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@savvypaul My REL t5/x certainly added something special when used with my 57's. I was advised to purchase a 'fast sub', the sub has to keep pace with the 57's.

antonio66 wrote: ↑Thu May 25, 2023 3:32 pm @savvypaul My REL t5/x certainly added something special when used with my 57's. I was advised to purchase a 'fast sub', the sub has to keep pace with the 57's.

Can any cone sub keep up with an electrostatic panel? It would have to defy the laws of physics, wouldn't it?

Not added to this in a while . Glad to see Paul has finally added stands to his Quads they just make things better . Now recently I got the change itch I think all of us get and decided I wanted a valve power amp to use with Quads . Managed to source a really well sorted and fully refurbished Leak Stereo 20 pout it in place and everything hummed like a bee in a honey jar . Much scratching of head concentrated swearing and plugging and in plugging. Finally reduced the hum to very low levels but not gone . Played some tracks and felt very non plussed every thing was there but was a bit flat and lifeless no sparkle . I had heard the Leak in a couple of other systems but not with Quads . So put the NVA S300 back and it just was so much better , more real and it had get up and go when the music for . As someone once said the NVA just gets out of the way and let's music play . Things are sounding fantastic now better than I have heard it . Have to decide what to do about the Leak now far too nice to just have say doing nothing so it has to go .

I have had my Quad 57s for the best part of 30 years now after buying a very good pair from a guy who was only allowed to take them out of their boxes and play them at Christmas his wife hated them so much. I have used them with a number of amps over the years leak 12.1 mono locks, leak stereo 20, ARC Classic 60, EAR 190s and finally about six years ago I acquired a Croft Series 3 OTL amp. Glenn Croft lived in Scarborough not far from York where I lived and helped sort the amp out initially as well as fixes when things went wrong over the years. This included converting the amp to toroidal transformers when the original transformer blew up. He will be sadly missed after he passed away last year. Becat on this forum says he could not get a decent volume from the series 3 but I do not have this problem- the sound is full and truly magnificent. I have had the speakers serviced at One Thing Audio twice during these 30 years and the speakers still sound fantastic - I could not live without them they mean so much to me. If anyone is interested and you are in York then give me a bell to come and hear the system. I have super good digital as well as vinyl sources for them. I have the speakers on the OTA Rupert stand with a line bricks under them to make them very firmly planted and raised just a bit. I also run a Rel i7 sub which really adds another dimension to the bass.

Which Croft OTL is that ? Mine was the original PL509 version and I know Glenn used the original Mono Blocks of this amp to power his own Quad ESL 57 which was one of the reasons I tried them in the first place . I hade the amp back to Glenn three times but sadly just could not get them to gel with each other . Always happy to hear the others are using them and happy . Mine are going nowhere but for me at least NVA S300 work exceptionally well and have yet to be surpassed .

Ben at

Mine is the original PL509 with about 35 watts of power. A friend has the Series 3R with different valves which thought was a bit better. We did a compare and contrast and we both thought my amp sounded a bit smoother but that could be to do with the fact that Glen had put massive smoothing caps on mine! Glen really sorted my amp out for me with the toroidal transformers plus a complete set of new output valves fitted not long before he died. In all it is the best sounding amp I have ever had and my system compares really well with a friends incredibly expensive Linn Kef system.