Mullard88's Main Listening Room

Hi andrew_stenhouse,

Thank you. I will pass on your comment on the room to the designer.

The Guarneri was a gift to my wife back in 1993. She used it as her speakers when she watches movies at home. Recently she returned it to me after she bought a Bose soundbar for her tv.

The stacked Quad 57s have been in storage the last 4 years. We tested them yesterday and unfortunately discovered problems with the upper panels. One channel was dead and the other had very weak spl. We removed the upper panels for repairs and just listened to the lower panels. The sound was lovely, alive, never edgy, and very engaging. It's always nice to be reminded that this is the performance that makes a product a legend and it is always worthwhile to keep such products around.

I have owned 3 sets of 57's in my lifespan as an audiophile, but never stacked. And if I had the space, I would own a set now. Truly remarkable engineering from the mind of Peter Walker. Unfortunately to own a pair of the original ESL's is to know a good technician, as my experience was (and is) they need maintenance on an ongoing basis - most people never hear a properly reconditioned pair, performing in top order with appropriate electronics. I looked at your system and didn't recognise the power amps. The rest of the gear made me realise you are indeed a very serious audiophile, so I imagine the amps are superb.

Gosh - I would have thought it was abit of a waste using Guarneri's to listen to movies with, so I am glad they have come back to you, and can be appreciated perhaps in their natural setting.

Enjoy in good health, and a very happy New Years to you.
 
Hi Andrew,

Cheers to good health and happy new year.

Fortunately, a good friend of mine, fondly referred to as Super Mario, is a fellow hobbyist, is also a great technician.

The amplifier in the picture is the original Spectral DMA100. However, the description of the sound that I gave was with the more recent Spectral DMA100S. This was because I could not locate my single ended to single ended interconnect cable. Things simply get misplaced in storage and given my age, my memory is often wanting. We found a balanced to balanced interconnect and decided to execute plan B. This was how the DMA100S replaced the DMA100. The Audio Research SP3 was replaced by the FM Acoustic 268C. By the way, may I ask which were your favorite amplifiers to use with the Quad 57 speakers? I intend to rotate a few other amplifiers on the Quad 57 speakers. Among my intended amplifiers are the Audio Research D76, the Lamm 1.2, and the Stax 100 watts monoblocks.

Best wishes,
sam
 
Dear Sam
Hooray for Super Mario! You are indeed a fortunate man to have such a friend. There was only one fellow I trusted in Australia with mine, and he lives in Melbourne. Everytime I needed something done, down to Pack n Send they went in their custom shipping crates and off to the repairer they were sent. Although to be fair, once loving restored, they were good for a number of years, before they needed the panels done again. The humidity in Sydney did not assist.

I preface everything by saying I expect you have clamp boards on them, or otherwise enjoy the sight of blue sparks arcing when you over drive them ha ha. I've fried a few treble panels in my time doing exactly that. All going swimmingly then - whoosh - up a panel goes. Sparks and flames. Clamp boards after a few times of that.

I have heard them with quite a few amplifiers, although none of the class of that which you own, or have experimented with. The most expensive amplifier was a Ref 110, which was typically ARC, a Mac 275 (ripe & lush come to mind with gob-loads of power) and oddly, a Kondo Neiro, the latter being particularly ill suited (but a gorgeous amplifier). None I owned, all belonged to other audiophiles. I should own a Ref 110 in a moment, had I the space. Very competent and fine amplifier, I feel.

I tended to favour push pull designs in the tube line with 57's, and have always been fond of a lovingly restored Leak 20 or Radford, particularly when coupled with a decent tube pre. I heard a Shindo pre (the humble Aurieges) and a Leak 20 once and thought it enchanting.

In recent times I had great success with, believe it or not, a cheap Croft integrated with a rather lovely MM phono stage, which paired magically well with a Len "The Cartridgeman" MI cartridge (the cartridge was twice the cost of the amplifier - it was one he made to order - around £2000 by memory - and was a cracker - loads of detail but with life). I rolled the tubes in the amplifier to whatever it was that Mr Croft or Mr Gregory recommended (I don't know what they were now but do recall that they were some ghastly expensive NOS Mil Spec Mullard's that were almost as expensive as the amplifier).

Mr Croft uses 57's himself, so all his amps are stable into them. It wasn't an expensive system (well apart from the deck - a GPA Monaco + Triplanar VII - much underrated deck & arm combo imo and is a snip secondhand, as I bought mine) but was one of the most musically satisfying I have assembled; particularly when coupled with the generous Decca SXL recordings I favoured. Past tense in that I have since departed from vinyl shores.

