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ESL 57s

S

stevec67

pfm Member
I think I've snagged a pair of these at a fair price. The seller, a friend of a friend, says they sound great but make occasional popping sounds when driven hard.

I used to own 63s but they didn't have any problems and in any case are protected. 57s have no protection as any fule kno.

How much of a prob is this likely to be? Is it just that they are being overdriven and the guy is neatly punching small holes in the Mylar, or are they on the way out? AFAIK they have never been serviced so the innards could be old by now. WHat's the cost of a typical refurb these days?

Thanks
 
Sounds like tweeter panel is arcing which means it's been damaged at some point. I had the same problem with mine, they would arc when played at a certain volume with a certain transient. The panel will eventually get worse and the arcing will occur more often, at less volume.

I've replaced both tweeter panels in mine over the twenty years I've had them and have had no problems since. I've never added the protection circuit to my pair and have never had any problem playing them loud. I've heard from good sources that the protection circuit degrades them a bit but have never heard a comparison to prove it.

Good luck, they're wonderful speakers,
John
 
Thanks gents,

I find these things hard to value. Fully refurbed, £1000. Cost of refurb £1000. Battered not working pair £150. Working and "seller says OK" £400. Most probably require some repairs if they haven't recently been seen to.

What's the approx value here? £250-300?
 
I think I'll be passing on this, he wants 300 firm and will put them on Fleabay if he doesn't get it. That's fine by me, good as they may be repanelling these things can easily exceed their refurbished value, and having owned som rebuilt 63s I know they can be a bit fragile.

I'm happy to pass on details if anyone here fancies them. They are reputedly very nice, unmarked, manuals. Collect in Lincoln.
 
All that probably needs to be done is to replace the bad tweeter panel, not something that needs to be done right away. It's a relatively simple to do, involves soldering two wires. I bought a replacement tweeter panel from these folks, cost about 284 Euro. They don't need to be completely refurbished, just replace the bad part.
 
He's sold them to another mate, he swapped them for a Rogers Cadet! I can't believe he refused my £250 and a coupl of valves, then accepted a ratty Cadet.

Buyer says the tweeter panels are totally badgered, he plans a rebuild. All in all I'm glad I passed.
 
Read the HFW article on the One-Thing Audio mods. Apparently, even well loved and gently used ones will need work done now. I'm only worried that the OTA re-build gives them a saddle-back response due to the lighter diaphragm material increasing the tweeter output by 5db or so (that's a heck of a lot, when half a db is often audible in the lower treble)...
 
I`m assuming that Quad still rebuild them with proper parts? Or maybe not since they went all Chinese and are part of another company?
 
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