[Review] Quad ESL-989

Quad ESL-989

Domfjbrown and my good self went along to Exeter's appointed Quad dealer "Howards" on Saturday for a listen to the Quad ESL-989 electrostatic speakers. From a casual glance through the shop window, one would assume that Howards only sell B&O and Bose kit , along with a fair sprinkling Lowe televisions , so it really surprised me to find them listed as a Quad dealer which I only discovered recently by browsing through Quad's website. Ironically enough, I note that with Howard's seeminlgy "lifestyle" products aimed at the well heeled image, immediately next door to them is Richer Sounds!

Anyway, we walked in to be greeted with less than ideal conditions, but despite that, we did get some very good results, and I'd estimate that I'm about 70% taken by the 989's - I'll explain what I mean about that in a moment.

The less than ideal conditions were firstly in the form of the listening room, or rather the lack of a dedicated listening roomm at the time, due to building and refurbishment work taking place in the back of the building where the listening rooms nomrally are, so the dem took place in the main showroom area along side the TV sets and other racks of equipment. One or two customers breezed in off the street, but we carried on largely uninterrupted and got a good hour and a half's listening in.

The second thing which created less than ideal conditions for the dem was the Sudgen amp that was being used to drive the ESLs, the A21a, a £1000 25 watts per channel class A solid state amp. The A21a was having great difficulties in delivering the substantial volume levels I was use to having at home and was bottoming out on dynamic peaks by either cutting out completely and coming back in a few seconds later or just distorting on peaks. We were forced to lower the volume control in certain cases to maintain continuity during particular selections of music. At least I hope the reason for the sound cutting out and/or distorting on dynamic peaks was the amp's fault, and not a result of the speaker's protection circuits being operating to protect the speaker from overload. The guy conducting the dem assured me it was the lack of horse power from the amp - said guy running the dem also uses 989's at home and uses Sudgen's Masterclass components to drive the shooting match. Unforunately, the shop didn't have any Masterclass gear in stock at the time. Quad amps were available but going on what Anopax suggested, I decided to run with the Sugdens. The CD player was Sugden's CD21 (£1700).

It was been written many times about panels and stats, but the one word that I'd use to sum the sound and the one thing which sticks in my mind about the day's listening was how wonderfully "coherent" the ESLs are. Coherent is a word I like and prefer to use as a bit of a round earther, as for me that describes *all* the timing aspects, both hi-fi (image stability/discernability) and music (PRaT). I believe that if you have good coherency, that you should simultaneously get both good imaging and PRaT. The system as a whole certainly did seem to time very well and all strands of the music appeared to arrive perfectly in time together with little apparent interference/interaction from the room - or at least less than with conventional cone speakers due to the much much wider dispersion characterstics of panels?

The midbass through mids and up to the mid treble region was IMO wonderful. The partnership with the Sudgen gear produced a very transparent, well projected and articulate sound. Detail was there, but it was nice to hear that the set-up wasn't ruthlessly revealing and for instance made a late 80s Electric Light Orchestra album I'd bought along very enjoyable, this album is obviously over bright and forward in balance but it seemed we were getting just the right amount of transparency and hence musical enjoyment without fatigue. On quite a few recordings I felt however, that the extreme top end was just a smidgen rolled off and too "nice" sounding, meaning that for instance that cymbal crashes lost their bite. From reading around a few reviews of the A21a amp, this maybe a trait that is more an attribute of the amp, rather than the speakers which have been noted to potentially take your head of with treble zing if not carefully matched. The listening expreience was certainly very low fatigue and the lack excessive of sizzle and grate from vocal sibilance was welcome, like for instance from Tori Amos who's "Silent All These Years" track was very aluring. Breathiness on wind instruments like panpipes and flute sounded noteably natural, its almost as if cone/dome tweeters on conventional speakers somehow screw this up and turn it into a sound which is excessively hissy or harsh - due maybe to this type of sounding being reproduced in the crossover frequency range common between woofer and tweeter?

