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Quad 10L upgrade

Countryman

Semi-reformed box-swapper
Current system is Rotel RCD965 BX Limited Edition, Rega Io and Quad 10L speakers. Cracking little system for no more than £500 all in. The Spendor designed and built Quads are wonderful: best loudspeaker I’ve heard in my home system. However, in 5 weeks we move house and they will he placed in a bigger room. As good as they are, they only have a 13cm woofer so the laws of physics say they’re not moving much air. So a replacement may be needed to fill the new room which is 5 x 5 metres. Budget is £500ish for a step up. Happy to go new or used. Suggestions for auditions welcome. Thanks.
 
A good match to the little IO amp must be Rega speakers.
RX are outside your budget but a used pair RS3 or Ela would be excellent.
Both works great close to rear wall.
 
Rega speakers are an option worth exploring. My first thought was KEF LS50 or Dynaudio Emit 20. A used pair of Spendor S3E falls into budget. Not sure if any of these are a step up.
 
LS50 need a beefier amp in that size room I believe
Lovely speaker though

FWIW Rega have a new Kyte out next month, looks like same drive-units as in RX1 but different cabinet
 
The Kytes will be worth a listen, thanks. Again, just not sure if it’s an upgrade. The 10L’s are that good but they may get lost in a bigger room. Floorstanders could be an option. Maybe I’m being too ambitious for £500.
 
LS50 need a beefier amp in that size room I believe
Lovely speaker though
I’d agree about the LS50, when I tried mine with a Brio-R and UQ2 I felt they needed more power to really shine, used they seem to go for nearer £600. ProAc Studio would be worth considering, they come up used around £500, the 100 series bookshelves and floorstanders.

You don’t often see them mentioned, Monitor Audio Gold Ref, GR20 floorstanders would be in budget, good looking and sounding speaker, had a pair from new and the wife won’t let me sell them, they live in the bedroom tv system now, worked well with a Brio back in the day.
 
I’d agree about the LS50, when I tried mine with a Brio-R and UQ2 I felt they needed more power to really shine, used they seem to go for nearer £600. ProAc Studio would be worth considering, they come up used around £500, the 100 series bookshelves and floorstanders.

You don’t often see them mentioned, Monitor Audio Gold Ref, GR20 floorstanders would be in budget, good looking and sounding speaker, had a pair from new and the wife won’t let me sell them, they live in the bedroom tv system now, worked well with a Brio back in the day.
I’ll have a look about. Has MA speakers before and was quite impressed.
 
The LS50 can sound odd in big rooms, the cone movement starts to mess up the tweeter pattern. It is a small room speaker.
 
Why don't you just wait and see (hear)?

When I reviewed the 10L that many years ago it was in a room much bigger than 5x5!
 
I’ve used small speakers in a room 5x5. You may want to hang fire. I’ve found that size room is perfect for exciting bass nodes. Admittedly I have a staircase in the corner. I’ve had to accept that midrange quality and good mid bass is more important in that room than low bass. Of course ymmv.
 
lovely speakers the 10l's, and can sometimes be had for peanuts (sssshhh!). I haven't used mine in a room bigger than 10ft by 12ft, but worth trying I'd have thought.
 
Thanks to all for comments and suggestions. The Quads are excellent but their 13cm drivers mean they just don’t always generate the scale. Laws of physics. I could get bigger speakers but lose what makes the Quads so special. Even in my smaller current room, you just don’t get the bass response or scale. It could be I live with this in return for their other outstanding qualities.
 
Don't be fooled by the size of the woofer. A 5 x 5m room is not that big I have had similar size speakers working really good in bigger rooms. For example, the Royd Eden and the Merlin have exactly the same dimensions but the Merlin can actually reach much deeper frequencies and fill a larger room.
Another was the Usher S520. This is similar in size and can fill a larger room than 5 x 5m.
Never heard the Quad 10L though.
 


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