Some years ago, Hi Fi News and Record Review nominated the legendary Quad ESL 57 as the greatest hifi product of all time. Many others have expressed similar opinions. Gary Krakow wrote on NBC News that the 57s made for the best possible stereo system.
www.nbcnews.com
Although I had listened to later Quad models, beginning with the original 63 that I encountered in a store in Mount Kisco, NY, around 1991, I got my pair of 57s only around 2010 or so from a senior audio rep who was a major distributor for many well known brands. I drove to his house in Scarsdale, NY, near NY city, to pick them up. He treated them with such reverence that I was surprised. He was reluctant to part with them, in retrospect for the paltry sum of $1200. They were in almost mint condition for a speaker that was then almost 40 years old. He whispered to me, eyes practically moist: “these are the greatest”. I was speechless.
Having owned them for almost 15 years now, I get his devotion to this piece of audiophile nostalgia. The 57s are incomparable speakers. They do plenty things wrong, but what they do right is so mesmerizing, you are blind to all their limitations. As I type this, I’m listening to some lovely Boccherini flute quintets. The 57s are driven by a First Watt J2, a 15 watt pure class A amplifier, with a Chord Blu Mk2 M-Scaler and a Chord Dave DAC. The instruments are projected far above the plane of the floor mounted loudspeakers, full of rich tonality. You could listen to them for hours without noticing the passage of time.
I have owned many loudspeakers in the past 35+ years, and still own half a dozen other loudspeakers, from a massive pair of Klipsch La Scala horns to Harbeth Monitor 40.1s to two other later Quad models. Each of them does things the 57s can’t, but none of them inspires the kind of passion in me the 57s do.
What makes the 57s unique is their unfussy nature. 10 or so watts is plenty to drive them. They work well with tubes, but sing well with solid state amps like the First Watt J2s. Tubes accentuate their strengths and in some ways highlight their limitations. The 57s shine almost anywhere you throw them into. In the past 15 years, I moved to the west coast from the east coast and they’ve been placed in rooms, small and large. I have listened to them up close 2-3 feet away as well as in the far field. They work well up close and at a distance.
So, what would you nominate as your greatest hifi product of all time? It must be a device that inspires a fanatical devotion, one that you would never sell no matter how much money someone offered you for it, one that has transcended time and fashion and even if it’s decades old, still serves as a benchmark of excellence.
A pic attached of my 57s, in front of the much larger La Scalas. I bring out my 57s every so often to remind myself of how well they sound and how almost 70 years after they were first introduced, they still define excellence.
The world's best-sounding stereo system?
Although I had listened to later Quad models, beginning with the original 63 that I encountered in a store in Mount Kisco, NY, around 1991, I got my pair of 57s only around 2010 or so from a senior audio rep who was a major distributor for many well known brands. I drove to his house in Scarsdale, NY, near NY city, to pick them up. He treated them with such reverence that I was surprised. He was reluctant to part with them, in retrospect for the paltry sum of $1200. They were in almost mint condition for a speaker that was then almost 40 years old. He whispered to me, eyes practically moist: “these are the greatest”. I was speechless.
Having owned them for almost 15 years now, I get his devotion to this piece of audiophile nostalgia. The 57s are incomparable speakers. They do plenty things wrong, but what they do right is so mesmerizing, you are blind to all their limitations. As I type this, I’m listening to some lovely Boccherini flute quintets. The 57s are driven by a First Watt J2, a 15 watt pure class A amplifier, with a Chord Blu Mk2 M-Scaler and a Chord Dave DAC. The instruments are projected far above the plane of the floor mounted loudspeakers, full of rich tonality. You could listen to them for hours without noticing the passage of time.
I have owned many loudspeakers in the past 35+ years, and still own half a dozen other loudspeakers, from a massive pair of Klipsch La Scala horns to Harbeth Monitor 40.1s to two other later Quad models. Each of them does things the 57s can’t, but none of them inspires the kind of passion in me the 57s do.
What makes the 57s unique is their unfussy nature. 10 or so watts is plenty to drive them. They work well with tubes, but sing well with solid state amps like the First Watt J2s. Tubes accentuate their strengths and in some ways highlight their limitations. The 57s shine almost anywhere you throw them into. In the past 15 years, I moved to the west coast from the east coast and they’ve been placed in rooms, small and large. I have listened to them up close 2-3 feet away as well as in the far field. They work well up close and at a distance.
So, what would you nominate as your greatest hifi product of all time? It must be a device that inspires a fanatical devotion, one that you would never sell no matter how much money someone offered you for it, one that has transcended time and fashion and even if it’s decades old, still serves as a benchmark of excellence.
A pic attached of my 57s, in front of the much larger La Scalas. I bring out my 57s every so often to remind myself of how well they sound and how almost 70 years after they were first introduced, they still define excellence.
