Hugh Robjohns wrote:

Arpangel wrote:... that advert back fired on Quad in my experience, as a lot of young people I spoke to, and people I know now, have said that they deliberately avoided Quad because of the respectable bearded pipe smoking gent in the armchair, they didn’t want to be perceived as being that type of person, a bit of a PR blunder maybe.

Quad was expensive stuff... few young people could afford it anyway. Their market was (and largely still is) the more mature hi-fi nutter.

I can remember, I worked all summer long on the harbour mooring ships and saved every penny to buy that 33/303, I do believe the guy I bought it off had a beard, smoked a pipe, and had a very fetching armchair in his living room, and he was gracious and trusting enough to accept a cheque, chaps lived by different standards back in those days,

:D

Sounds like the kind of chap that would drive a Rover P90... :lol:

Arpangel wrote:No one is going to tell me that if you want a 2600 that bad you won’t be able to make space for that extra 40%.
Why? It’ll produce those sort of sniggers, again, it looses the vibe, the original is an imposing inspiring instrument before you’ve played a note, and come on, if space really is that much of an issue, you’ll be using software anyway.
No, it makes no sense to me.
Korg, please just make more, of the full size.

This 100%

Arpangel wrote:

Hugh Robjohns wrote:

Arpangel wrote:... that advert back fired on Quad in my experience, as a lot of young people I spoke to, and people I know now, have said that they deliberately avoided Quad because of the respectable bearded pipe smoking gent in the armchair,

I imagine the advert failed because its just ad-speak waffle.
key parameter "wireless" : a bit vague, which kind of streaming does it actually support ? bluetooth or wifi, how do you set the password , is there an app for my Trimphone ? Is it WPA2 secure? Young people can spot marketing-hype a mile off.
:lol:

N i g e l wrote:

Arpangel wrote:

Hugh Robjohns wrote:

Arpangel wrote:... that advert back fired on Quad in my experience, as a lot of young people I spoke to, and people I know now, have said that they deliberately avoided Quad because of the respectable bearded pipe smoking gent in the armchair,

I imagine the advert failed because its just ad-speak waffle.
key parameter "wireless" : a bit vague, which kind of streaming does it actually support ? bluetooth or wifi, how do you set the password , is there an app for my Trimphone ? Is it WPA2 secure? Young people can spot marketing-hype a mile off.
:lol:

Trim Phones :beamup:

Thankfully, we had no internet or digital b******s to worry about back then.

Couple of years ago the Oxfam shop in Ealing got donated a quad setup with the original electrostatic speakers. I'm guessing some poor old pipe smoking chap passed on and his long suffering widow took the opportunity to rid herself of "those wretched wires". Sore tempted I was but.... My other half would NOT have fallen in love with them. Someone did though as within a week they'd been sold.

Hugh Robjohns wrote:

Arpangel wrote:... that advert back fired on Quad in my experience, as a lot of young people I spoke to, and people I know now, have said that they deliberately avoided Quad because of the respectable bearded pipe smoking gent in the armchair, they didn’t want to be perceived as being that type of person, a bit of a PR blunder maybe.

Quad was expensive stuff... few young people could afford it anyway. Their market was (and largely still is) the more mature hi-fi nutter.

Did Quad ever produce anything, er, quad I wonder? :crazy:

baward wrote:

Hugh Robjohns wrote:

Arpangel wrote:... that advert back fired on Quad in my experience, as a lot of young people I spoke to, and people I know now, have said that they deliberately avoided Quad because of the respectable bearded pipe smoking gent in the armchair, they didn’t want to be perceived as being that type of person, a bit of a PR blunder maybe.

Quad was expensive stuff... few young people could afford it anyway. Their market was (and largely still is) the more mature hi-fi nutter.

Did Quad ever produce anything, er, quad I wonder? :crazy:

No they didn’t, far too "gimmicky" for Quad :)
Oxfam Quads, wow, I’d have had those.
Hugh, I sold Mikes Quad electrostatics for him, and had a chance to use them for awhile, they were incredibly sensitive to moisture, and used to make a hissing sound if the humidity was high. I sold them to a chap who eventually had to return them to us, as he was suffering the same issue. They were fine in a perfectly dry room, and Mike never had problems at his place, but my living room was quite damp.
We sold them in the end, and the guy was very happy, no problems.
I was sorry to see them go, amazing sound, incredible mid-range detail, lovely top end.

I suspect the non-working in damp conditions problem indicates some maintenance is required, and probably new or re-tensioned diaphragms.

But yes, midrange detail is quite spectacularly good.

Sadly, with a fig-8 radiation pattern they are acoustically very difficult to accommodate properly in typical UK domestic living rooms. They really need a generously large room to work properly... but that then reveals their very limited bass-handling capability. And their size and appearance rarely gain approval from most household's 'domestic goddesses' -- especially the first generation model! :lol:

I remember third-party bipolar bass units were available and intended to sit under the ESLs. These used conventional large moving-coil drivers to handle the low end more effectively, but I don't think it was a hugely successful or popular pairing.