Quad Electostatic listening event in quadraphonic. London Southbank Center. Free but ticketed. July 17th.

[Matty]

Has anyone had the pleasure of hearing these electrostatic Quads at all before?

Or in a quadraphonic system?

The event is free but ticketed and is on Sunday, July 17th, in the Purcel Room at the Southbank Center in London.
I'm going to the 6 pm session where they are playing Herbie Hancocks Headhunters.
If anyone cares to join me, perhaps we can meet up and talk a little audio nonsense.

Here is the write up and the link:

"Audiophile listening event: Hear incredible albums on the quadraphonic sound system they were recorded on and designed for in a true audiophile experience, using part of Elan Carebell’s private collection (probably one of the largest collections in the world) of the legendary Quad Electrostatic Speaker. A classic 1957 British design, the ESL-57, as it later came to be known, has a cult following and iconic status. Even nowadays, 40 years after production has ceased, it still tops virtually every list of the best, the greatest, the most significant audio products ever made.

Choose from three listening sessions, each committed to two audacious albums:
2pm: Sun Ra’s Space Is The Place & Astro Black 4pm: Alice Coltrane’s Cosmic Music & Archie Shepp’s Attica Blues 6pm: Funkadelic’s Cosmic Slop & Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters"

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/gigs/cosmic-quadraphonic?eventId=912338

 

[Brad225]

That sounds like a great event Matty. I wish I was a bit closer.

 

[Big Dog RJ]

Have owned several versions of Quads, from the ESL 63's to the ESL 2905's and 2912's. Although the Quads are one of my favourite ESL of all time, they were a massive disaster for me, especially when production moved to China. I had multiple panel failures and transformer failures on both the 2905's and 2912's. I paid a fortune to get them fixed, and was fortunate enough to meet with John Hall in Aus (known as the Quad whisperer). He eventually refurbed the full thing, I got new trannys done up in Perth, and special caps fitted from Adelaide. Finally the Quads sounded fantastic! And so I quickly sold the last pair that I had that was working properly. The other pair of 2912's were traded in to obtain the CLX's. Otherwise, there's no way I was going to pay 40grand for a pair of CLX's at the time. Now they're 50grand! And no longer made...

Glad to see the Quad flag still flying... must be a very special event. I've heard stacked ESL 57's, and they're really much more dynamic than the standard version but takes an awful lot of work to put together. Do let us know how it goes...

Cheers, RJ