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LOUD Speakers for a Quad 520

foxwelljsly

Me too, I ate one sour too.
I currently have a Quad 520 lying idle. Not the most refined of power amps, but pretty good nonetheless. Humungous transformer, unburstable and rated at 100wpc into 8 ohms.

How might one best spend £500 on S/H speakers to partner this and create a front end capable of moving a LOT more air than ESLs for when the occasion demands?

Room is 4m x 7m x 2m.

Only stipulations are not too bright sounding and capable of going loud and sounding good.

all suggestions welcome

cheers
 
There aren’t a load of choices for high sensitivity speakers at that kind of money, Klipsch are probably where it’s at, they make some affordable floorstanders at around the 94-96dB mark for about £500-£700.

Or if that doesn’t appeal, Linn Ninkas are 90dB, you might not quite get live rock concert levels out of them but they don’t need a big amp to get them singing and they do stay well composed at higher volumes. They have more bass/presence than their little brothers, the katan... the Quad would drive them easily.
 
You need very big, obviously, though hard to bring much to mind as £500 won’t land a pair of Tannoys, IMF TLS80, NS1000s, Ditton 66 etc these days. Maybe a pair of Wharfedale E70s? They go plenty loud!
 
You need very big, obviously, though hard to bring much to mind as £500 won’t land a pair of Tannoys, IMF TLS80, NS1000s, Ditton 66 etc these days. Maybe a pair of Wharfedale E70s? They go plenty loud!

The alternative also being considered is to thin my kit out and buy some Tannoys - but not sure even they'd go that loud with Quad II's.
 
You need very big, obviously, though hard to bring much to mind as £500 won’t land a pair of Tannoys, IMF TLS80, NS1000s, Ditton 66 etc these days. Maybe a pair of Wharfedale E70s? They go plenty loud!
Yep, truly high efficiency models aren’t cheap.
 
The alternative also being considered is to thin my kit out and buy some Tannoys - but not sure even they'd go that loud with Quad II's.

15” Golds are about 94db IIRC (I guess some may have lost a little magnetism by now so maybe a bit less), two speakers in a room brings 3db, so we are starting with 98db for a Watt. Each doubling of power brings 3db, so pretty much another 12db from the Quad II theoretically (roughly 110db @ 1m). That is way louder than I’d ever want to be in a room with!

PS There is technically another 3db to be had for against wall placement rather than free-space, but a lot depends on how the speakers were originally specified by the manufacturer.
 
15” Golds are about 94db IIRC (I guess some may have lost a little magnetism by now so maybe a bit less), two speakers in a room brings 3db, so we are starting with 98db for a Watt. Each doubling of power brings 3db, so pretty much another 12db from the Quad II theoretically (roughly 110db @ 1m). That is way louder than I’d ever want to be in a room with!

PS There is technically another 3db to be had for against wall placement rather than free-space, but a lot depends on how the speakers were originally specified by the manufacturer.

Interesting, although my budget would be more HPD rather than gold or red.

Haven't you got Klipsches? Might Heresys or Quartets offer similar levels of efficiency?
 
I currently have a Quad 520 lying idle. Not the most refined of power amps, but pretty good nonetheless. Humungous transformer, unburstable and rated at 100wpc into 8 ohms.

How might one best spend £500 on S/H speakers to partner this and create a front end capable of moving a LOT more air than ESLs for when the occasion demands?

Room is 4m x 7m x 2m.

Only stipulations are not too bright sounding and capable of going loud and sounding good.

all suggestions welcome

cheers


Mission 770
 
KEF 104/2 (without KUBE) would be my choice, ~95dB/2.83V and a nice easy 4 Ohm resistive load. They also sound great unlike other high sensitivity speakers like the Klipch Heresey, which are also available around the same ~£500 budget but are good only for a footstool.

https://us.kef.com/explore-kef/kef-museum/1980s/reference-series-model-1042-1984-96

They also like to rock!


System
by Robert Seymour, on Flickr

Other than that on Tannoys, then the less popular 'T' series might be an option, I had a pair of the Chester version, 10" Dual Concentric which were not bad at all, not as good as HPDs or Golds but a hell of a lot cheaper.


System
by Robert Seymour, on Flickr
 
Haven't you got Klipsches? Might Heresys or Quartets offer similar levels of efficiency?

Heresys are great fun, but they have no bass below 50Hz (and that is with good placement) and tend to shout at higher volumes. If you want ‘loud’ and ‘Klipsch’ then really you need Cornwalls, La Scalas or full Khorns. All are far more than £500. I don’t know the Quartet, but it is likely a contender looking quite like a Forte, but I doubt you’d find a pair in budget. Bigger Klipsch are very rare in the UK, I ended up buying a pair of La Scalas just to hear them! Hopefully I’ll be able to get my cash back, or close to it when I eventually move them on. They are an extravagance for the TV, but certainly effective in that role.

PS A lot of JBLs would fit your bill perfectly too, but again not at £500.
 
ProAc 125’s / 130’s? I had some 125’s which went very loud indeed without breaking sweat. Sounded great as well.

ETA - I used these with Quad 99/909. Great match.
 
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KEF 104/2 (without KUBE) would be my choice, ~95dB/2.83V and a nice easy 4 Ohm resistive load. They also sound great unlike other high sensitivity speakers like the Klipch Heresey, which are also available around the same ~£500 budget but are good only for a footstool.

https://us.kef.com/explore-kef/kef-museum/1980s/reference-series-model-1042-1984-96

They also like to rock!


System
by Robert Seymour, on Flickr

Other than that on Tannoys, then the less popular 'T' series might be an option, I had a pair of the Chester version, 10" Dual Concentric which were not bad at all, not as good as HPDs or Golds but a hell of a lot cheaper.


System
by Robert Seymour, on Flickr
I think 104/2s might well be the answer. Cheers!
 
Not sure what they would go for, but Dave Smith of Vintage Gale uses quad 5 series monos (510s?) with Gale 401s.

I'm sure I've heard it said that when the ESLs and 401s were current, well heeled folk would have both, the former for jazz and classical and the latter for rock and parties:)

In those days I couldn't have afforded either but now happily enjoy both!

Jim
 
If you want to scratch the itch of filling your room with deep and effortless bass, IMFs get my vote, but they'll require more than a few watts and are best partnered to an amp with a high damping factor.
 
Watch our for really cheap pairs, and check to see if the woofer 'dougnuts' have been replaced. If they have not recently they will, its not an expensive or difficult job.
As a sight aside, I read somewhere that you drove some with a Puresound A10, did that have enough grunt to work well? I have an A10 here that I'm using with some 103/2 and though it sounds extremely nice it kinda runs out of steam at higher volumes and wonder if 104/2 might work better/as well/or worse?
 


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