I left the audition with 2 concerns i.e. that's what makes up my 30% of doubt to detract from the 70% certainty of a purchase score above. Firstly, and I'm sure this was almost certainly down to the Sudgen electronics driving the show, and that was that subjectively, certain favourite tracks sounded slower or more sedate in pace than what I'm used to at home. There was not an obvious element of restraint, just that things seemed a bit cool, not as bouncy as I'd as expected or lacked a bit of raunch and to hell and let go let hair down factor on certain tracks - what all Meridian kit that I've heard to date sounds like to my ears - safe?.

The second and ultimately deciding concern, and one which I'd only be abe to draw a firm conclusion on by arranging a home dem/loan of these speakers is the bass extension. Mid bass was very good, in fact stunning, for example the bass guitar on the opening track of Jah Wobble's "A Dub Transmission" album was by far the best rendition I've ever heard, not only was the sound of each bass string harmonically richly defined, extended and detailed, the tune playing and groove created was very infectious - I could see dub and reggae fans having a love affair with these speakers - well apart from those who'd prefer a boom-boom-shake-the-room style of presentation and to hell with actually being able to clearly hear the tune. In the room we heard them in, I'd guess that output below about 40Hz was dropping off very steeply indeed. The result being for example that the timpani drums on Copland's "Fanfare For The Common Man" lacked a certain lifelike and genuine weighty bounce, impact and body. Some of the organ pedal notes from Saint-Saens 3rd Symphony were either barely audible (compared to what I get at home) or quite anemic. A certain amount of the issues to do with the bass were I very much suspect down to the room (speakers were firing 10ft away from a totally glass fronted shop window with no solid rear walls at all), and the lack of quantitive grunt available from the driving amp during the dem. How much things would swing sufficiently back in favour given the conditons of my home listeing room with some solid walls beind the speakers and a 200 watts per channel solid state amp I can only guess at.

I don't want trouser flapping bass, just the audible range of frequencies to cover all musical sounds will suffice. The reference against which bass extension will now be judged will be my resident Verity Audio Parsifals WITHOUT additional help from external subwoofers. Yes that's right, the Verity's now just about produce sufficient "audible" bass extension to be used without a sub. So, any candidates for replacement of the Verity's will also need to extend as far as the Verity's and also without the aid of an additional.

 

Nice review and about what I expected.

I am suprised they used the A21a as amplifier as it wasn't designed to drive these panels, which are a very reactive load. I know a couiple of people who use Meridian 557 to great effect and would assume the larger Masterclass to do well.

You really must force a home demo as your room will have a great influence on the dipole nature of panels.

Good luck in your quest.

 

I really like Sugden, but there's no way the A21 can drive electrostatics. Some dealers are utterly dense, aren't they?

-- Ian

 

Yep, the a21 is "a wuss" with those speakers - it shut down and sounded like a knackered Amstrad portable amp during part of that Jah Wobble track - but until that point, the bass was pretty good though there was distortion in it due to the amp.

I wasn't anywhere near centre (due to the listening conditions) so the soundstage was irrelevant to me...

I WAS very impressed with the way the cold electronics handled "By the way" by RHCP though - very natural and the recording isn't that bad after all. Personally from what I *remember* of Henryt's system, I felt "Power up" by Spacecat paced better than on his kit - though he assures me it didn't. I found the speakers were very VERY nice - they grooved well and had enough bass for me - I'd love a pair if I had the room.

One surprise though - I was quite gobsmacked at how close my Rega Elas are in presentation compared to the 989s - very similar "non-obvious" bass and natural mids - for £50 I got the deal of the century with those boxes.

Oh - and I always thought Tori's vocals on "Silent all these years" sounded boxy - now, due to the 989s, I KNOW it's not a fault with my kit or hearing - they really ARE boxy

Now - pity my NAIT3 won't be man enough for the job with some 988s...

