Remember Fred?
Not Fred Yando, of Quad USA. But FRED as in Full-Range Electrostatic Dipole—the now venerable Quad ESL-63, available in its new US Monitor version.
This is my third pair of ESL-63s—a very early pair, followed by a later pair, and now the new ESL-63 US Monitor. I guess I am a creature of habit. I've been married to these speakers now for seven years. And married to Mrs. Audio Anarchist now for 25.
"You're getting another pair of Quads," shrieked one of the Thursday…
Description: Full-range electrostatic speaker system. Power capacity: 100W, 10V rms, 40V peak maximum signal input. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms (6.2 ohms minimum). Sensitivity: 86dB SPL for 2.83V rms at 1 meter.
Dimensions: 36" H by 26" W by 6" D (base 10" D).
Serial numbers of review samples: 13,955 & 13,956, 1984.
Price: $2850/pair, 1983-1985; $3990/pair, 1989. Approximate number of dealers: 50.
Manufacturer (2001): Quad Electroacoustics Ltd., IAG House, Sovereign Court, Ermine Business Park, Huntingdon, Cambs PE29 6XU, England. Tel: (44) (0)845-…
As I had dragged my motley collection of test equipment (footnote 1) over to Larry Archibald's listening room to carry out a set of measurements on the Mirage M1 loudspeaker he has reviewed elsewhere in this issue, I thought it might be a good idea to quickly take a look at the measured performances of the latest, "US Monitor" version of the $3995/pair Quad ESL-63, which had so impressed Larry Greenhill in February (Vol.12 No.2). Sam Tellig also writes about the Quad in this month's "Audio Anarchist" column, and the particular sample…
The Arcici stands came at the right time in my life—just as I decided to forget about the Martin-Logan CLS and Apogee Caliper to stay with ESL-63s. I had been offered a pair of the Chicago Speaker Stand Quad stands for audition, but wasn't impressed by what I saw (I didn't have much chance to hear them). Most important, the Chicago stands don't significantly add anything to make the speakers' frames more rigid, which is what ESL-63s really need. Moreover, filling the CSS stands with sand or lead shot—as recommended—makes…
Yet my experience and that of Stereophile's reviewers has been that, yes, they still sound different. What has happened is that the cost of owning a state-of-the-art CD-playback component has…
Speed bumps
In auditioning modern digital components, there are times when I begin to doubt whether there are any differences to be heard. This was not the case when I began auditioning the first sample of the Chord DAC64, using the Mark Levinson No.31.5 CD transport and with the Chord's RAM buffer switched out. Not only was the sound hard-edged…
The next comparison was with the Musical Fidelity A324 ($1200), which Sam Tellig reviewed in our April 2002 issue and I report on in a Follow-Up in this issue. Again, the differences were less subtle than…
Description: D/A processor with three digital inputs (XLR, AES/EBU; TosLink optical and BNC electrical, S/PDIF), RAM input buffer, and balanced and unbalanced analog outputs. Sample frequencies accepted: 32-192kHz. THD: <-98dB (1kHz, 24-bit data). S/N ratio: >110dB. Channel separation: >110dB at 1kHz, >100dB at 22.1kHz. Dynamic range: 120dB. Maximum output level: 6V RMS balanced, 3V RMS unbalanced. Output impedance: 75 ohms (short-circuit protected).
Dimensions: 13.3" (338mm) W by 2.4" (60mm) H by 5.7" (145mm) D. Weight: 15.4 lbs (7kg).
Serial…
Digital sources: Mark Levinson No.31.5 CD transport; Mark Levinson No.30.6, Musical Fidelity A324, Perpetual Technologies P-3A D/A processors; Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 3D, Wadia 861 CD players (the former also used as a transport); Apple Macintosh 8100/80, fitted with two Sonic Solutions SSP3 digital audio workstation NuBus cards; Dell 866MHz Pentium III computer fitted with Digital Audio Labs CardDeluxe and RME Digi96/8 Pro soundcards, running Windows Me, WinAmp 2.5, SoundForge 5.0, Acid 2.0, and CoolEdit 2000; dCS 972 D/D processor.
Preamplifiers:…