What speaker to replace ESL 63?


I have an old pair of ESL 63 that needed a second overhaul. The cost of Quad maintenance ( spares plus labor)is now awful and I am considering replacing the quads that are very acurate transducers.
What dynamic speaker sound close in tonal and rythmic rightness to those stats? Revel, ATC mini monitors???
I play only classical music (chamber music) and jazz.
jdanielh
if you want dynamic drivers, just get merlins and call it good. they're far faster than just about anything out there, and one well-built crossover helps give the same "single transducer" feeling.

you won't get a multi-driver speaker w/ the same quality crossover for under $10k.

or just get 988s.

rhyno
Martin Logan CLS. These will be about 15 years old and still considered to be the best Martin Logan ever made. As quick and delicate as the Quads but with more impact and an actual bottom end. They love VTL amps. Good luck.
Jdanielh -

The Quad 63's are a very tough act to follow - utterly boxless sound, electrostatic clarity, single-driver coherence, dipole radiation, and very nice voicing.

Personally, I'm a big fan of dipole systems. I love what dipoles do, especially when it comes to pitch definition in the bass. I sell electrostatic and dynamic dipoles - namely, Sound Labs and Gradients (interestingly, the Gradients were voiced using Quads as a reference). I'm also a fan of Maggies, and would sell them were there not already a Maggie dealer in town. But frankly the Maggie 3.6 would be more of a sideways move relative to the Quad 63's (I've owned both).

Okay, here are my suggestions in speakers below five grand retail to possibly replace the Quads. The order is alphabetical.

1. Cliffhanger Bulldog. A bit large for a mini-monitor, but very nice voicing - rich and lively, and very low box signature. This speaker is a 3-way in a size where everything else is a two-way, and it uses a very nice ribbon tweeter.

2. Gradient Revolution. Very low coloration from cabinet or room, due to dipole woofers and pressure-relief (cardiod) midwoof. Natural and non-fatiguing long term. Makes virtually all other box-looking speakers sound colored in the bass.

3. Maggie 3.6. More laid-back voicing than the Quads in the upper midrange (which I like), but doesn't quite have the low-level resolution of the Quads.

4. Martin Logan CLS IIZ. The most physically beautiful electrostat made, very nice with a good amp.

5. Sound Lab Dynastat. Hybrid with level controls for bass, brilliance, and bias - which gives great flexibility in voicing. Very smooth mids and highs with bass extension below 30 Hz, but it's not dipole bass.

Next we have five to ten grand retail, once again going alphabetical:

1. Gradient Revolution - Active version, with an extra set of bass modules. Takes the Revolution to a new level of resolution. Very convincing on full-scale orchestra.

2. Piega P-10. I haven't actually heard this speaker, but I have enough respect for Jtinn's ears that it would be on my list to audition.

3. Quad 988 or 989. The voicing is not the same as the 63's, so try before you buy. One of my customers owned both and preferred the 988, but preferred the Dynastat over either. Many say they better the 63 in some areas.

4. Sound Lab Millennium-3: Superb sound, though I wish it was taller. Voiced warm and forgiving, kind of like the Maggies, but with electrostatic articulation. Alas, very inefficient.

And finally between ten and fifteen grand:

1. Classic Audio Reproductions T-3, maxed-out version. High efficiency system that doesn't sound like a box speaker. Very nice voicing.

2. Maggie 20.1. Haven't heard it yet, but it's got a great pedigree.

3. Sound Lab Millennium-2. A bit richer timbre than the M-3, a little more efficient, a little deeper in the bass, and taller. The net result is a significant step up. I could live happily ever after with this speaker.

Like I said, the Quad 63's are a tough act to follow. You can spend many times more money and still not have more natural sound (in the latest Stereophile, Sam Tellig said the 988 sounded more musical than a 50 grand speaker he'd recently auditioned, and I could name an 80-grand speaker that's less natural-sounding than the 63's).

One last possible solution would be to buy another pair of 63's and just budget for repairs. Then you'd still have a pair to listen to if one pair was in the shop.

Best of luck to you.
Jtinn,the P 10 is indeed a surprising speaker: Fast, dynamic, coherent, with a hefty bottom end and beautiful highs. But I am surprised, that you prefer its midrange to the Quads. Because it was only there, that I thought the Quad clobbers the P 10 by quite a margin. I found the midrange coloured in a hard to describe grainy-gritty way, far from the pristine purity the Quads deliver. We tried several sets of electronics with always the same results. This is of course not conclusive, because that was just a comparison, not a real test and the fault could have been anywhere. Besides I am biased, having had Quads besides other ESLs in one configuration to another for more than 35 years! Overture Audio and Audiokinesis give excellent advice IMHO, but as is basically acknowleged amongst the cognoscienti, for chamber music and small Jazz combos, the Quads are very hard to beat. The only thing I've ever heard, that came close to them ( though did not equal ) in see through realism in the midrange and the incredible speed of their rise- and decay times, were the Acapella speakers with their SOTA plasma tweeters from Germany.
I am also in agreement with Audiokinesis, but would like to add two other possibilities. At a little over twenty K, the Rockport Sheraton/Merak combination does many things well, including setting a phenomenal soundstage. My other suggestion would be a used set of Rockport Szysygies (spelling uncertain). This speaker was about 14k new, uses the Esotar tweeter, will work with a variety of amps (a friend is temporarily using a set of Quad 405's) and probably on the used market can be had for under 10k. I think that Andy Payor may currently have a used pair that he took as a trade-in. The other advantage to buying a used set is that the woofer requires very extended break-in to sound right.