Introduction
Braun
David
Beatty
ESS
Hartley/Decca/Quad
(Mark Levinson)
KLH
Quadristatic
SME
One Thing Audio
Quad
ESL 57, Modifications, Other
manufacturers using the Quad ESL 57
Shortly after the introduction several manufacturers used the Quad ESL 57 to build their own 'super' system.
Braun's famous LE 1, made under license to Quad, now remanufacturered by Quad musicwiedergabe, germany. Excellent audio transformer design, the slim aluminum frame producing a very tight, 'fast' sound.
Unfortunately the official history bulletin forgets about one of the greatest Brauns products, namely the Braun LE-1 electrostatic speaker , which came to birth in the year 1959. The LE-1 ("Lautsprecher Elektrostatisch") was a variant of the British QUAD ESL , which was the first commercial available electrostatic speaker in the world, designed in 1955 by Peter J. Walker and built from 1957 onwards by the Acoustical Manufacturing Company, Huntingdon, England.
It is very likely that Artur or Erwin Braun heard the QUAD ESL at an exhibition , maybe at the "International Audio Festival & Fair ", and got very impressed by the pure and undistorted sound of the Quad speaker. They wanted to manufacture it in licence and - quite unique in the long history of the Acoustical Manufacturing Company - they were allowed to do so. As the QUAD ESL did not match the special styling of the Braun products ("Bauhaus"), they asked Mr. Dieter Rams (born 1932) , an architect, to design a new case.
The LE-1 prototype Dieter Rams designed looked rather futuristic, like an item from outer space : Instead of the bronze grille of the Quad , Mr. Rams fitted a black industrial cover, and instead of the fragile wooden frame he used a rigid metal frame. Inside the three electrostatic panels were original Quad, but as the new frame was rather flat with only 85 mm depth , they could not use the Quad transformer and EHT power supply, and had to develop new flat types.
Unfortunately the magnetic core of the new transformer got a little too small which caused a slight loss at extreme low frequencies. The heavy felt damping behind the bass and treble panels as used in the '57 was rejected, only one felt layer behind the treble unit was fitted. Because of the different audio transformer and the lack of felt damping, the LE-1 sounded a little brighter as the Quad, but this was quite welcome to German ears.
As the manufacturing of the LE-1 was quite expensive, the retail price got higher than that of its nearest rival - the Quad ESL. Like the Quad, the Braun gave the early solid-state amplifiers of these days a lot of troubles, and the lack of deep bass was not welcomed by the friends of the then popular rock'n & roll music. As the Quad speaker the Braun was dedicated to the audiophile music lover , and not to the masses, therefore the sales figures kept quite low.
In the early 60ies the Braun Company cancelled the production of the LE-1, and in 1990 the complete production line of audio products came to an end.
In recent years the Braun electrostatic loudspeaker got some kind of cult object . As only 500 pairs had been made, second-hand offers were rare and when a Braun could be obtained, then only at astronomic prices.
John Hamm provided the following information:
I've owned a pair of the David Beatty version of stacked-Quads. These were stacked top to bottom rather than bottom to bottom of the Levinson HQD version. The horizontal wooden bar is designed to be at, approximately, ear level. Positioning of the Quad ESL is extremely difficult and time consuming and critical! I've driven this pair off a number of amplifiers. Heath, Sony TA-3200F (in series not parallel) and a GAS Son of Ampzilla.
ESS SuperQuads
John Hamm provided the following information:
I've owned a pair of the ESS SuperQuad loudspeakers. Utilizing the 12x9, KEF B1339 woofer, special version with 18hz Fs in seperate transmission line enclosures. The Quad ELS 57 Electrostatic loudspeaker for midrange. With five RTR Electrostatic tweeters for high end. Included was an ESS built three-way electronic crossover with crossover points of 120 and 3000 hz. Most units were also sold with the Quad 303 power amplifier, a perfect match to the Quad loudspeaker. and 3000 hz.
ESS Electronic Crossover. Supplied with the SuperQuad system. Crossover points of 120hz and 3000hz. Those were recommended points by supplier of woofer and tweeter. Later, after much experimentation, I settled on 75hz and 7500 hz. This removed both a mild muddiness in the upper bass and an edge, I felt, caused by running the RTR tweeters too low. Last but definitely not least. One pair of Dynaco Mark III tubed amplifiers. Extremely good for the RTR tweeters. The sound of tubes and they'll never clip. Please note that I was one of the first to champion the use of amplifiers AT the speakers instead of at the pre-amp! You wouldn't believe how much arguring there was back in 1974 over which was better.
More pictures of the ESS SuperQuads
Hartley/Decca/Quad (Mark Levinsin)
HDQ (provided by Luciani Pierre from Island Audio, January 2001)John Hamm provided the following information:
Levinson HQD system. Consisted of Dual Quad ESL's stacked bottom to bottom (forming an arc) with one Decca Ribbon Tweeter located in a space between the stacked units. Two separate, app x 3' x 3' x 6', sealed cabinets housing 24" or 30" Hartley woofers. Usually, back then, was purchased as a 'system' consisting of the speakers, Levinson electronics including Pre-amp, 2 electronic crossovers and 6 Class A amplifiers, approximately 15 wpc (I've forgotten the model number). Total cost was in the $30,000 range. An unforgettable sound though! I heard them at Christopher Hanson's in LA.
Werner Ogiers provided the following information:
KLH has manufactured a kind of Quad ESL in license, the KLH-9. After hearing this speaker a guy named Jim Winey decided to built a speaker of his own. This speaker later evolved in the Magnepan.
Michael Furmedge provided the following information:
My system called the Quadristatic works with a pair of quarter wave bass units that work up to 80 hz. It was reviewed in Hi-FI News, january 1992 by martin colloms.
Christian Steingruber provided the following information:
Not only Mark Levinson tried to create super-Quads with his HQD-system, but also Mr.Robertson-Aikman of SME, the famous British tone arm maker. His first Quad system consisted of three ESL 57 speakers per channel (stacked), but with the treble units doubled. Thus the whole system consisted of 12 treble units and 12 bass units (!).
Later on Mr.Robertson-Aikman changed over to ESL 63. As the delay line of the ESL 63 did not work properly with stacked pairs, he took a different approach with 2 speakers angled at 90 degrees. Hifi-Choice reported about both systems.
