Quad ESL 57 with subwoofer

@noromance  You might also consider a set of Swarm subs from Audiokinesis.com

They will insure that you get 20Hz response, with bass evenly distributed throughout the room, since the Swarm system eliminates standing waves that might otherwise be present if you only use one or two subs.

They can be fed a mono bass signal, as the ear cannot detect location information below about 80Hz, so of course you'll want to set the Swarms up so that they stay below 80Hz.


This setup integrates easily (you'll be using a separate sub amplifier, probably running off of a preamp output). The Swarms are small, 1 foot square by 2 feet high; Duke (Audiokinesis) recommends running them on their side and as close to the wall as you can get them, asymmetrically placed in the room with two in front of you and the other two might be to one side and somewhere in the rear. Harmonics of bass instruments like the string bass, bass drum and the like will allow the Quads to convince you that the instruments are in front of you. This system really works- what is different about the Swarm is that the speakers are designed to be up against the wall which makes them a lot easier to place. Most subs are meant to be away from the wall so they are not messed up by the room boundary effects.

noromance OP
@georgehifi Nice but they don’t have high-level inputs which won’t work for me.

Pity, the more I just looked into them the more they make me want a pair, they even use Hypex Class-D amps.
From some review literature the sound of them seem they more designed for stereo music listening. Hence maybe why no speaker "hi level" inputs as it’s more colored than "line level" from a preamp L&R, and that would suit the Quad 57 also.
From my experience todays large driver subs seem to "doof" more for movies and are hard to voice seamlessly into hiend stereo speakers.

Cheers George

My dealer has 2 Carver Sunfire Mk II's along with ESL 57's (fed by a Naim Statement and Naim 500DR.  Just stunning.  Lowest possible volume setting though on the subs and crossovers at neutral.