Looking for vintage Quad ESL's - or my wife thinks a "shrink" becase she says I'm crazy!


Been out of the hi-fi ’scene’ since the early 80’s. My last system was a pair of Quad ESL-57’s with a Quad 303 amp, Hafler DH101 pre-amp (kit I built) and a Linn LP-12 and Grace tonearm (can’t remember what cartridge I had). I bought all of it for a song back then. The speakers were $300 (nobody knew what they were or what they were worth), I got the LP12 for $500 (salesman accommodation). The power amp and pre-amp were $200 combined. Oh yeah, I worked at a hi-fi store in Chapel Hill NC which explains some of the deals I got. Sold *everything* to pay for a down payment on a trailer as I had just gotten married. Skip 35 years, raised three kids, put them all through college, worked as a software engineer until retiring. Now I want to get back into my original passion. I can’t afford to buy new stuff, the price has gone ballistic. So, I’m beginning again to put together a system to listen to my music on. I still have my Hafler pre-amp which I will use if it still works until I can get something better. I just bought two 125 watt monoblock tube amplifier kits from Bob Latino (www.tubes4hifi.com). I love building things and am very handy with a soldering iron! Also, I always loved the sound of tubes.

Speakers...That’s where I need help. I *really* loved the way my old Quad ESL-57’s sounded. When I was 15 (I’m now 66) my friends dad had stacked Quad ESL-57’s and I swear I’ve NEVER heard anything as good since then! That’s why I’m really wanting to go back to electrostatic speakers. I’ve auditioned some of the Martin Logan stuff at Best Buy. I’m astounded that they are distributed in that chain..I also was flabbergasted that McIntosh was sold there too. Regardless, the salespeople don’t know what to demonstrate let alone setup up quality hifi equipment. They sounded terrible. Even after listening to the ML speakers on several different occasions I concluded I don’t like the way they sound. I still think a proper pair of Quad’s is the way to go. The problem is finding a pair! I’ve discovered Electrostatic Solutions LTD and if I get a decent looking pair intend to have them rebuilt there. I’m guessing after I find a pair and get them refurbished I’ll be spending between $4K and $5K. Unless I find a great deal on a pair that is already up to snuff.

DAC - I never knew what a DAC was until recently but conclude that I need one since I will be listening to music streaming from my iPhone, my Mac Mini etc. I feel really ignorant on what kind of DAC I need. I’ve noticed that some of them can double as a pre-amp too and hook directly up my power amps. That might be good for a temporary solution until I can get a proper preamp. Still, DAC’s can range from $500 - $15K. I have no idea what features I need or whether the low end DAC’s are even worth it.

I really need some suggestions. If I had the money I’d go to an audiophile salon and buy my equipment proper. But I don’t so I have to get the best equipment I can with my limited resources. I’m not exactly poor, but I could never justify to my wife spending $20K on audio equipment. Dang, I looked into getting another Linn Sondek LP12. The price is sky high compared to my ’82 version although there are differences between the basic model I had in 1982 and what they’re producing now. Still...I may need to wait on a turntable until I get speakers and a DAC.

I feel overcome with choices! New gear, used gear, electrostatic speakers, conventional speakers... Maybe my wife is right. I need some Valium and a good shrink!!

Mark in Big Stone Gap VA

markcooperstein

Showing 3 responses by byang12

Mark,
God loves "juju", and we will pray for your happiness. One nation under god, no thread is beyond this sea of loving. No 
Kneeling  down and no smile, just pretend.
I have a pair of stacked quad 57s since 1996 and i love it for playing string music and female voice.the problem with quad is that it is not reliable, especially can not play too loud so that they start arcing.
I built a infinite middle range ribbon and old paper cone full range woofer based bi-polo speaker system and really like it, it is as fast as quad w/ better high frequency response and play much louder than quads.

Driving quad 57 is challenging for solid state amps, better use push pull transformer coupled tube amps. Stay away from using "otl" tube amplifiers to drive quads.

Terry9,
I do not think you really is a audiophiler  since you can not tell the difference between quad 57s being driven by transformer coupled tube and otl amps. 
I have owned 4 diff otl type amps to drive both sound lab and quad electrostatic speakers.
The only one has enough juice is 3c33c based monster mono  block otl amps.
Others cant deal with sound labs at all and have high distortion such that the best quad 57s decayed sweet
miiddle range got lost.
The problem with otl amps is they have very low damping factor and have heavily applying negative feedback to stablelize the amp, which is against the audiophilers‘  principle
 of no negative  feedback in power amp.
Actually if you have a ee  degree, you should know all otl amp is cathode output amps, which have embedded negative feedback,degrees sound.