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faulty ESL 57 just won

Robert said:
Looking inside vintage speakers is often interesting.
An enormous and very crispy dead spider greeted me recently on opening a pair of Heybrooks.

If the 57s are a late pair, a good clean might sort them.
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Did it have much to say for itself?
 
ian r said:
Thanks Dowser - the EHT rebuild might be somewhat out of my comfort zone - not the wax removal that sounds fun - its the other side .... or does one just cut tails and tag replacements .... heretical I expect ! However 14 years is clearly up
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Wax wasn't used on the later 57s for the EHT and they work fine. It was always used to pot the audio transformer.
The boards aren't expensive so worth checking with Quad or One Thing for a pair of ready made boards if you don't fancy replacing the individual components.


This is a shot of my restored 57 and you can see the yellow EHT card just behind the mains transformer, and no wax.


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This is good to know. Yhe clean up of the second one has revealed an older model with more gray matt paint sparayed around on the bass panel fronts and a treble panel that I would say is semi original - photos tomorrow, They sound much better but thats partly because they have been left on charge and a clean is an easy call. No holes of any sort on these panels but the wire is pushing jard on the dust cover and deforming it

Sound is absurdly good ---- is it true HFNRR said it was the best hifi producyt of all time? 'he would say that wouldnt he'!

They look very clean and shipshape Robert. I found one difference between the 1980 and 64 model - the piping which surround the IEC input slot and the voltage selecter are brown on the older one and grey green on the nwere model and there is slightly more dulling of the metal grill. I like them but these are very dull - can one buff them up with brushes on drills or such like?
 
The other one older/ greyer no replacment panels since 93 I think whereas the earlier onhas what I think is a replacment treble after 93. Not so dusty on the front but dustier around the back as you can see below

IMG_0630.jpg


Sing Dusty for me
IMG_0633.jpg


Nice date stamp here its on the 1964 speaker so shows Quad service matched this pair as the other one is from 1984 .... is that what I said earlier?
IMG_0636.jpg

likewise on the transformer can
IMG_0634.jpg

Wires pushing out against bass panel on these grey sprayed items .. apparently spraying was reportedly done to increase tautness

IMG_0631.jpg


ooops next project

IMG_0638.jpg
 
One giveaway sign that non standard treble panels have been fitted is the use of screws instead of rivets to hold the stators together.

When repaired, the rivets are usually drilled out.
The panels in those pics look completely original.
 
Yes Robert / Richard they all look and feel(!) Quadesque.
What am I gonna do first - assume the 16 year old EHT should be replaced and then hear what the panels can do or assume all are kaput (however wonderful they sound)

Or do you think 1993 service and a few years storage means EHT is viable?

Then do I seek NOS or replacement parts from One thing or Germany and I wonder if there are preferred buys in this line or wether a rebuild is simply the best
 
I would start with EHT rebuilds regardless - it costs peanuts to do except your time. However, I suspect your slight channel imbalance will be a result of the bass panel dust cover hole. My speaker with 4 or 5 holes similar to yours is down a little on bass output.

It's strange, as reading as much as I can on t'internet, the bass panels never arced (stator to conductive film distance much larger than on treble panels) - but clearly they do - at least on yours and mine!

I considered just doing new dust panels as an interim step, and cleaning up the stator as best I could once the original dust covers were off. But I figure in for a penny... They sound really good now, so I am not in a huge rush - except I know they can sound better :)

Richard
 
Thanks Dowser

re the bass panel hole - tis the older other speaker that souns wufflylier

Its the second set of pics above.

How would you clean the stators? Compressed air

I am in agreement re the eht's but suspect I wont do a perfect enough job on my soldering so am hoping to find exchange units and will place an advert in wanted to see if their any in house.

best wishes
 
Good news - then hopefully the EHT rebuilds will do the trick (unless it is a change of resistance in the conductive coating).

Stators should be relatively clean - but any arcing will damage them, the burn needs to be cleaned up and conductive paint re-applied to the area.

I'd be happy to rebuild some EHT units for you for cost of parts plus a tenner - but I am in Dublin, so you'd need to factor in postage too. I even have a spare set so can send you new ones and you return yours to me after you've swapped them out (I'd actually give you the rebuilt ones seen in my thread, as I want to keep my original date stamped EHT units.

Richard

Richard
 
At present Im in the middle of posting foks off for weeks camping but when alone I will pull the back covers off again and see whats what in terms of removing and replacing.

You rebuilt yours from farnell parts then?

Shall I paypal you some dosh then?

I havent even got time to browse over to your thread till later

thanks for the idea
 
Hi Ian - sorry for delay, I've emailed you. Yep - I used Farnell parts. Paypal will be fine, but Farnell Ireland is offline currently - I drop you another email once I have all the detail.

Richard
 
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