Amp for Quad ESL 57

Hello

The best amp I've ever heard on my Quads is a Futterman OTL. I've had Manley El84's, EAR 509's, Audio Innovations 2A3's, Lectron EL34's (JH50), Audionote Single Ended and an Audionote copy of the Ongaku using 211 valves. Once you hear a good OTL, amps with output transfomers seem veiled. Also OTL's love the high impedence of Quad 57's. Watch out for Croft OTL's especially the 3R which is supposed to be amazing. I heard a Series 3 which was great but not quite as good as my Futterman. Surprisingly too I think my Croft Twinstar Mosfet/Valve hybrid out performs any non OTL valve amp. There's a chap in London called Adrian Parsons (Audioflair.co.uk) who has led me through the maze of amps out there to where I am now and he's been right every time.

have fun SgtWilko

I was actually about to sell my McIntosh MA-2275 for an integrate EAR V 20, when a friend of mine told me it would be a huge mistake. His suggestion was to change a couple of stock tubes for my Mac, and get Telefunken. I did that, and the sound have improved. It's not more detailed and neutral. I like my Mac a lot, although I'd like to try the V 20 at some point. Giovanni

I tried 3 different tube amps and a ss unit. The best I found to power my Quad ESL 57's was the Cary SLAM 100 monoblocks. They ar 90wpc triode. Very warm and powerful enough for complicated passages. I tried Conrad Johnson, Manley and liked the Cary's the best.

I used to drive Quad ESL with Mc2275. Overall pretty good combo. If you use a separate preamp, TVC or passive driving the amp section, the amp gets a lot better. I ultimately sold to for midline Naim combo. I also tried VAC phi 110 and I am going to try Jadis 88S. Never heard EAR but Coolhand has more experience than me.

Also look into quad 2 eighty.

I currently have a Berning EA-230 which pairs great with the Quad ESL 57. The VTL TT-25 is another very good match. Lots of EL-84 PP amps should work well with
Quads.