Will my HiFi Annus Horriblus ever end??

Sounds like a right pain in the arse
Fingers crossed lady luck comes knocking at your house soon

Sorry to hear John, Like you and others I've had serious shII&&T hifi / system times and incidence over the years too - very long system down periods. It's why I appreciate the times when the system is fine and I can enjoy it and tunes. No fiddle, fettle, chasing the next new thing, sodd all that now. When we've had the pain, nothing beats when the system is fine, no issues, just enjoying the music - I sincerely hope you get back to that soon.

Thanks, everyone for your condolences.

No Oli, speaker and amp problem not related, as thinking back had the amp problem twice during August. Though only a single off and on to cure it and happening about 10 days apart so thought nothing of it as had also happened a couple of times over the last 2 years.

I sympathise. Over the years I've had more faulty equipment then the owner of a Fiat Croma Turbo.

Maybe I have the wrong impression from reading forums but the modern QUAD ESLs do seem prone to failure. Okay there's more to go wrong with an electrostatic, granted, but even so reports of failed panels seem quite common.

I've never really understood the love affair with Quads.

I've heard 57's loads of times, and what they do have, is an uncoloured sound. But I found that they haven't got any real HF or LF Extension or real weight or Gravitas to the sound.

I'm certainly not down on them or disliking them, but I don't get the almost "addicted" feeling towards them.

I reckon for the cost of a used pair (£500 last time I looked) they do a lot right, but I found it hard to move away from a floorstander.

Okay, I'll do my best to explain (and apologies for slight thread derailment here).

Under a very VERY specific set of circumstances (completely coincidentally) I was exposed via a pair of Quad 57's (ESL's), to an absolute and utterly complete performance of any track I played through them. The Quads weren't limited to acoustic music only (although they still performed most impressively with genre's containing stringed/wind instruments and of course vocals) which is a main criticism of them. 

Other criticisms include no bass under 50Hz, very picky placement in room and the need for a large space to let them function properly. All true, to more or a lesser degree.

Mine were setup towards the end of a long(ish) loft conversion with a sloped ceiling at both ends. The Quads were placed about 1.5m into the room but the tops of them (because of the sloping roof) around 30cm away from the sloping roof at their highest point.

This slope provided a 'cavern' behind the speakers and reflected some of the sound back into the room (but most of it back onto the carpeted floor). This resulted in an underpinning of the baseline (which could have previously been described as a bit gut-less) as well as giving an overall ethereal reverberation effect to the entire sound spectrum. Not to the extent that it made the sound coloured or messed with the imaging in any way, just enough to gently and naturally amplify the intrinsic accuracy of the quads.

I also had a sub placed round the corner and crossed around 50Hz, again taking advantage of the rooms natural acoustics. It provided real and genuine 'slam' to the Quads speed and had such a natural integration with the quads that no one even considered a sub was present, until I turned it off for a real 'ohhh . . . ' moment.

I was powering them with a 300B amplifier which seemed to be a perfect match for them in this setting, just completely effortless and relaxing in every way. 

Since then the speakers were inevitably sold (I thought I could do better by buying some newer refurbished ones) and the amplifier was lost in the post after it went away for upgrades. 

So I never really got to experience the setup for more than a couple of months before curiosity/fate/whatever conspired and I've been chasing this exact setup/sound ever since.

Without success, in fact nothing but abject failure in comparison, so I've gone another route in my approach to audio as my room is different, my circumstances are different. I truly believe that the sound achieved was only a result of the room acoustics and these particular bits of kit coming together in perfect harmony.

I genuinely find it hard to think about this setup because I know it cannot be recreated without having practically identical dimensions of the room and identical kit!

I have to concede nearly all Quad setups I've heard since are boring and cannot hold a candle to this setup, there's only one more pair that get close to be honest   . . . there's also a sloping ceiling involved there.

Anyway in conclusion I think this kind of unforgettable connection happens to a lot of us "Quad freaks" and we just can't let it go. Now they may not be performing optimally for whatever reason (room restrictions/spouse restrictions/placement/supporting gear etc).

It pains me to say it but I don't think I'll ever get that sound I had back, I've done my best to get over it and my hifi now is very enjoyable but in a completely different way.

A picture paints a thousand words . . . so here it is as it was, the most glorious setup my ears ever (and might ever) heard . . . . 





 

 

I'm a bit fan of sloping ceilings, my old house had a double dormer in the listening room, it was awesome. Ynwoan has a similar room to yours though not quite as tapering, sounds mega.

F#@k BUM BOLLOX!!!
THAT'S IT!!! I've had enough of these 989s, when they do work their sound is magical, but yesterday the RH one this time, started showing random sparks through the sock. They disappeared when we (had a couple of wammer friends over) changed from a quite percussive Latin track to more middle of the road fare. However after about 15 mins the speaker decided to impersonate a bowl of Rice Crispies, I turned them of after the boys went home and went in another room and listened to system 2.
Turned them back on this morning and still popping away but they did shut up after about 30 mins and stayed quiet for 2 hours before resuming though intermittently.
In the 26 months I've owned these I've thrown £1450, done 8 round trips to OTA (delivery then collection) so 2480 miles and wasted 43 hours of my life. So including the purchase price (£700) & fuel £310 this wonderful sounding pieces of shite have cost me £2,460,even so they are GOING!! I am NOT spending another penny on them.
Yeah it's only 1 panel which could be sorted for £125 + fuel or courier, but how much longer do I throw money at them for? With any luck I can get £300 for them with hifi Hangar and maybe a little more as a px.

🤔 I quite fancy a pair of Martin Logan SUMMIT or ElecroMotion ESL.

In the meantime I've got a pair of QA 3050s to provide sound at a somewhat reduced SQ level to what I'm used to.

Oh good god!

Flog em' John.

Not good and feel for you. Hope your next speaker choice holds up better than these!!

Oh yes!!
With my usual speed of acquisition, on Tuesday a used pair of all black ML Summits will be arriving at Lurch towers.
Went to Guildford Audio with my Nords yesterday with a friend and had a listen, bloody stunning speakers. Mind you they were being fed with some nice kit.
Techdas Airforce one > an optical cart with Grandmaster converter/stage > ARC Reference 3 > My Nords > Summits, speaker cables were transparents and circa £12k for 3m.
Mind you my kit ain't to shabby though the above was circa £180k more.

You don't mess around Lurch, those ML Summit's are bloody good, really don't see anyone disliking the sound of them. I seriously hope they work well in your room, you deserve a bit of luck.

they look good john,i will look forward to hearing them soon.

Class D has a bad rep that it doesn't deserve.

A bad amp is a bad amp, regardless of Its class.

Glad the speakers are working out and like Jamie, I'd love a listen.....when time and distance don't seem to be an issue 😉

Hope the last longer than the Quads.