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

I run my 4 x 57s with a Crown Amcron PSA2. It's fantastic. I used to have them in a small room, running on an EL34 valve amp, it was great, good enough to justify having to move a speaker when I wanted to watch TV.
 
Steve. Interesting that you have an Amcron amp - mine is an Amcron D150 Series 2. However, it has developed a fault after just 4 weeks in my house. Luckily the seller has another one that he is testing at the moment.
Ian has ordered boxes and will ship the Quad ESL 57s out when they arrive. Here's to a safe voyage or flight across the channel to Denmark!

EDIT: Ouch! The Crown Amcron PSA2 is a beast!
 
A beast indeed! You need a fork lift to move it around. I got mine at very modest cost, recently repaired and serviced, from a Wammer who had rescued it from a recording studio in London. It's been used but because it has been in a studio and not gigged it hasn't picked up the abuse scars that most carry.
 
My Amcron was also used in a local recording studio (Aarhus, Denmark) and hasn't been lugged around either. But I think it has spent time in storage.
 
Regarding Quads in rooms, the question is whether you can get both space behind and width between. If you can get both then you're sorted. If you can only get one, then you'll be compromised in some degree, and some kinds of music won't work very well.
 
I may decide to place the ESL 57s on shelves spanning from the window sill to bookshelves along the side walls. The window sill is placed some 88 cm and 73 cm from the side walls.

If I do so, there will still be storage for a few books on the bookshelves behind the ESL 57s. I suppose that the books will serve as sound absorbers/dampeners?

However,it all remains to be seen when the ESL 57s arrive here. Then the testing can begin.
 
ESLs are amazing and can still be amazing in less than perfect settings. The biggest issue is to make sure the wall behind is not straight to the speaker. If the speaker is too close to the wall behind and firing straight from it, the result can be disappointingly un-even.

I now have the best room I ever heard ESLs in, and using just one as a mono speaker really does alleviate many problems in small spaces, while in the past I used a pair either side of a fireplace, which was not splendid, but still good. Then I used a pair and latterly aa single speaker in a smaller room. The improvement brought by optimising one speaker in a small space really brought things up in quality. Now with an almost large room, about 17 by 19 feet, I have the speaker firing not quite diagonally. Minimum of five feet behind the speaker to the wall and six feet behind me. Still quite close to the speaker from the listening position. Amazing naturalness results.

Because the ESL is so coherent, it really does not matter about sitting close to one, or even two or four! Though one is best.

ATB from George
 
Please do give your impressions. You may not agree with me, and you would still be right. I do think the non-pin-point presentation of the old ESL 57 may actually be better for mono than the “idealised point source” concentric ring design of the 63, which after all was designed as a stereo pair speaker set. The 57 was designed as single speaker mono studio monitor first and foremost and the fact that it still made a good stereo speaker was more or less good luck.

I would also suggest that you experiment with natural classical recording listening to the left channel only. I shall not give my reasons till you have done your own experiment, but for me it works nicely except on very separated stereo recordings.

ATB from George
 
Interesting. So if I get EAR 509s to drive the ESL 57s, I can have two quality playback set-ups! :cool: (I envisage one ESL 57 in a kitchen set-up with the ESL 57 screwed onto the ceiling firing down on me while I cook.)

On a serious note. I do have some Bob Dylan and Beatles mono recordings that I will make sure to play back using the mono button on my EAR 912 into one ESL 57 speaker. It will be interesting to have a listen indeed. This because mono versions were the first song versions that were mixed, followed by quickly mixed (= sloppier) versions in stereo.
 
upto date .first few weeks with 2912s stunning tried soundwave squares on back wall the 12s are a 1,2 metre from wall ,bass is low and clean. the squares are stopping refections , £37 upgrade, the 2912 Being tall the image sources higher than the 2805s that i sold on p.f. are installed now in Serbia.
 
rich46 said:
upto date .first few weeks with 2912s stunning tried soundwave squares on back wall the 12s are a 1,2 metre from wall ,bass is low and clean. the squares are stopping refections , £37 upgrade, the 2912 Being tall the image sources higher than the 2805s that i sold on p.f. are installed now in Serbia.
Click to expand...
I will surely consider something like soundwave panels if I have to remove the book shelves in order to make room for the ESL 57s.
 
Prefer stereo with my esl63s, more presence and details, textures clearer. I'm thinking of the sound of a bow on a viol string, or the attack of a note on a piano.

But it may be less natural, hard to say. Anyway, back to stereo for me.
 
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