For those audiophiles who'd like to own a Quad 988 but lack the budget,
or the room, or both, which of the non-ES speakers come closest to that
magical electrostatic sound? [Answers from friends have ranged from
well known current brands (Dynaudio) to discontinued models I didn't
know about (DCM Time Window).]

I understand Quad have their own box speakers now. You'd expect them to
produce the family sound, but do they? How do they do against Proacs,
Dynaudios, Spendors? (I don't have a Quad dealer near me to check them
out myself.)

Please nominate your candidates for a poor man's 988, poor in money but
more importantlly poor in square feet.

In article , Alex wrote:
For those audiophiles who'd like to own a Quad 988 but lack the budget,
or the room, or both, which of the non-ES speakers come closest to that
magical electrostatic sound? [Answers from friends have ranged from
well known current brands (Dynaudio) to discontinued models I didn't
know about (DCM Time Window).]

You might look at the low end Magnepans. They are pretty inexpensive, and
while they don't have the solid low end that you can get from the ESLs, they
do surprisingly well given the small surface area.

Used Quad ESLs are available out there at reasonable prices, though, and
Sheldon Stokes (www.quadesl.com) does a fine job of rebuilding broken ones.

I understand Quad have their own box speakers now. You'd expect them to
produce the family sound, but do they? How do they do against Proacs,
Dynaudios, Spendors? (I don't have a Quad dealer near me to check them
out myself.)

I have never heard them.

Please nominate your candidates for a poor man's 988, poor in money but
more importantlly poor in square feet.

Where the Quads really shine is in small rooms... I think the real problem
with them is that they aren't able to produce good low end in a large room.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"Alex" wrote in message ...
For those audiophiles who'd like to own a Quad 988 but lack the budget,
or the room, or both, which of the non-ES speakers come closest to that
magical electrostatic sound? [Answers from friends have ranged from
well known current brands (Dynaudio) to discontinued models I didn't
know about (DCM Time Window).]


I have a pair of Ruark Paladins and have seen them described as having 'a
sound not unlike electrostatics'. They are extremely nice and Weasel Breath
at The Emporium had a pair listed at £500 last time I scanned his ad. An
easy 89 dB and go down to 38 Hz (215 mm bass cones) - rendering a sub
*utterly* redundant....

(Beautiful 'furniture' if nothing else.... ;-)

"Alex" wrote in message ...
For those audiophiles who'd like to own a Quad 988 but lack the budget,
or the room, or both, which of the non-ES speakers come closest to that
magical electrostatic sound? [Answers from friends have ranged from
well known current brands (Dynaudio) to discontinued models I didn't
know about (DCM Time Window).]

I understand Quad have their own box speakers now. You'd expect them to
produce the family sound, but do they? How do they do against Proacs,
Dynaudios, Spendors? (I don't have a Quad dealer near me to check them
out myself.)

Please nominate your candidates for a poor man's 988, poor in money but
more importantlly poor in square feet.

**The old Duntech Crown Prince. Very ELS-like. With bass.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

"Alex" wrote in message ...
I understand Quad have their own box speakers now. You'd expect them to
produce the family sound, but do they? How do they do against Proacs,
Dynaudios, Spendors? (I don't have a Quad dealer near me to check them
out myself.)

I recently auditioned the Quad 22L, the top of Quad's box-speaker lineup.
They're a decent box speaker, but they don't even approach the sound of a
full-range electrostatic in terms of soundstaging and imaging. No box
speaker really does.

On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:30:45 +0000, Alex wrote:

For those audiophiles who'd like to own a Quad 988 but lack the budget, or
the room, or both, which of the non-ES speakers come closest to that
magical electrostatic sound? [Answers from friends have ranged from well
known current brands (Dynaudio) to discontinued models I didn't know about
(DCM Time Window).]


I have only ever heard the Quad "radiators" in demo, but I was
very impressed at the time. Many years later I built some tube-loaded
speakers from a Babani book - the Kapelmeisters (by Vivian Capel). They
used a cheap eliptical driver with a parasitic cone tweeter, arranged
vertically (for max midrange dispersion) and loaded with a folded, damped
tube on the rear. The sound was pretty close in some ways to what I
remembered of the Quads! They had pretty good imaging in the "sweet spot"
(probably because of the single point driver and narrow baffle). Bass was
weak, but I don't remember the Quads being impressive in that region when
I heard them. They did have that lovely "clarity" that I remembered
though. I would recommend a design using a single full-range
paper-coned driver if you can find one. The Quads use concentric
conductive rings on the fixed electrode IIRC (unlikely for me...), giving
an effect similar to one of those.

I found a couple of old paper-coned "full range" speakers (i.e. with
parasitic tweeter cones) on a car boot sale some years ago. I might just
measure them & stick them in ported boxes to see what they sound like!

