Quad 988

No, I genuinely wonder about your preferences. But let's talk about this some other time.

 

Let's not bother.

 

A demo pair of Quad 988s arived today. I'll be listening to it over Easter.

 

Enjoy! I'll be listening to mine over easter too.

 

Well, the 988 has been "installed", or rather put haphazardly in the living room while I set up my turntable which had been away for a while; it had been sounding somewhat off, so I had it seen to by the supplier who found that one tonearm bearing was knackered. Fortunately, the bearing is replaceable. Now it all works again as it should.

My first impressions of the Quad are very, very good. Its low level performance is indeed excellent and the tonal balance sounds like it was voiced for my room. The first thing I listened to last night was The Rebirth of Cool 6, and then some Mary Coughlan. Believe it or not, on the Rebirth compilation I thought the Quad had too much bass.

Today, with the Quads being charged over night, the bass is better controlled, although what really will help is a bit of work on room placement, I suspect. Even so, Miles Davis' KOB was superb.

The most surprising thing is that this iteration of the Quad grooves likes a bastard.

Things I'm less than ecstatic about so far are limited to the dispersion characteristic. If I set the speakers up so they sound good at the usual listening position, they'll sound shite on the sofa and vice versa. Only a much less directional speaker could solve that dilemma.

Oh - when my partner saw these, she complained they were too small.

 

That's odd... I found the 988s to be one of the least directional speakers I've heard, I found you could sit almost anywhere in front of them and the imaging and tonal qualities remained excellent - though they did change.
Compared to the speakers I had before (AudioPhysic Tempo III) which had a very tightly placed sweet spot (or Horplatz as they put it) the Quads were a massive benefit as finally I didn't have to give up my seat in order to let others hear how good things were.

 

Maybe I should have explained that the speakers will be located either side of the sofa, so that anybody who sits on the sofa will listen in the deepest null of the speakers. I agree the Quad is less directional than some conventional speakers.

 

I cant imagine any speakers will sound good in that position

 

Quick get the 989 before she changes her mind.

 

Last night I played a lot of piano music. Superb in every way. Spoken word, an extremely revealing test of loudspeakers, was excellent, too. I won't have much time to experiment with positioning today and tomorrow, so definite impressions must still be a few days off.

rsand, you're probably right although omnidirectional speakers might be a solution.

wolfgang, the 989s have been mentioned in conversations with my deealer. We'll see.

 

So Markus, what have you decided?

 

No decision yet. I think I want to try a couple of other speakers first, although ...

The PRaT is strong in this iteration of the Quad. Last night, inspired by the "what are you listening to right now" thread in the Pink Fish music room, I played some Mingus. Later I played Midnight Oil's Diesel and Dust.



The album starts with Beds are Burning, a classic party rock track. My gf broke into a bit of impromptu dancing. I had to join her, of course.

Later, I reflected on this little episode and thought that I had never heard that song with such a well-timed bass line. In fact, the song seemed a little faster that it should have been, so I checked my turntable's speed. It was spot on. What I had been hearing was a system with excellent propulsive abilities.

My gf wants to keep these, she loves them and says she will not be open-minded to whatever I may want to try next.

Hmmmm.

 

I think some of us might be extremely envious of you! Most of us have to hide the cost of our purchases (if not the hardware itself) from our partners for a while and "break them in" gently.

 

Oddly enough Markus, I have owned stats on a couple of occasions and they are the only speakers ever to get that kind of response from the girlfriends of the time.

I've often wondered about this, as they are the only components ever to have elicited a response from the fairer sex.

 

My g/f also comented on the lifelike sound of the esl988's, she actually looked up from her magazine with a start and said 'wow, I thought there was someone in the room'.
Mine are the antique finish which although bigger than my old floorstanders she finds less imposing and more asthetically pleasing. Although it has to be said the plastick bases are a bit poor for a £3.5k speaker

 

They were my 18 month daughter's favourite thing for hiding behind.

 

rsand, my demo speakers are antique finish, too, and fit surprisingly well with the décor.

My gf loved the Quads after hearing one of her audiobooks on them. She likes the fact that speech is so well reproduced at low levels. With her own speakers she always had to have people shout at her before she could follow the narrative, with the Quads she can listen at levels which are very much more comfortable for her, long term.

Maybe we should start a new thread - "Speakers my gf would have had me buy instead of the stupid thing I actually did buy"

 

Markus,

You are a lucky fella. I'm sure Auntie coukld easily be convinced of the benefits of the quads - don't think she'd be convinced by the size of them though. How big are they exactly? I'm guessing you really need a large room for such things.

Tony

 

And now they are my favourite thing for hiding behind when the inlaws come

I could imagine them being ok in a smal(ish) room, true they sound best in space but sound fabulous regardles of placement - its like not having speakers, you listen to music wherever you are (even behind!) you dont have an X chair that you resent anyone else being in, I could enjoy them in any chair.