In article , Don Pearce
wrote:


The main thing when auditioning a new speaker is this - if on first
hearing, you say "wow, that sounds great" then walk on by. That is not a
neutral speaker.

I remember my first hearing of a Quad electrostatic. I had been
expecting great things and I was frankly disappointed, it didn't really
seem to be much of anything. No booming bass, no fizzing highs. But on
further listening I realised that all that stuff was there, just not
overstated. It was clean.

In general, I'd tend to agree. However I must admit that my first chance to
hear the Quad 63's caused me to be stunned by just how good they were in
the space of just the first few minutes! :-) To me at that time, their
quality was immediately apparent in terms of sheer clarity and
'naturalness'. I was no longer listening to loudspeakers, I was listening
to the music. :-)

Above said, though, I had already spent many years listeing to the 57's,
and various other speakers, and already loved the 57's. So I was already
probably 'primed' to hear/identify the relevant differences. In addition,
at the time I'd just been having to listen to Linn Isobaraks (which I do
not like at all) for an hour, so the 63 came like a breath of fresh air
after that! ;-

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html