what kind of audiophile are you ?

the quad is the leaast inaccurate in reproducing instrumental timbre. i have heard piano, harpsichord, oboe and other instruments sound more natural on the quad 57 than when reproduced by any other speaker.

the only way to demonstrate the superiority of the quads is to assemble a number of speakers, record an instrument and compare the sound of the recording reproduced by each speaker with the sound of the instrument.

by the way there is more to sound than timbre. rather than ascribe the epithet "sound fanatic", i would substitute "timbre fanatic".

my initial assertion regarding the quad 57 is a hypothesis.

here is a proposed test, constructive criticism sought:

aassemble several pairs of spekears, chosen by "experts", believed to be minimally inaccurate.

select a room which is well behaved.

configure a stereo system in the room.

record an instrument, say, a guitar, for 2 or 3 minutes.

while the musician plays the guitar, take measurements using a spectral analyzer at the listening position. print the graphs. then play the recording, taking measurements and print the graphs. repeat this procedure with each pair of speakers. the control is the graphs generated when musician plays, i.e., the independent variable. compare these graphs to the other graphs generated when recording is played through each pair of speakers.

can also compare , subjectively and hence opinion based, the instrument to the recording via listening panels judgments. this approach is not reliable.

i prefer comparing graphs, which although not "perfect" , provides an objective measure.

i realize the impracticality of finding a room and selecting components, but it's a first step.