In article , Jim Lesurf jcgl@st-
and.demon.co.uk writes
In article , Derrick Fawsitt
wrote:


...
the Quad 989's, what do you think of them in relation to the vast
legions of "moving coil" speakers out there. Yes I know it eventually
boils down to personal choice but as someone who is about to fork out
£5000 (sterling) for a pair I would appreciate some vindication of my
choice before I sign the dotted line. I have a pair on demo and frankly
I am stunned by the sound of the speakers, am I imagining this or have I
got possibly the best speakers around, especially for classical music.


There are various technical reasons for the 989/988/63 speakers being
excellent, and for giving a quality of sound that is judged distinctly
'better' than most (if not all) conventional speakers.

My experience is that the Quad electrostatic speakers give quite superb
results, and are a superb choice for classical music. I think that many
others would agree with this. I've never personally heard any conventional
speakers that can give such 'natural' clarity given a good recording or
broadcast as the source. I 'discovered' Quad ESLs decades ago, and they
were a revelation to me, too. First the ESL57s, then the ESL63s, now the
988/989.

FWIW my experience is also that the choice of amplifier matters far less
than the choice of speaker. Hence although there may be specific reasons
for choosing one amp rather than another, these will tend to minor in
effect in many cases. I say this as someone who spent some years working as
an amplifier designer. :-) You might expect me to play up the importance of
the amplifier. However my view is that once the amp meets some reasonable
requirements, it tends to have little effect on the results compared with
the choice of speaker.

Having worked in the 'the business' I had a chance to listen to many
speakers and many amplifiers. This was some years ago, but for me the ESLs
always stood out as delivering 'natural' results in a way other speakers
never quite matched for classical or small scale 'acoustic' music.

For the above reason I suspect you'd be just as happy with something like
the 909 as with anything more expensive. Spend any extra money on more
recordings of music, and sit back and enjoy how the 989s allow you to
really appreciate the music contained therein. :-)


No! No Stop This!!!!.. you can't go around writhing such stuff as that
above, its far too sensible and not silly enough!..

Everyone knows that the Ross Kimber power cables are the MOST IMPORTANT
thing in the chain.

Now just stop being so bl**dy logical and sensible will you PLEASE
remember this is uk.rec.audio!!!!!!!!!

--
Tony Sayer

tony sayer wrote:

No! No Stop This!!!!.. you can't go around writhing such stuff as that
above, its far too sensible and not silly enough!..

Everyone knows that the Ross Kimber power cables are the MOST IMPORTANT
thing in the chain.

Does Russ Andrews sell a cable with a round Bulgin style connector for
my 57's?
Will it make a 'chalk and cheese' difference?
Did the OP remember to plug his 63's into the mains?

--
Eiron

I have no spirit to play with you; your dearth of judgment renders you
tedious - Ben Jonson.

In message , Stewart
Pinkerton writes
On Sun, 8 Jan 2006 09:32:40 +0000, Chris Morriss
wrote:


You're quite right, I've never seen the internals of a Quad II. I am
most surprised that it had components on a pcb though!

You shouldn't be. A printed circuit board ensures good consistency of
performance in production, and reduces parisitic inductance. Not a
matter of 'mass production', but of better engineering.


All the stuff I design for work is on nice 4-layer FR4 glass-fibre pcbs
(and nearly all the parts are SM), but they are a far cry from the
single-sided SRBP boards that I imagine are in the old Quads.

The problem with pcbs with so few components on them, when they are
connected to so many large wire-ended devices, such as the
chassis-mounted valve sockets and the transformers and electrolytic
smoothing caps is that they tend to increase the amount of wiring
required and certainly doesn't reduce the parasitics compared with a
'Radford-like' construction on high quality ceramic tag-strips.

Perhaps on the old Quad, the valve sockets are on the pcb. In which
case then the parasitics are reduced, but in my experience, valve bases
on an SRBP pcb are very bad news for long term reliability.
--
Chris Morriss

On Sat, 7 Jan 2006 08:12:22 +0000 (UTC), Stewart Pinkerton
wrote:

Anyone in possession of a functioning brain is well aware that the
II-40 is simply a cynical cashing in on the famous Quad II name, which
would never have been sanctioned by Peter Walker. He was a *real*
engineer, and always moved forward with his designs, never backward.

You might be interested in the following quotes from the Quad L Series
Owner's Manual.

"Most of the audio signal going to the speaker drives the bass units.
When one cable feeds both bass and treble units, this heavy bass
current can modulate the high frequencies. Using separate cables for
treble and bass units reduces intermodulation effects and improves
headroom and clarity."

"Loudspeakers are electro-mechanical and, like all mechanical systems,
the need a 'running in' period. For the first 50 hours or so exercise
care and play your system at reasonable volume levels. After running
in, you will notice a significant sonic improvement."

--
Chris Isbell
Southampton, UK

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 16:43:35 +0000, Chris Isbell
wrote:

On Sat, 7 Jan 2006 08:12:22 +0000 (UTC), Stewart Pinkerton
wrote:

Anyone in possession of a functioning brain is well aware that the
II-40 is simply a cynical cashing in on the famous Quad II name, which
would never have been sanctioned by Peter Walker. He was a *real*
engineer, and always moved forward with his designs, never backward.

You might be interested in the following quotes from the Quad L Series
Owner's Manual.

"Most of the audio signal going to the speaker drives the bass units.
When one cable feeds both bass and treble units, this heavy bass
current can modulate the high frequencies. Using separate cables for
treble and bass units reduces intermodulation effects and improves
headroom and clarity."

"Loudspeakers are electro-mechanical and, like all mechanical systems,
the need a 'running in' period. For the first 50 hours or so exercise
care and play your system at reasonable volume levels. After running
in, you will notice a significant sonic improvement."

As I have often stated, Ross Walker was a prime example of the
founder's idiot son ruining the company.................

The above crap is just further degradation into the lala land of
marketing-speak, now that it's no longer really Quad, but just another
badge-engineered product from the land of the Dragon.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering