Quad L22 or Castle Cornway to replace B&W N805

As a Quad owner (21L) I just want to point out something very quickly. Is it your speaker or is it other components in your signal chain that is contributing to the brightness which seems as it may be resulting in fatigue?

I've had to change cabling and components for my Quads because they are simply not forgiving of poor quality or etched sounding components. I will never - pair anything by Black Rhodium with Quad speakers - a fellow Quad owner asked for my advice regarding cables and I said pretty much anything but BR - he went out and bought Black Rhodium and then ended up getting rid of them within a month because he had the same problem I had we bouth had a laugh over that.

I had to change my source (lowly Pioneer DV353) because it was contributing to listener fatigue as well. If at all possible try to introduce some different components into your system to see if the problem is your B&Ws or something else in the chain. If its something else in the chain you will NOT be happy by shifting to either the Quads or the Castles (which I know only by reputation but are reputed to be similarily ruthless regarding upstream components.)

That being said, I briefly heard the 805 Signatures recently and was completely unimpressed and thought that my Quad 21Ls were atleast equal if not better in most respects than them,(Soundstage / detail / height of image / PRAT etc) as always your mileage may vary.

Nathan Klassen

You could pickup a used processor and stick with a proper two channel amp and be much happier I think. I have not been happy with most receiver's performance but perhaps that is a personal issue.

I think that the 21L with a Sub would be much better than the 22L as the 22L's crossover/integration with the midrange woofer seems to leave much to be desired. The 11/12/21L are all crossed over @ 2200hz and the 22L @ 3000hz. For Kevlar woofers the key is a low crossover, something the 22L does not do. My 21L goes more than low enough for movie enjoymount but a sub would be 'nice'

The DVD player is likely a decent one.

Stick to Copper cabling & interconnects for Quads. With Silver it becomes 'tizzy' and with silver plated copper it just doesn't sound quite right. Black Rhodium's nickel plated copper also doesn't fit the bill so maybe just avoid all non-copper stuff.

Feel free to e-mail me if you'd like

Just a quick note to Bcgator the 22L is the worst of the Quad line. If you look where its crossed over compared to the rest of the line it will have some problems the rest of the line simply does not have.

A fellow inmate on the Audio Asylum who owns the 22Ls and the 21Ls agrees with me that the 21ls are superior in every way 'except' bass response, although the 21s are quite good there as well.

If you can BC try the 12L or the 21L vs the 805. If you do please e-mail me with your thoughts,

Nathan Klassen

http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=speakers&n=191927 Here is a thread with an individual who was weighing the 21L vs the 22L, my comments are in the thread, but of special note is "duckman's" as he owns both the 21L and the 22L and has for some time.

No doubt about room setup on the 22 as that is the same thing I have encountered on the 21. I have not spent enough time with the 22 and can simply relay discussion and points made by others, and I have been careful to clarify them as such. I'd be curious to hear the 22Ls in my home system vs the 21s and I suspect the debate won't be resolved until I do that :) That being said, I'm very happy with my 21s.