Tír Na HiFi

Hi All,

Fran kindly dropped over a set of his Quad stands when he was in town a few weeks back (I've been procrastinating about picking them up for a while now...) - I've fitted them and the 57s are again taking pride of place in my listening room.

I really love the clean lines and looks of these stands - great work by Fran!

The 57s replace 63s that I have been using for the last 12 months or so - I think I prefer the 57s, but it is too soon to tell - need to listen for a month or so and then try swapping back again.

Photos below;

I used some brown rubber stick on draught exluder between the stand and original grill on this side - it looks better to me, and grips the grill better (I never refitted the staples when I rebuilt the EHT units) - I must go back and do the other side now. I also spent some time getting the routing to perfectly match the curve at the top of the grill - it isn't visible, so not sure why I bothered, but I feel better for having done it!;








You can see the single additional screw into the original frame to give more strength to the structure - the side cheek screws do not go that far into the wood (nor would you want them to...too far and you'll damage the panels). I took it even further on the other speaker, adding another screw at the top too (picture further below);



I put an additional screw at the top to this one (you can just see it to the right of the top brass side-cheek screw - too much sun, sorry!), and will go back and do the other side too soon;



This is the side without the draught excluder, and without the additional routing to match top of OE grill;



Richard

Nice room and very nice set up too Richard. Hopefully you're happy now. Don't worry I will ask you in a month's time ;-)
I see you have the original Croft Micro. I saw it once in Cloneys once and passed no remarks. Little did I know at the time I'd end up with a shelf full of Croft gear!!! Which, I'm proud to say, I still have :-) Would you believe Glenn was telling me he won four pair of 57s for pittance on ebay and he now has ten pairs in the house!! He intends to triple stack the best ones!?!?!?

Thanks cybot - to be honest I'd be happy with either the 57s or 63s, both are fantastic. It's more an issue around which presentation I prefer. In an ideal world I'll keep both, but baby #3 is on the way and I should really rationalise some of my kit before I end up needing to move to a smaller property (I'm lucky to have a dedicated hi-fi room currently [sort of, my girls like to use it as a disco too ;-)]).

I chanced on the Croft Micro II from a small ad posted on a UK site somewhere - I had it shipped straight to Glenn for him to update output stage to latest spec, and then sent on to me here. It only cost a little more than the Chinese valve pre's I had bought off eBay and then modified, but was far superior. I can't really see myself changing it ever, although I may try to improve it's rather agricultural appearance!

If Glenn has 10 pairs of 57s, maybe I need to contact him about some cast offs - I'm after a spare set of worn out panels to have a play at DIY refurb of them, and also have a nagging desire to bi-wire a pair of ESLs; complicated (and probably stupid) as you need a second transformer and EHT unit to be able to split the bass and treble panels completely.

Richard

hi i tryed 2 transformers it is not any benefit -i have a friend who got treble pannels re done in the uk and was very happy with the results he has also got new quad treble pannells and he also sold glen croft his first 6 quad 57 speakers which i think were stacked 3 high per side and he did not use dust covers on the pannells and they failed
i use quad 57s also but i have not the room for them im in a small room with a full range single driver speaker