Sealed subwoofer for ESL-63


I am looking for owners who have successfully integrated their QUAD ESL 63s with a subwoofer.

I recently bought a used pair of QUAD ESL63 and had them rebuilt, panels and electronics, this is my third pair. I have had several monkey boxes in between - Aerial 10T, B&W, KEF, IMF, Tannoys, Proac, Goldmund, Falcon Acoustics kits, etc - but the 63s are very hard to live without when you know what they can do.

My problem is that I am particularly fond of large-scale symphonic works such as Wagner’s The Ring , Beethoven, Mahler, Strauss, etc. but the 63s are very special and very frustrating used full range, they have limited bass and dynamics.

I am retired now and have a fixed income so I cannot keep doing what I did for fifty years, buy, experiment, trade and sell.

I would like to keep the cost of the sub to $1K max for a good condition, one owner unit.

Best regards,

f456gt

Showing 1 response by avanti1960

according to stereophile's measurements for your speakers drop like a rock at 80Hz which makes them excellent candidates for subwoofer integration.  
the key ingredients for perfect sub integration are as follows-
1) subwoofer with polarity invert switch
2) subwoofer with continuous phase angle adjustment 
3) subwoofer with high level (speaker line) inputs
4) subwoofer with flat usable frequency response.  
Some REL subs and JL Audio subs have these features / attributes which is why they blend seamlessly with a little work.
I have the JL Audio D110 integrated perfectly with Harbeth C7s and can recommend it for you application.
*inverted polarity switch helps to eliminate peaks in the response through summing.  
*continuous phase angle allows fine tuning to completely eliminate any peaks or cancellations by aligning the pulse with the main woofer at the crossover point.  
*high level inputs allow better blending because your sub sees the exact same signal your main speakers see.  run in parallel to your amps connections- it creates a benign high impedance load to the amplifier. 
*a flat useable response is what makes a sub sound musical- being able to play many bass notes and not be a one note wonder.  
The JL D110 is an excellent sub at it's price point.