Follow-ups set to this group only.

--
Mick
(no M$ software on here... :-) )
Web: http://www.nascom.info

On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 23:31:09 GMT, mick wrote:

On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:30:45 +0000, Alex wrote:

For those audiophiles who'd like to own a Quad 988 but lack the budget, or
the room, or both, which of the non-ES speakers come closest to that
magical electrostatic sound? [Answers from friends have ranged from well
known current brands (Dynaudio) to discontinued models I didn't know about
(DCM Time Window).]


I have only ever heard the Quad "radiators" in demo, but I was
very impressed at the time. Many years later I built some tube-loaded
speakers from a Babani book - the Kapelmeisters (by Vivian Capel). They
used a cheap eliptical driver with a parasitic cone tweeter, arranged
vertically (for max midrange dispersion) and loaded with a folded, damped
tube on the rear. The sound was pretty close in some ways to what I
remembered of the Quads! They had pretty good imaging in the "sweet spot"
(probably because of the single point driver and narrow baffle). Bass was
weak, but I don't remember the Quads being impressive in that region when
I heard them. They did have that lovely "clarity" that I remembered
though. I would recommend a design using a single full-range
paper-coned driver if you can find one. The Quads use concentric
conductive rings on the fixed electrode IIRC (unlikely for me...), giving
an effect similar to one of those.

The Quads do indeed use annular radiators to form a simulated point
source, unlike most planar speakers, but otherwise you'll find that
they sound entirely different from any paper-coned speaker,
particularly the obvious one - Lowther.

I found a couple of old paper-coned "full range" speakers (i.e. with
parasitic tweeter cones) on a car boot sale some years ago. I might just
measure them & stick them in ported boxes to see what they sound like!

You'll be horrified by how your memory plays tricks! Progress works.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

On Fri, 05 Nov 2004 06:48:39 +0000, Stewart Pinkerton wrote:


The Quads do indeed use annular radiators to form a simulated point
source, unlike most planar speakers, but otherwise you'll find that they
sound entirely different from any paper-coned speaker, particularly the
obvious one - Lowther.


I'd like to hear Lowther units. I'm not likely to buy any to find out what
they sound like though!

I found a couple of old paper-coned "full range" speakers (i.e. with
parasitic tweeter cones) on a car boot sale some years ago. I might just
measure them & stick them in ported boxes to see what they sound like!

You'll be horrified by how your memory plays tricks! Progress works.

Yep - I'm sure you're right. They are probably absolutely horrible... (my
old car boot sale drivers - not the Lowthers... :-) ). They were just an
impulse buy in aid of charity. I think I paid about £3 or £4 for the
pair! NOS in original boxes though. An interesting bit of history, and
quite in keeping with bottled amps! ;-)

--
Mick
(no M$ software on here... :-) )
Web: http://www.nascom.info

In article , says...


For those audiophiles who'd like to own a Quad 988 but lack the budget,
or the room, or both, which of the non-ES speakers come closest to that
magical electrostatic sound? [Answers from friends have ranged from
well known current brands (Dynaudio) to discontinued models I didn't
know about (DCM Time Window).]

I understand Quad have their own box speakers now. You'd expect them to
produce the family sound, but do they? How do they do against Proacs,
Dynaudios, Spendors? (I don't have a Quad dealer near me to check them
out myself.)

Please nominate your candidates for a poor man's 988, poor in money but
more importantlly poor in square feet.

Appogees are really nice. Too bad the company that bought them let them
die.
---------------
Alex

On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 20:33:05 -0500, Alex Rodriguez
wrote:

In article , says...


For those audiophiles who'd like to own a Quad 988 but lack the budget,
or the room, or both, which of the non-ES speakers come closest to that
magical electrostatic sound? [Answers from friends have ranged from
well known current brands (Dynaudio) to discontinued models I didn't
know about (DCM Time Window).]

I understand Quad have their own box speakers now. You'd expect them to
produce the family sound, but do they? How do they do against Proacs,
Dynaudios, Spendors? (I don't have a Quad dealer near me to check them
out myself.)

Please nominate your candidates for a poor man's 988, poor in money but
more importantlly poor in square feet.

Appogees are really nice. Too bad the company that bought them let them
die.

However, if he's looking for something *smaller* than Quads, then most
Apogees ain't it! In fact, of the real Apogees, i.e. the pure planars,
only the Stage is even close to the Quad in size. Agreed however that
you can't get the ELS sound from a box, howevr good the box. In terms
of overall quality and bang for the buck in a reasonably compact
enclosure, I'd be looking at something like the B&W 703, which is a
slim and elegant speaker at half the price of the 988. Equivalents
from Dynaudio, Spendor and JMLab will also be worth a listen.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering