Anything more resolving than 65 year-old speakers?

The Quad Electrostats were one of my references back when I jumped in the deep end of hifi yet again back around 2008. I ended up with newer Ohm Walsh speakers that I still have and seemed to hit the mark overall.

More recently , I also added KEF Ls 50 metas and those take detail to the nth degree I’d say as a result of technological innovation baked into those and other newer KEFs. White papers on how they do it are readily available.

I currently use Quad 2912s, Janzens and Martin Logans. They are all better real world speakers than Quad 57s — better bass, better extended treble and better dynamic range — but with the right kind of music, I agree with the OP that the 57s’ midrange is still in a class by itself. 

Great as the AR3 was at the time, at the same time AR featured in its Grand Central demo room and alongside one of the subway tunnels leading from the station to the bus station, a system featuring the AR1W woofer, the Janzen 130 midrange electrostatic (130 dispersion), and the Ionic "charged air" horn tweeter.  These, with the AR's on end, woofer next to the floor, created pillars that essentially were transparent from 30hz up into the 20-30,000hz range.  If I recall correctly, they were driven by HK Citation components.   They created an absolutely three dimensional soundstage with the best sonic holography I have ever heard.

A note on Klipschorns, Altecs, etc. and other horn speakers.  At the time the Klipschorns came out, James B Lansing (JBL) had a front loaded horn speaker that was even a bit bigger that sounded even better, although it's bass didn't go quite as low.  It featured a tapered, curved 3' wide by 4' high horn driven by two15" woofers, and for the midrange-treble the first appearance of the famed JBL "Potato Masher" horn.  My dad had one in the living room driven by a Newcomb 25w power amp (with preamp umbelical). We never had the Klipsch home, but I did get to hear it in the same corner spot in the store as the JBL, and to my then 12yr old ears the Klipsch sounded peakier and not as refined.  A year later I "officially" became an audiophile as I built my own system....so unless you started your audiophile journey before 1953, I lay claim to the "oldest" audiophile here in the forum. 😏

Yeah great vintage class. Tonal characteristics of real wood and brass instruments are more realistic. You can make a drum skin out of plastic but it sounds like plastic.