advertisement


Mark Levinson Quad ESL-57 system

You must have golden ears. I really can't tell any obvious difference in the midrange. The obvious difference is lower down.
 
You need to hear them both in the same room on the same afternoon. Bass is easy.

IMLE and according to memory, Quads and ATCs 'sound' very similar. Which means ATCs must be doing something right.

Paul
 
In addition I remember hearing a setup consisting of Futterman (copy)transformerless mono's, Croft preamp and a CDSII - into original unmodified ESL 57.
Everything except the source was vintage based stuff, nevertheless,
It was stunningly good !
 
Bub - if you truely believe this then it's fine. If it works for you, then you believe that. And that's OK.

Blackadder II, Tom Baker as the ship's captain: "Crew m'lud??"
 
Jonathan, you should bring them sometime. But from what I've heard, well, they sound the same AFAICT. Apart from the lack of bass.

You have a WOMAN'S speaker, my Lord.
 
A friend has a set of stacked ones. With a ribbon tweeter (not decca) and with sub woofs.

Valves are used to drive. Very nice sound. Just like single panel sound, but more of it, if you can imagine that. Stands are a bit ugly, the ones in the ebay auction look better. If you had a second pair of quads, it would be well worth while setting them up. I don't know if I would buy a second pair though to stack - may be if they came at a good enough price.

His are stacked with the lower ones upside-down and have the tweeter in the middle.

Fran
 
interesting, but this is obviously just a part of ML setup - no active crossovers amps and subs. these frames would be easy to make and i would expect a better deal to be done with 2 pairs of overhauled quads and much better tweeter than decca ribbon - something from RAAL for example.
 
Jonathan Ribee said:
... somewhere along the line used eight pairs per side, arranged in a continuous symmetrical arc.
Click to expand...

That's similar to what I had in mind - almost like the control panels on the bridge of a ship - and I could imagine Lieutenant Uhuru gently slaloming through the arc, in a wofting kind of way ...

Mr Robertson-Airman's system now uses two pairs of Quad ESL-63s, again with one pair facing forward while the other pair are positioned outside these and facing across, facing across the room. The '63s have been modified to give better structural rigidity."
Click to expand...

I'd like to hear that set-up - I wonder how the amps / crossovers would be arranged.
 
Jonathan - no not the gradient ones. I don't know what make they are. As far as I know, they are almost turned off - if you know what I mean. Just barely on to reinforce some of the bass. The tweeters each came in a box - and each weighed a ton, OK well actually I'd say at a guess 4kg each. There seemed to be a huge "transformer" type block which was then fronted by the ribbon. There was a switch on the back for attenuation of the tweeter, but no adjustment of crossover freq.

If you had all the gear, and the amps that would stick it (PP valves) then its worthwhile doing it. But if not, then I wouldn't be going out looking for a second pair of quads to do it.

Fran
 
Celestion used to do some open-baffle dipole subs for Quad ESLs if you asked nicely enough- maybe the subs are a pair of those..?
 
The Celestions subs were originally for the SL6(00). I don't remember the arrangement but it was unconventional. I have a HFW somewhere where Noel Keywood applied them to his ESL63s with some DIY electronics and a second power amp.

Celestion were innovative for a while there.

Paul
 
anubisgrau said:
this is certainly interesting. i haven't had a chance to heard stacked 57s, let alone an active mode. i'm curious is it worth of hassle and investment.

what is the main purpose for stacking - to widen a sweetspot, improve soundstaging or something else? also does it anyhow affect the amount of bass reproduced?
Click to expand...

I use a set of 6 ESL speakers, 3 for left channel and 3 for right channel, mounted as a vertical array on a vertical column. They are driven by a vacuum tube amplifier configured to enable operation of any or all 6 ESLs. A stacked pair supplies more musical density, lower bass frequency, boosted bass frequencies and a sweet zone (so to speak). A stacked trio supplies sublime musical density, phenomenal bass frequencies and a sweet room. You can feel the low end through the soles of your shoes on a carpeted concrete slab floor.
 
Back in the 80's, ProAc did a speaker called the 'Prostatic' which used the ESL 57 with a Piezoelectric tweeter mounted in the centre of the Quad panel. The Quads were each stood on top of a bass bin utilising an ATC 10 inch (I believe) driver.

The Piezo and bass bin were to make up for the deficiencies in the Quads and the resultant sound was very good with all the sparkle, tight bass and power output you could wish for. I believe 10 - 20 pairs were sold which was pretty good in those days because they were as ugly as sin and cost a small fortune.
 
These look like Mark Levinson's double Quad:
ben-6.jpg


You may be interested in reading this thread about ESL57 and ESL63:
http://www.review33.com/avforum/forum_message.php?topic=12050904135925

Someone I know has just bought a frame for double Quad ESL57.
IMG_1800.jpg


Another friend just visited his friend whom he sold his previous double Quad:

DSCN0023-1.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top