refurbishing a set of Quad 57s

[Fran]

So today I got some time to swap in the Pass F5 to try instead of the humble little EL84 amp. As expected, the higher power (28WPC) and finesse of the Pass amp brought plenty of rewards. Richer bigger soundstage, and surprisingly enough, better and cleaner treble in particular. Bass a little tighter, but not as much as I expected. Overall, a cleaner sound.

I'm thinking strongly of building a second F5 for these - I have nearly all the parts already for it although I need some creative thinking for the heatsinks. Also thinking of doing monoblocks - might make it easier to do the heatsinks as an aside - I kinda believe in dual mono, my existing F5 is dual mono, essentially 2 monoblocks in one chassis).

Second aside - the poorer quality sound than expected from the vinyl set up on the night that Derek was here has been sorted. Turns out that the arm mounting was loose, so certainly the alignment was off and most likely there was poorer resonance etc etc control. All sorted now, and alignment neatly sorted with the Feickert gauge - although only just, the mounting holes on the arm could have done with another 1-2mm back for the benz cart. I could only align it lofgren - not enough room to move the cart back for baerwald or stevenson.


Fra

[Fran]

Just an update - some might remember from tthe birthday celebrations thread that there was some bass boom at higher volumes. So on a hunch I played with positioning and ended up with them at more or less the same angle but back closer to the wall. This wasn't what I was expecting but it's actually better as it leaves more space in the room.

Fran

[Ivor]

Just an update - some might remember from tthe birthday celebrations thread that there was some bass boom at higher volumes. So on a hunch I played with positioning and ended up with them at more or less the same angle but back closer to the wall. This wasn't what I was expecting but it's actually better as it leaves more space in the room.

Fran

the internet is full of rules for the positioning of Quads but really it's all trial and error. Even at this stage playing about with the "toe in/toe out" will make a difference, mainly to soundstage and imaging but it might tighten up bass as well. Consider mounting them on castors ;)