 

Hi Guys,

Glad you liked the 989s (up to a point!). I hope you can now understand the evangelising tone of my posts on the subject! I also hope that my descriptions of what to expect were reasonably balanced and accurate.

I'd just like to clear up a few points though...

I did suggest using the Sugden over Quad, but only if the Sugdens were of the masterclass variant. Sadly, 25wpc just ain't enough and yet you were able to see most of the speaker's qualities (apart from absolute spls and bass extension!). It might have been worthwhile putting the Quad amps in for a quick blast just to see how loud the 989s could go.

The 989s do come with spikes as well as the footers which were obviously fitted to the dem pair (makes them much easier to move around). So there's no need to worry about speaker rock - mine are firmly anchored and stable on their spikes.

For best bass, you do actually need to have the speakers a good distance from the front wall. Otherwise the reflected, inverted phase, back wave from the speaker cancels the front wave. Bass can be further reinforced by using the sides of the room. This is why conventional wisdom has it that the best place for ESLs is aginst the side walls and 1/3 of the way into the room from the front wall.

The Soundlabs at JJs look mighty tempting and you have (by all accounts) the house room to do them justice. You'd also be getting a much pricier speaker for 989 type money. JJ also stocks 989s (and can do them at a very good price ) so you should be able to do an AB dem (and with some decent amps!).

let us know how you get on.

reg

 

Actually - I think the Quads WERE on spikes - I could be wrong, but it certainly looked that way...

In the, ahem, dem room, there was about 6 feet behind them and about 20 feet the other way, and the bass certainly sounded good - that Jah Wobble (barring weedy amp!) sounded very good indeed...

 

In terms of amps for Quads you need to be able to reach 40v peaks. This represents 100W into 8 Ohms. The Sugden will have been really struggling.

(There's no need to go to more than 100W since the speakers will just clamp off the extra....)

I've managed to trigger the diaphragm resonance on my ESL63, this is somewhere about 30Hz, perhaps it's lower on the ESL989.

Paul

 

He he he - so no way I could run a pair off of a NAIT3 then

Phew - that saves me some dosh...

 

Interesting, I always thought that the ESL-98x speakers were supposed to be, or at least

designed to be a much less reactive load than the original 63s, and especially the 57s. Is

there still that much reactance for a non-Krell-esque amp to deal with?

I thought it might have been down to the 86db efficiency and asking a 25 watt solid state to

drive to romm filing levels in what was a resonably large open space. I'm sure 25 valve watts would have been plenty, no sweat. I do now really wonder what the ESLs would sound like with say a pair of Border Patrols driving them though, as nice as a result was we were getting with solid state.

I'll try and get them on home demo soon, but will more than likely try and hear them again at

another dealer, most likey JJ's as he should in theory be able to replicate nearly all of my

system down at his shop, and also at the same time compare them to others possibilites.

I did like the Sudgen kit though in its own right, it struck me as really good value for money.

The amp with more efficient speakers would make great second system material for me if I were

in the market for one, I do like class A's.

The speakers were not on spikes, I'm pretty sure of that as I was had a close inspection of the base to see what sort of feet they were sitting on, and also judging by the way they were being half slid and half lifed into position. Glad they provide spikes though.

Before Saturday, I'd only ever heard ESLs playing gentle non-taxing music at non-taxing levels, but was glad to find my initial worries about not being able to provide adequate playback levels and ability to cope with dynamic swings for my tastes were largely unfounded. I had good idea of what they would be good at, having heard other panels and stats before, but this was the first time I was able to hear the music I normally play at home through them.