If I had kept that system, I would have gone up the Croft line. I liked Mr Croft. He was direct and a decent fellow. His products seemed to combine very well with the 57's, and I feel a Croft MM pre, particularly when coupled with a MI cart, had some magic. The weren't the last word in anything, but I became immersed in the music, which is all I ask.

I tended to listen near field to them - like a giant pair of headphones - usually about 1.5m away - with frames to bring them to ear height or titled if on their original legs, with me lying down on the floor with a pillow under the head (good for the back if not for bones). Many a performance was heard that way. It had teh advantage of not requiring large volume for detail and impact.

Personally I don't think you need to spend a fortune on the amplification for 57's, although I cannot speak to a stacked pair. I like very much some of the classic amplifiers - e.g. an ARC Classic 60, or an EAR 864 or even the newer V20, the latter I look forward to hearing at some stage, but whose design certainly appeals

On the other hand, I don't think you can afford to run a poor source through 57's. They are, as you know, very transparent. Certainly I am sensitive to timbre and timing with classical music, which is why, when I was into vinyl, I favoured direct drives over most belt drives I heard. It's the decay that is so hard to get right, or so it seemed to me. But really my audiophile adventures while extensive are at a much lower level of excellence than yours, and indeed most on this forum, but have been appropriate to my means, which by any measure are modest.

I should mention I owned a pair of 2905's for a while. They were very good, but they didn't have, in my view, the magic of a single pair of 57's. I owned them together, and so could compare. I know many would say I am simply being nostalgic and of course the 2905 (really a souped up 63) was in every way a better speaker, but I thought not. Not in the mids. Not where the music is.

Admittedly I bought a dud (demo) pair of 2905's, and my 57's were the best pair I owned by some margin, so perhaps the comparison was unfair (both were driven by a Luxman 550A II). The 2905's spent more time with me carting them to and from the service agent here (who had never worked on any before and lived 3 hours way from where I lived) than I did listening to them, so it wouldn't have mattered if they had been the second coming, I had learned to hate them after a few months of wasting my Saturdays in traffic hauling around a dirty great pair of 2905's, and paying for parts to be imported from England (from China to England to Australia) and then fitted. The tech was competent, and meant well, it was not his fault he was given a manual by Quad and said - "there you go". I recall he was horrified at the lack of skill in the soldering and general construction of the 2905's (they were made in China) when he took them apart. So was I. Vowed and declared after that never to buy another Quad ESL, and don't expect to change my view on that. 57's aside.

That is the problem of course - finding good tech's in the event something goes wrong with ESL's (as it inevitably does). Hooray for Super Mario!

An interesting speaker, and one I currently own, is the Fujitsu Eclipse TD 712 II, a single driver speaker that has many of the qualities I admire in 57's, but which is domestically alot more acceptable in a shared living space. They require current to get under control, and are beastly to drive but are very fast, and of course coherent. I like them.

I will watch with great interest your adventures. I know that the ARC Ref 110 & Mac 275 had ample power for stacked pairs. Loads of current, but a very different sound, of course. I preferred the ARC, it being more accurate, but depending on source (a generous source with ARC is always rewarded I feel). I don't think you can go wrong with any of your intended choices - but you may want more current than the Lamm's can deliver up. The treble dip is a bugger to drive. But then again, with 57's, my approach has always been to suck it and see, and I suggest there is no substitute for trial and error in your space.


Cheeri Pip,

Edit: @ Folsom - I think I spotted a Pi Tracer, which is a superb transport, to my ears anyway.
 
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Hi Folsom,

The 47 lab power supply is for the flatfish transport located on the left corner of the top shelf.
 
Dear Andrew,

Thank you for taking the time and effort for such an extensive reply. I will do more research on the Croft amps with the knowledge that Mr. Croft himself is a Quad 57 user.

The Lamm 1.2 came to mind as I had extensive and very positive experience using the out of production Lamm 1.1 to drive a pair of Crosby modified Quad 63. I really do not know how the Lamm 1.2 - stacked Quad 57s will sound like. I just feel it may be worth a try.

One of my very patient audio buddy here had a 2905. After extensive amplifier and tube rolling, he was finally able to coax excellent sonics out of it using Air Tight 211 tubed monoblocks.

Enjoy your audio adventure. I know I will enjoy mine. I look forward to listening to the stacked Quads when the upper panels are repaired. After that, I also intend to integrate the Element subwoofers and a pair of add on ribbon tweeters to the stacked Quads.

And may I ask what clamp boards are so I can ask Super Mario if the speakers are equipped with clamp boards or not.

