The New Quad Electrostatic loudspeakers
ESL2805 & 2905
“I know of no other speaker I’d rather own, regardless of price.”
Sam Tellig Stereophile, July 2006
The long awaited ESL-2805 and 2905 models are finally available in here in New Zealand. If you regard music as one of the greater pleasures in your life, then it’s time to eliminate compromise and half measures. The Quad ESLs are speakers for grown ups. To live with the Quads is to revolutionise your appreciation of music. The pleasure of rediscovering the real beauty and excitement of music without coloration is a love affair that will last a lifetime.
Now you may be harbouring some preconceptions of what Quads can and can’t do – we used to. But the new models are thoroughly modern. Nick Cave sounds like he is in the room – and may be harbouring evil thoughts. Any genre of music is tackled with equal acuity. Supposed limitations of power and bass are proven to be of no consequence. On the other hand there is still no finer speaker for the classical and jazz enthusiast – the purity of sound and abundant pinpointed detail that previous ESLs have delivered is now enhanced with greater dynamics and scale.
Let’s consider a few factors of a practical nature that may be holding you back. The Quads are a reasonable size, but being flat panels, they don’t actually register as speakers – and their positioning is more domestically friendly in that they can be widely spread, going within centimetres of side walls. This actually makes for an even more expansive sound stage. They do sound best when a metre or more from a rear wall, but in some rooms this can be a positive advantage as the area behind the speakers is also enjoying great sound. They plug into the mains yet only consume a miserly 6 watts – less than one tenth of the power of your average light bulb. The very nature of their design means that Quad Electrostatics have an uncanny ability to make even modestly powered amplifiers fill the room with music. Don’t assume that you’ll have to spend a fortune on partnering electronics – they really are a breeze to drive and not surprisingly, Quads own amplifiers are an obvious choice – the 909 stereo power amplifier is a perennial favourite and very modestly priced given its well known abilities. Match it with the latest CDP2 and you’ve got an all Quad system for well under NZ$ 20K. We’ll challenge you to find any combination that sounds nearly as good for this amount.
However you’ll also find that the qualities of the very best amplifiers and source components are even more readily apparent with these speakers. If you think you’ve heard detail from your discs previously, the Quads will show that you were only scratching the surface.
Also note that we have two models of ESL – the 2905 (at NZ$ 15,000 the pair) being the larger, the 2805 (NZ$ 13,000) less tall. There is no difference in terms of quality, between the two options. Simply put, the 2805 is more suitable for smaller rooms where the physical presence of the bigger brother may simply be too much.
One application for the Quad you may not have considered is cinema – but what better to match full sized visual image than a speaker with a proportionally big sound? We’ll always go straight to projection for the best quality and most involvement – just imagine a 2.5m wide picture combined with a sonic image even broader and taller. A crystal clear picture with matching sound – our kind of indulgence! Not being good at moderation we also run a subwoofer with the Quads – our first choice being the Quad L series. It’s not that they really need it but sometimes that extra underpinning is just the icing on the cake.
Here’s an interesting proposition for you – in our experience of 20 odd years of continually being involved with home audio systems, of listening both with clients and for our own pleasure, we’ve heard many, many loudspeakers – some considerably more costly than the Quads. Yet from the moment we first plugged the ESL 2905s in, it was apparent these are special in the very best sense. When you listen for yourself, you’ll hear an immediate clarity and ease that vindicates the no-compromise approach taken by Quad.
Why not follow the same uncompromising route and bypass the conventional? We think that, aside from becoming a completely fulfilled and happy person, you’ll save yourself a whole lot of time, money and needless mucking about by choosing the Quads. That might be something we can all agree on...