Lot’s of advice, I have owned multiple pairs of 57’s over the years. These aren’t starter speakers and do require some attention to detail to get the most out of them. These are not an easy load for a lot of amplifiers out there and I would recommend tubes for the amplification, based on your limited budget for separates I would highly recommend an integrated, I would look for something vintage thats been updated or would also recommend the Quad amp/preamp combo the Bourne mentioned as those do sound good with the Quads and you can find the amps that have been updated for not a lot of money. I have used integrated amps and gotten very nice sound from them with the Quads. Kent from Electrostatic Solutions in KC likes to use ARC amps with his and he is not wrong with using higher powered tube amps with the 57’s and I ran ARC Ref 110 with my highly modified pair I got from Kent/Robin Wyatt and the sound was some of the best I have had. I would recommend not to rush in your purchase and take advice from actual owners not forum surfers so you don’t wast the limited funds you have and buy the wrong piece(s) & not get the sound your looking for, also make sure you have the room for these as you need to get them out off your back wall for best results.
Recommend an amp + pre for ESL 57s and a new turntable (way out of my league)
Hi all, longtime lurker now starting my semi-serious venture into all of this. I was recently gifted a pair of Quad ESL 57s, a Well Tempered Labs Amadeus GTA turntable, and a Miyajima Labs Shilabe cartridge. I need a preamp and amplifier for the system on a budget of ~$1000 - $1500. I currently have an old Harman Kardon Stereo Festival (TA-230) receiver, which is just a cool piece of old, barely working, shits-n-gigs gear I used to drive some junky speakers with in college. It hasn't been plugged in in two years and even if its still works, I don't think it's a great match for my system. What would you recommend? I am most interested in listening to some old mono blues, jazz, and folk LPs I have, and I imagine most of the records I collect in the future will be similar (I know I have a stereo cart, which I've always understood to be fine for this?).
Some guiding questions:
- Seems like a favorite for the ESLs are a pair of heathkit UA-1s. Another that I'm seeing well recommended is the Dyna st35. Thoughts? Does it make sense to spend ~$700 - $1000 on a nice amp and get something more basic for the pre in the $400 range? (Rega fono??)
- Should I get a nicer preamp to match my cart and go with something more basic wrt amplification? Not sure what is good in the way of cheaper(?) amps to drive these speakers.
- In the event that I stretch my budget and wait a bit between buying one and the other (to save back up lol), would I get more out of a ~$1200 amp and the cheapest preamp that will work, or a ~$1200 pre and the cheapest amp that will work? What would the cheapest preamp and amp that "will work" be in the meantime? What would be in the $1200 range for each, respectively?
Thank you if you took the time to read this! I will be cleaning the dust off the Quads in the meantime.