What speaker to replace ESL 63?

Jtinn,the P 10 is indeed a surprising speaker: Fast, dynamic, coherent, with a hefty bottom end and beautiful highs. But I am surprised, that you prefer its midrange to the Quads. Because it was only there, that I thought the Quad clobbers the P 10 by quite a margin. I found the midrange coloured in a hard to describe grainy-gritty way, far from the pristine purity the Quads deliver. We tried several sets of electronics with always the same results. This is of course not conclusive, because that was just a comparison, not a real test and the fault could have been anywhere. Besides I am biased, having had Quads besides other ESLs in one configuration to another for more than 35 years! Overture Audio and Audiokinesis give excellent advice IMHO, but as is basically acknowleged amongst the cognoscienti, for chamber music and small Jazz combos, the Quads are very hard to beat. The only thing I've ever heard, that came close to them ( though did not equal ) in see through realism in the midrange and the incredible speed of their rise- and decay times, were the Acapella speakers with their SOTA plasma tweeters from Germany.

I am also in agreement with Audiokinesis, but would like to add two other possibilities. At a little over twenty K, the Rockport Sheraton/Merak combination does many things well, including setting a phenomenal soundstage. My other suggestion would be a used set of Rockport Szysygies (spelling uncertain). This speaker was about 14k new, uses the Esotar tweeter, will work with a variety of amps (a friend is temporarily using a set of Quad 405's) and probably on the used market can be had for under 10k. I think that Andy Payor may currently have a used pair that he took as a trade-in. The other advantage to buying a used set is that the woofer requires very extended break-in to sound right.

Thank you everybody for your advice.
The only problem for me is that I am on a limited budget ( from US 2K to 4K) and I have to forget top of the line Piegas Sound Labs and so on...
I think it will be worth considering a pair of used but in good conditions Quads ESL 63 or a pair of 988 but I am hesitating. I have encountered reliability problems to hygroscopic breakdown (humidity and fungi) due particularly to the fact that I am often abroad and the Quads remain disconnected.
The Gradient Revolution seems a possible replacement to the Quads. The bass panel Gradient SW 63 that I use for bass reinforcement is extremely articulate and dry and is very weel built and reliable.

agree w/ fcrowder. the rockports are way special speakers. i have heard the same syzygy's that fcrowder refers to (at rcrump's place) and they're last-buy speakers.

there's very few speakers that i would pay that compliment to. rockports are one of maybe 3 (along w/ soundlabs & avalon)
rhyno

Jdanielh, I have a suggestion which could help you with your ESLs, protecting them against humidity, when you are away abroad. I learnt this from a dealer friend and it works well:

Get yourself a roll of that stretchy-elastic see through plastic wrapping and wrap it around your speaker, inclusive of the bottom electronics part, in about three to four tightly stretched layers. I assure you, moisture will not get through. You could of course also consider leaving them on all the time, as I do, but a certain fire hazard can of course never be discounted and mould could perhaps form all the same. The wrappings should do the trick, I'm pretty sure.
Cheers and happy listening! Detlof