Braun Electrostatic Speaker EL1

Handsome beast



It's a reworked Quad 57

http://itishifi.blogspot.com/2010/11/braun.html

Anyone know about it?

Rob?

 

I believe the input transformer isn't quite as good as that in the 57 because it had to be made smaller in order to fit the Braun.

Love the looks though.

 

Are there many about, Rob?

The style looks more modern than the current Quad ELS!

 

Not a huge number produced, they typically fetch more than the ESl due to the looks.

 

Designed for Braun by Dieter Rams in 1960 - and still looks incredibly contemporary. The matching hifi system hasn't aged as well, but there is a lovely wall-mounted version on the Vitsoe shelving system he also designed.

I've a feeling that there is a German-based company who still have the licence to manufacture these speakers?

 

http://www.quad-musik.de/html/braun_le1___le2.html#le2

6000-7000 Euro for a new pair.

 

Quads were always way underpriced, probably still are.

Ross Walker makes quite plain in various interviews that both ESLs were a labour of love - and probably never made a penny.

Thank goodness for love!

 

Is there anything intrinsically expensive about the technology?

If produced in big numbers would they be much, much cheaper?

 

Looking at how Quad produced the ESLs, production was always going to be costly. As Peter Walker said, making a hundred electrostatic panels is easy enough, but making them all perform within specification is time consuming and therefore costly.

Large scale production and automation would clearly reduce production costs, but they remain both large (if you want bass) and expensive loudspeakers and I doubt there is a large enough market. More so in light of Fn's comments on the 'what next' thread.

 

I had som esl's and loved them but they are not easy to place/room friendly enough to be mass market due to the amount of space they need compared to the amount of space people have

 

Which is why I did not buy the ESL63, but the closed box Quarts noted below. They cost the same. I would have loved the Quads, but I was in the Army, always moving, and needed something that would just work anywhere.