Thank you once again.

Best Wishes,

Sam
 
Hi Pradeep,

Are you familiar with Manila? I am in San Juan City outside of Manila. Have you finalized the details of your trip to Manila?

Cheers,

Sam
 
Dear Andrew,

Thank you for taking the time and effort for such an extensive reply. I will do more research on the Croft amps with the knowledge that Mr. Croft himself is a Quad 57 user.

The Lamm 1.2 came to mind as I had extensive and very positive experience using the out of production Lamm 1.1 to drive a pair of Crosby modified Quad 63. I really do not know how the Lamm 1.2 - stacked Quad 57s will sound like. I just feel it may be worth a try.

One of my very patient audio buddy here had a 2905. After extensive amplifier and tube rolling, he was finally able to coax excellent sonics out of it using Air Tight 211 tubed monoblocks.

Enjoy your audio adventure. I know I will enjoy mine. I look forward to listening to the stacked Quads when the upper panels are repaired. After that, I also intend to integrate the Element subwoofers and a pair of add on ribbon tweeters to the stacked Quads.

And may I ask what clamp boards are so I can ask Super Mario if the speakers are equipped with clamp boards or not.

Thank you once again.

Best Wishes,

Sam

Pleasure. I was rambling, really. On holiday you see, so not as precise as I would otherwise be. It is my time to shut the brain off, and allow my thoughts to wander as they will.

A clamp board is a protection circuit to prevent input voltages exceeding 33 volt peak music power, the level beyond which damage could occur to the treble panel.

You may see a resource on them here: http://www.onethingaudio.webspace.virginmedia.com/OTA/QUA/9512-OTA-QUA-INS-57.htm

If you are interested in Croft, I recommend dropping Mr Croft an email, and asking him what he would drive a stacked pair with.

Gosh you are going the whole hog. I am sure the sound you get will be very, very rewarding.

My best regards
 
Andrew....As a long time 57 user myself (tho currently mothballed) I would heartily recommend either a Sansui AU-111 for that vintage itch, or an ARC Ref75 esp whilst sporting KT150's
 
Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the link.

I did not intend to have these many pieces when I acquired the stacked Quads four years ago. The staple part of all the speaker systems I have are the Element subwoofers. The stacked Quads were available at a very reasonable cost so I decided to acquire it. It was only two or three months ago that an audiophile friend gifted me with a pair of ribbon tweeters. So as luck would have it, I have this wonderful opportunity.

Enjoy your vacation.

Best Wishes,

Sam
 
I was able to listen to the double Quad of Sam this afternoon and this is my longest listening exposure to these famed speakers. It was one of the most relaxing sound I have ever heard. Brothers Fours, Radka Tonef, Carol Kidd, Chie Ayado, and lastly Katherine Jenkins. I'm a vocals centered guy and the music rendered by the double Quads fit me to a T. And, I was quite taken by the utter realism of the Brothers Four Beatles Songbook CD, the guy was eerily like in the room at where the speakers were. Congratulations for a well built and well thought out music room and system matching, Sam. And thanks for inviting me over.
 
Congrats Sam. You have an amazing system and one I would love to listen to as an ex Quaddie. Hopefully someday my travels will bring me to your beautiful country.
Best
Pradeep
 
Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the link.

I did not intend to have these many pieces when I acquired the stacked Quads four years ago. The staple part of all the speaker systems I have are the Element subwoofers. The stacked Quads were available at a very reasonable cost so I decided to acquire it. It was only two or three months ago that an audiophile friend gifted me with a pair of ribbon tweeters. So as luck would have it, I have this wonderful opportunity.

Enjoy your vacation.

Best Wishes,

Sam

Are you byamping with an active crossover? I remember listening to stacked Quads with the Decca ribbon tweeter - if you stacked them it was mandatory to add some treble extension.
 
Sam,...great system and room!!! The Quads are an amazing speaker and very good stacked; you must enjoy this very much. Also love the room (it's beautiful) and the attention to every detail no matter how small or large!!!
 
Although your OP is not new, this is the first time I've seen this thread. I just LOVE your system for several reasons. First, as we all know, there are some systems you never forget. I first heard double stacked quads at Jonas Miller's shop in LA in the late 70's and never forgot them. But to see them again with the the original Levinson stands is a rare sight indeed. And to see them driven with an SP-3 and a Spectral is a big WOW! The Spectral DMA100S is the ultimate expression of the DMA 90, which many think was one of the greatest sounding and unheralded amps of all time. But with an ARC pre driving it? Fabulous. And in such as tasteful room? Pure class, my friend. Congratulations.
 

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