How to move ESL 63s

[mandryka]

Tomorrow they come to decorate the room with my Quad ESL 63s.

I bought these speakers second hand about 15 years ago, I do not believe they had ever been serviced when I bought them and they have never been serviced since. As far as I know they work perfectly.

Which is best - to wrap them up in place and get the decorators to work around them? Or to move them into another room? And if it’s best to move them - is there a way to hold them so as to minimise the risk of loosening the glue which holds the panels?

As far as wrapping them goes, any thoughts about this? Or just cover them with a sheet?

I know that they’ll need servicing at some time in the future, I’d just rather it wasn’t next week!

 

[david ellwood]

Id wrap them in clingfilm before trying to move them, and then obvs very carefully.

 

[Tony L]

I’d certainly move them right out of the room as decorators can accidentally knock stuff.

 

[ToTo Man]

63s are very easy to gently 'slide' or 'drag' from one room to another safely if they are perched on Stand & Deliver stands, as you can grab the stand instead of the speaker and therefore aren't at risk of potentially twisting the frames. I have no experience with and therefore cannot advise on other installations.

 

[Ian G]

I have been on occasion expected to carry out work whilst high value items are within the work area, normally because they can't be bothered to move them, antique furniture, clocks and china, an upright piano I didn't and I wouldn't agree to work next to your speakers. To avoid potential issues clear the room.

 

[Darren L]

Definitely clear the room @mandryka I wouldn't trust anyone (apart from myself) to work around something of value.
If you were doing your own decorating you could cover them up and carefully work around them, especially if just painting, very little dust should be created, I have recently painted a large bedroom, ceiling , walls and woodwork with a double bed still in the middle of the room, moved everything else out but just covered up the bed and carpet with dust sheets.

 

[Rockmeister]

plant pot trolleys (little round stand with castors) are good for flat floor moving. I'd go the cling film route myself, to gently secure everything in place, then lift them onto some form of trolley (maybe carpet under them) and wheel them well away.

 

[Robert]

If they are all original, be very, very careful when moving them.
You will inevitable put some twist into the frame and the stator glue needs little by way of encouragement to break free.

If you can carefully get them onto something with wheels that's probably best solution.

 

[mandryka]

I trust the decorator to work carefully round them, he's a friend of mine who I've known for years. They're on Gradient type Subwoofers, I don't know whether we could move them still attached to the subwoofers. It's a possibility!

But if not -- thanks for the clingfilm idea.

Just had an idea -- I could leave them in place and slip the boxes over the top.

 

[stanalexis]

Hi. The only way to avoid damaging your 63’s panels is by carrying them from their base (where the electronics are) or the lower wooden part. Never ever carry them through the side or anything, because you would distort the matrixes and damage the panels.

 

[camverton]

63s aren't too difficult to move as they are relatively light and you can get your arms round and lift by the lower wooden part just above the bit where the electronics are. I've had a couple of pairs and moved them quite a lot, including for one pair two house moves. Probably safest is to slide onto a decent sack barrow with plenty of padding against the back. Once you get to equipment of a certain size and weight a really good sack barrow can be one of the most useful accessories an audiophile can have. Now, the later 2812s, wider and heavier, are a real challenge to move. Getting them upstairs on your own requires a certain amount of ingenuity!

 

[mandryka]

Operation appears successful.

Wrapped in clingfilm and slid out of the way on Marchbank's 's old gradient clones, being very careful not to hold the sides. As @camverton says, they are relatively light and portable, even with the subs.

Thanks for your advice gentlemen.

(I wasn't aware before of the huge roles of decorators clingfilm you can get from screwfix -- very good for covering things up.)

 

[mandryka]

So one of the consequences of redecorating the room was that the furniture got moved around. And one of the consequences of that is that I’ve found the sweet, or a sweeter, spot. It’s quite a difference! Night and day may well be the correct expression. Anyone with ESLs is well advised to arrange the room around the speaker, rather than the speaker around the room.

 

[camverton]

So one of the consequences of redecorating the room was that the furniture got moved around. And one of the consequences of that is that I’ve found the sweet, or a sweeter, spot. It’s quite a difference! Night and day may well be the correct expression. Anyone with ESLs is well advised to arrange the room around the speaker, rather than the speaker around the room.

Absolutely right. As stats make use of the room in a beneficial way to achieve their excellent, realistic, sound quality, the positioning in the room is very important. Quads have always struck me as more forgiving than Martin Logans but nonetheless careful positioning can make a vast difference to the sound.

 

[ToTo Man]

So one of the consequences of redecorating the room was that the furniture got moved around. And one of the consequences of that is that I’ve found the sweet, or a sweeter, spot. It’s quite a difference! Night and day may well be the correct expression. Anyone with ESLs is well advised to arrange the room around the speaker, rather than the speaker around the room.

Can you share with us nerds what the old arrangement was and what the new arrangement is in terms of distances etc?

 

[mandryka]

Room is about 18x18, into a bay. The listening position is about 12' from one speaker, 8' from the other. The sweet spot is the chair that's fully in the image. Please don't tell me I need a rug or I need to get rid of the glass table!

 

[Marchbanks]

Operation appears successful.

Wrapped in clingfilm and slid out of the way on Marchbank's 's old gradient clones, being very careful not to hold the sides. As @camverton says, they are relatively light and portable, even with the subs.

I always thought not putting spikes on the bottom would be beneficial in the long run!

Anyone with ESLs is well advised to arrange the room around the speaker, rather than the speaker around the room.

Yep. And that is exactly why they and I had to part company, unfortunately.

 

[ToTo Man]

The listening position is about 12' from one speaker, 8' from the other.

Is this by choice or dictated by other room usages? With all of my loudspeakers, including ESL 63s, the sweetspot for imaging has always been obtained when both speakers are equidistant from the listening seat.

Lovely looking room BTW.

 

[mandryka]

Lovely looking room BTW.

Thanks

Is this by choice or dictated by other room usages? With all of my loudspeakers, including ESL 63s, the sweetspot for imaging has always been obtained when both speakers are equidistant from the listening seat.

I know that’s what the textbooks say, but it isn’t. My first thought was that it has something to do with the bay, or the way the speakers are angled in, but I can assure you that the quality of the image is much more seamless and 3D in that seat - I’ve tried equidistant, there’s another seat out of the image which is equidistant in fact. The other thing I would say is that the image is clearly, very clearly, behind the speakers - which is where it’s supposed to be I believe and which I rather like.

 

[Marchbanks]

The other thing I would say is that the image is clearly, very clearly, behind the speakers - which is where it’s supposed to be I believe and which I rather like.

Indeed. I was using ESL63s and was vaguely dissatisfied when I visited a (sadly lapsed) pfm member with 989s halfway up the room and away from the walls. The image was behind the far wall eight feet behind the speakers. The penny dropped. I tried moving mine into a similar position (where they could not live permanently under any circumstances) and heard a similar effect. I realised this was what ESLs needed but was also something I couldn’t give them. It seemed pointless living with speakers that I was forcing to work sub-optimally, so I sold them.