[Phil Allison[_3_]]

"Patrick Turner

"Phil Allison"


** Triple stacked ESL57s ????

That is SOME kind of speaker array !!!

Believe me Phil, triple stacked ESL57 is what the man has! I've seen
the pictures.

The speakers were all restored by expert John Hall. The owner also has
an additional pair of ESL57 which he uses with a pair of re-engineered
Quad-II amps.

if you divide the Z of a pair of ESL57 by 3 at all F, you have
speakers which have maybe 10 ohms max Z at bass, then 2.7 ohms at
about 1kHz, and about 0.6 ohms at 18kHz.


** That makes any speaker lead inductance really show up.

Cables need to be kept very short ( like 2 metres) or made up from multiple
woven conductors.

Tocord ( aka Mogami Cable ) is ideal.

A very tightly * twisted pair* of heavy gauge wires will do too.


Just why would this be?

** Alignment is critical and keeping al 6 operating perfectly is a pain.


I'm not sure how he's lined up the axis, because its possible to
arrange the ESL so they partly function as line array speakers, and
ideally the HF path length should remain constant, so the speakers
should be "concave", and made to suit where one sits.

** Correct.


But my client
tells me the sound is utterly awesome, not just able to go loud, but
to go real, and detailed.

** Absolutely correct.

Listening to a well set up, stacked Quad ESL57s ruins you for all other
speakers.


The system is a plain stereo system, speakers apart and out from room
corners, room maybe 200cu.metres.


** Sounds just about ideal - long as the room is quiet and heavily damped
too.

The room my friend set up was that sort volume, with carpet lined walls and
a suspended absorber covering about 40% of the ceiling. Near as dammit to
acoustically dead.

He had a pair of KEF B139s in a large ported box for a sub as well - sited
behind the listening position at about the same distance away as the Quads.

Awesome sound and all done prior to the arrival of CDs.


.... Phil