic frequencies. IIRC one of the old Crown amp was said to do this with the 'wrong' loads. But I've not checked so can only report that as a possibility. If in doubt put 1 Ohm resistors in series or some inductors (e.g. about 10 microhenry) with the leads. If the amp spec says it is unconditionally stable, this should not be a problem, though. and you need not worry about it.
 
+1 to expecting the Pass amp to work very nicely. It's capable of more power output than the '57 needs, low-distortion, has a low output impedance, and is unburstable into such a load. To put in context - a Nait2, all 12-15w of it, works really, really well into 57s; the Pass F4 should cream that. (And from looking at the f4 design - it will not have stability issues with the ESL as a load; it's output is essentially resistive, and that is good for this purpose.)

As for how small is too small for the room ... no such thing; they make excellent headphones, if that's all the space you have!
 
Very reassuring, Martin. I am still to hear from the dealer who is most likely swamped with Black Friday deal requests. I will give him a ring.
 
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Both ESL variants work great in small rooms with some time spent experimenting.
Both designs are at their best under modest power delivering low-moderately high SPLs, and therefore a small room and semi-nearfield listening position is a benefit in many respects. Pushing these designs hard to fill a spacious room degrades their performance.

The dipole characteristic makes them less difficult to position IME since two of the primary room modes are less excited than with a conventional box design.

Don't be afraid to use some EQ. Room gain can warm the lower resisters, and therefore some bass shelf cut can help restore a more natural balance. You drive the 'speaker less hard and use less amplifier power to boot.

Both designs are so far ahead of what often passes for high-end conventional 'speakers that even less than optimally positioned ESLs are usually preferable.
 
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