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

[scolarest]

FWIW back in the day when stacking ESL 57s was ultra fashionable I remember one of the Hi Fi Mags featured an article on a pair of stacked Quads suspended from a ceiling.

Someone somewhere must have had a very understanding partner.

Have googled to see if there is a picture of them but to no avail.

 

[Rosewind]

There are plenty of pictures of stacked ESL 57s on the interweb. Luckily, I have no room for that. It would take up all of my shelf space where my personal books and vinyl records go. I am satisfied with the Quad ESL 57s where they are. They will only be moved slightly to see if I can coax a good compromise between headphone immersion and sound stage from them. Right now they deliver all the transparancy and involvement I could ever ask for together with my EAR 802, EAR 509s and Thorens TD 147 Jubilee with standard arm and AT95 cartridge. It is not as detailed as with the Morch UP-4 and Benz Gullwing cart, but still pleasant while I am preparing lessons for Tuesday. Bob Dylan's "Infidels" is spinning away and I am in the music. Really.

 

[john & Jake]

FWIW back in the day when stacking ESL 57s was ultra fashionable I remember one of the Hi Fi Mags featured an article on a pair of stacked Quads suspended from a ceiling.

Someone somewhere must have had a very understanding partner.

Have googled to see if there is a picture of them but to no avail.

Ever so slightly off topic but there did exist an article in the old HiFi mags of Peter Walker at home underneath his suspended ESL 63s which if I remember were on a pulley system to lower to the correct height. He had understanding.

 

[John]

FWIW back in the day when stacking ESL 57s was ultra fashionable I remember one of the Hi Fi Mags featured an article on a pair of stacked Quads suspended from a ceiling.

Someone somewhere must have had a very understanding partner.

Have googled to see if there is a picture of them but to no avail.

Yeah, I wonder if Faye Dunaway’s husband minded.

 

[Rosewind]

John.I did see this photo before - these are both stacked and wall-mounted / roof-mounted. Impressive.

John & Jake. Intriguing. A pulley system would work in here too and would perhaps allow me to have two setting on the pulley:
(1) for my desk position
(2) for my listening pposition

It sounds like a lot of thought and some time would be needed to install the pulley and find a safe way to mount the Quad ESL 57s using the pulley system. If I ever do it, I will make sure to post plenty of pictures.

 

[Alex Sokoloff]

I've lived with ESL 57s since the mid 90s in a variety of apartments and homes. They work in a lot of different size rooms - they're really not sensitive to side wall reflections. What they need is room behind them and, of course, they have a narrow sweet spot. So, they should go across the short wall if possible. I have run them with Naim amps and tube amps. The Naim amps tended to need servicing after a few years connected to ESL 57s, whereas the tubes amps seem to love them and sound better too. You'll need to do a lot more research to find an appropriate transistor amp methinks....

Good luck!

 

[al2002]

The output Z of the Quad II on its 16 Ohm tap is at least 1.6 Ohms. This is close to the input Z of the 57 in the treble. So by Ohm's Law there will be a frequency dependent voltage divider effect rolling off the treble by 6 dB at the frequency where the amp's output Z and the speakers input Z are equal. Hence, I am not surprised you found more clarity - this is due to more treble in the output - with the 8 Ohm setting. Which one you prefer is, of course, your prerogative.

While the above analysis is for the Quad II, most amps of that era will have similar output Z and show treble rolloff,

When I use my ST20 with the 57s I always prefer the 16ohm setting. The 8 ohm gives an initial impression of more midrange clarity but soon becomes wearing. The 4 ohm setting is just to bright and lean.

Errol.

 

[al2002]

The Quad 303 has, IIRC, an output Z of around 0.3 Ohm in series with a small capacitance and inductance. I am not aware of any documentation that states that the 303 was optimised for 16 Ohm loads.However, like most early SS amps with limited output current capability, it will work better in higher Z loads.

As for shipping the Quad II with a default setting of 16 Ohms, that was the standard impedance of most speakers back in the '50s and '60s.

A I understand it Quad always shipped Quad IIs on the 16 Ohm tap as it was right for the ESL in their opinion. The 303, which was designed for the ESL, seems optimised for 16 Ohms too (which is why it is a good match with LS3/5As, JR149s etc).

 

[Rosewind]

Recent pictures now that I have slanted my Quad ESL 57s downwards a bit more. They have rubber stands along the bottom to protect them a bit.

When I am sitting at my desk, I have my head directly at the centre of the ESL 57s, so I am in the sweet spot. If I move back as much as I can - only about 1.25 meters, I am still in the sweet spot. The sound stage is a bit like the one you get wearing headphones: I am in the middle of it all. If I move back a bit the sound stage is ahead and up a bit. At any rate: the sound is very, very good.