Timing was spot on, really couldn't fault that aspect. I suspect mine and Dom's definitions of certain words are being misunderstand by each other (as is common on this forum ). When I said the pace wasn't quite right, I was saying that subjectively, the presentation I get at home on certain tracks seems to almost have a higher BPM than that of what we heard at the dem. The music's timing at the dem was spot on, all present and correct and made my foot tap gently on certain tracks but at home I'd get the feeling of actually wanting to get up and bop around the room due to that extra bit of bounce and enthusiasim. The presentation I have at home has more drive if you like, even if the timing isn't quite on the button, but as most know I'm not that ultra sensitive to timing issues and prefer enthusiasim to metronome precision. The main problems I get with timing at home are now more and more related to room problems and the underfloor space singing along to the bass out of time - a couple of cable changes and also as of Sunday no subs makes for about at least 3 different and significant changes since Dom last had a serious listen on a wide range of music. Again, I'll restate and speculate that it was the presentational style of the driving electronics rather than an inherent quality of the speakers which were affecting the "pace" for me, as the speakers do really sound nothing more than transparent to me.

Bass down to 40Hz is to me stll mid-bass, when I talk about just bass (real low end bass), I'm talking about frequencies below 40Hz. If Rega Elas can recreate the bass guitair on the Jah Wobble track we heard exactly like the QUads, then I'll have pair of those then please . Mids the same? Need to get out and hear more gigs featuring only un-amplified acoustic instruments me thinks, then again I think this is maybe where we diverge in our round vs flat threshold and sensitivity levels Dom!

 

As can be seen it swings a bit but is of high impedance. Unfortunately this will suck up quite a bit of power and at least one universal truth re valves is they work better with high impedance speakers than SS. The reason being that low impedance needs current so SS win out and high impedance needs voltage where valves win out.

Remember the original Quad II (13 watts) was designed to drive the original (and far more reactive) ESL57. It is also worth noting from people who use these speakers that bizarrely the 303 does a better job of driving them than the 405!!?

I find the Quad amp's to be on the unexciting side so wouldn't consider these really, but I do like the idea of the new BP p20 300bPP amps....yummy. If you ever set that up I would love to hear it.

 

The 40 volt peak comes from Quad, it's enforced by electronics in the speaker, a clamp circuit that prevents the voltage rising above 40.

From Ohm's law, V=IR and power P=VI, P=VxV/R, 40v peak turns into 28.28v rms, so P=800/R. An amp that claims 100W into 8 Ohms will be able to generate 40v peaks.

The Quads are a not totally evil '8 Ohm' so a good 100W amp should drive them to their limits, there's no great point in using a much more powerful amp (unless you happen to have one already of course).

FWIW a 25W amp can generate roughly 20v peaks. If the displacement of the diaphragm is proportional to voltage applied (and it better be...) then the Sugden could only move the diaphragm to half its possible displacement. Which is a shame...

IMLE Quad ESLs are very different, but very good. I'm having a lot of fun on odd weekends with my £450 investment...

Paul

 

Nope - that's EXACTLY what I thought you meant dude - though for some odd reason "Power up" sounded faster to me in the dem then it did the last time at yours - perhaps that's down to the subs in your rig?? Either way, your system too is no longer a slouch in that department, but if only the Sugden had more watts, that would have been a really really ACE system to own

You're right re spikes, thinking about it. D'oh!

 

Dom - I've also found the word "fast" to mean different things to different people, but I think I'm possibly alone when I say that what I mean by a "fast" sound is the subjective pace of the "WHOLE" piece of music including the top-end. Most people AFAIK when they talk about "fast" are ONLY refering to the subjective pace of music as set by the bass. I'd say the Quads as we heard them on Saturday are certainly a lot more together and less lumpy in the bass, but then they don't reach down as far, so there's less bandwidth to muck up and try and get right. Still find my home setup overall more fun to listen to for me, whereas the Quads (with the Sudgen kit) were a refereshing and different change but more serious and unruffled.

Thanks Lee and Paul for concise technical explanations. I have no immediate plans to change my GamuT D200 amp (200w/ch solid state), so new speakers will be working with that. I really do strongly suspect that the 989's will go loud enough for my requirements.

 

Just wondered if you had read Stereophile's review of the 989's. Seems they kept shutting down there too when asked to produce realistic levels.

Tip, Logans go 10db louder