Quad Listener Contemplating Horns

Hi Whart. Interesting thread. WOW.... from E-stats to Hi efficient horns? After reading a few posts here I thought it only fitting on my behalf to post here considering I do use a highly effecient hybrid horn speaker[Tannoy Westminsters] as well as a couple of other systems with e-stats. Considering you are already familiar with the voice of the 57's, and currently own a pr of 57's as well as the deccas..... if your room is not overly large, perhaps you should consider acquiring another pair and do the HQD system. Still an incredible experience in the right room even without a sub, and the bass panels of the 1D's really blend well with the quads and in my experience,much better than subs with cones. RE: your reservations regarding crossovers...You can experiment here on the cheap, run the stacked quads full range and just cross the bass panels with the cheap little paradigm x-30. Although the X-30 is pretty much usless for the quads,it's a very competent cross for the bass panels.Allowing you the flexibility to adjust for gain,crossover frequency and more importantly for phase.If your intent on crossing the bottom octave from the quad, the older dalquist x-over is passive on the top and active on the bottom, the earlier ARC crossovers were also passive on the top and both can be had for very little money today. The Bryston crossover is also a very good one although perhaps a little more money. I suppose I should qualify myself here... I have been an E-stat fan for most of my adult life, used the stacked 57's with 1D bass panels for years as well as various acoustats,Dayton Wrights,single x-8 MK3's, stacked xg-8's with ribbons] and Soundlab A-1's. I am still using a pr of 3 panel acoustats as well as the Dayton Wright's in another room. To be candid here: After working with various vintage altecs,Jbl's and Klipschorns in pro sound applications, I have to admit to never really being much of a fan of using horns in a typical home enviroment.

Hi Gang.Didn't mean to end my post as I accidently pushed the submit while attemting to preview my post. Anyway, about 6 years ago I acquired a 100 year old school house in the country with 4 large classrooms and a large gymnasium. The main classroom is a huge room [34ft x 27 ft with 16 1/2 ft ceilings] Thinking this would make a great room for setting up a system that would accomodate both music and movies, I decided I would renovate [a whole nother story] and move some equipment into the room. Started with my acoustat 2+2's,then the sound lab A-1's, both driven by an ARC sp-10 mk2 and Atma-sphere 2.2 Mk2's.While very good at average listening levels, Unfortunately neither speaker would pressurize the room. Well OK then... we'll try some boxes. Started with the proac reponse 3a...nope, on to response 4,close but no cigar. In came a pair of vandy 5's, better but still no cigar. Well maybe some subs with them, well that just made things even more difficult to get things right. A couple of musician friends suggested the big Klipschorns. Yanked a pair in from a old business associate.... now we where getting closer, but a touch shrill and a little shouty when approaching near live spl's not to mention the bottom octave that was MIA. Then hauled in a pair of altec a-7's...better still,great bass punch and dynamics but after living with e-stats in my home for most of my adult life and working with altecs at live gigs and nightclubs for many years,well it just wasn't the voice for me. Enter the big 300lb Tannoy Westminsters. Now these exhibit none of the colour of the others, as a matter of fact they remind me very much of the voice of the quad 57 whereby the midband is smooth and coherent with a speed thats akin to an Estat on steriods. Sound great at very low volumes too. Sound great with both quality tube amps as well as big solid state stuff. Certainly worth the trouble finding a pair to audition. Mind you,that said: I have never heard a pair in a small room and suspect they may be difficult to set up and adjust in smallish rooms. Although the westminsters are revered buy many Asian music lovers, most are made to order for the Asian market and their rooms are typically smaller than ours.