I remember reading Peter Comeau's reviews in the HFN back in the 90s. He has made an impression of beeing a super knowledgable guy with great integrity.
I love my QUADs ESL 2805. Never heard such detailed and live-like sound. It is as if the instruments are here in the room with me. I cannot wait to hear what the ESL-X sound like.
I loved the stacked ESL57’s. I would consider these new ESL-X electrostatic speakers if only I got more than 10 years performance. Otto Major was the only person I trusted to service my panels back in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s in Sydney. He is no longer with us.
The biggest issue with quads is their reliability and perhaps lack of large dynamics. Saying the panels last 10 years is cause for concern. 45 year old Acoustats still are being played. Regardless, it’s great to see a new model from Quad.
I was thinking the same thing when he said "10 years...". My Acoustats are 43 years old and counting, and still sound fantastic! I had to replace one panel (out of 6) when I got them 20 + years ago (they hadn't been stored correctly), and haven't looked back.
I owned a pair of the first Quads. They had a great mid-range but I sold them because of their well-known shortcomings. I suspect that Quad has improved on the original 57.
I drove about two hours across town to the only place that carried them when they were a new product, which was a hardware store in Pasadena. They were setting out in a hardware isle , visible through the front window, on the linoleum floor , but the clerk refused to even demo them. I suspect because I didn't look like a Pasadena prosperous person. I was bummed, because these were suppose to be something special , and I was certainly open to buying great sounding speakers. . Turned out just fine, I needed polite speakers with a restricted performance envelope like I needed another hole in my head.
Don't forget Sound Labs, I knew the Australian distributor, who sadly passed away a decade ago. He used the 9' tall model one as "electrostatic subwoofers" as they extended down to 24 Hz. What was the extension of the tall Acoustat panels?
@@vladimirdorta6692 has he designed things other than the quads? I'm not familiar with him. Watching this video my impression was he was in charge of the business unit. I really like how he presents the product. It's clear he has passion and great knowledge.
@@supercompooper Yes, he designed the Mission 770, one of the best midsize speakers today, he gave new life to Castle speakers, famous when I was young, and I think he also had something to do with the new Leak Sandwich 150 and 250, yet another famous name in British audio.
Peter is the lead acoustic engineer for all IAG speaker designs. Not only Mission, Leak and Castle, and QUAD, but also Wharfedale, including Linton, Denton, Dovedale, EVO4, Elysian, Aura... the list goes on ;)
An enjoyable presentation of what looks to be a serious product. I remember Geoffrey Horn's classic review of the original ESL 63 in Gramophone and on the strength of that I wanted a pair. Electrostatics seem to invite tinkering. I think Alastair Robertson Aikman of SME added some colossal engineering to his ESL 63's in the Listening Room at Steyning. I'd love to hear those
Quads of whatever vintage were always some of my favourite speakers at any price. But I have one concern and that is the spotty and unstable distribution in Canada and North America not to mention obscene price increases that go way beyond inflation. Quad distributors have a sad history of disappearing overnight leaving owners in a bind when their prized possessions need service. And this is no rare occurrence given the history of their made in China break downs and factory defects. It becomes a real nightmare when there's no one around to service speakers you shelled out 20 grand for. Unless you feel like spending big bucks and risk further damage shipping them across the seas.
I am still using my ESL63s but I never play them at loud levels. They still sound great set 4 feet from the wall when driven by PS Audio M1200 amps and produce a detailed soundstage. I will be sad when they die because they are too old to repair.
I owned numerous ESL57s over many years in the 60s and 70s but when I switched to the ESL63 I have to admit I wasn't a fan. I found the sound hard and they tended to rattle when they were fed with anything deep at a high level. After that, I changed to Acoustats and my first second-hand pair of 4s also suffered from rattling so I decided to buy a brand new pair of Acoustat SPECTRA 6600s (serial numbers 003 and 004) which I've had for (I think) over 30 years and they have been - and are still - wonderful. Peter, can you give me an indication as to what these new QUAD ESL 12912X electrostatics are going to cost? Thanks, also for an excellent video.
all this guy needs is a white lab coat, although he does seem like a very functional product representative. . He speaks of a ten year brilliant, "for an electrostatic" , durability , but the actual warrantee is three years, one year if you don't register them within ninety days, on defective product only. although the presenter speaks of performance not degrading, it is not mentioned in the warrantee information found on line, and normal wear and tear is specifically excluded from coverage. . Their was a time where such a design offered State of the art performance, with a few easily overlooked intrinsic design limitations, but other designs have advanced , and as the song says, nothing's the same as it used to be. I don't doubt they still excel over cones in the areas they always have, but there were intrinsic design problems if you seek to entertain non audiophiles.
Don't u think since introductio incremental improvement is too slow. What transformer to change in ESL63 for improvement ..... 63 are black . No need for this intro without any innovative improvement and lots of companies r tweaking it.
I had a pair of quad 988 unfortunately they start to give trouble after 10 years repairers are non existant I know of only one person in melbourne who knows much about them . I also had the ESL 57 they sounded better.
