In article , Chris
Isbell
wrote:
On Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:53:39 +0100, Jim Lesurf wrote:

Maybe we should do some 'blogging' more about audio. So if anyone is
interested, I've spent the morning saying a fond farewell to my
c25-year-old ESL63s and installing a new pair of 2805s as their
replacements. My main initial impressions a

Jim,

I hope that you have better luck than me! I am currently on my fourth
set of 2805s. All of them have developed internal arcing - one of the
latest pair started doing this as soon as they were installed.

Well, the bad news is that when I switched them on this morning one speaker
didn't power up. :-

Fuse had blown. I tried another similar fuse and this also blew. The
speakers had worked fine all yesterday.

I went direct to source and have been discussing it with Quad this morning.
I'm told that this is probably the mains transformer and a new one is on
the way. I'll know more once I've had a go at trying that. They said that
if I have any problem or doubts they'll send someone out to fix it. But -
since they know I'm an engineer who knows which end of a soldering iron
*not* to hold - it is a job I can probably sort out myself more quickly if
I prefer. If so, that suits me as it also gives me an excuse to learn a bit
about the innards. Its a chance I'd have preferred not to have needed so
soon, though... I'll decide when the transformer and info on how to do the
replacement arrive.

How did the arcing show up and what were the symptoms, etc?

I've had an assortement of repetitive clickings and buzzings at times in
the past from 63s and 988s. But this always passed after a day or two and
my understanding is that it is fairly normal. It didn't cause a shutdown or
problem beyond the faint noises when not in use.

Regrettably, it looks very likely that I will be going back to my forty-
year old 57s. This is a great pity because in all other respects the
2805s sound wonderful.

For me the worry is that I no longer have the 63s. So am now reliant on the
2805s for the main system. The 63s were showing their age in various ways.
In particular a level of hum/buzz from the speakers that had slowly been
getting louder over the last year or two. I guess various caps needed
replacement. But (perhaps unwisely) decided that after 25 years it was time
to try the new version rather than have a refurb.

Oh well, the 988s still sound good, and I can use headphones or my ancient
cone-and-box speakers (Armstrong 602s) for a while.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html