Quad's ESL design was so effective that there have been just five design iterations since 1957.
Few speakers disappear like an ESL.
If you've skulked about this hobby long enough, you've seen the photo above: a picture of the mono-era 'pipe smoke and coziness' that's an evening in front of a Quad electrostatic loudspeaker.
Introduced in 1957, the Quad ESL was such a fine version of itself that only five design iterations have been made since, culminating in the current top-of-the-line ESL 2912X.
Quad is the latest brand to join the Upscale family, and we will be featuring the ESL 2912X at our next in-store event. As the August 1 gathering is an analog event, the focus as we get closer will be on all those cool turntable sources. So let's talk Quad now!
The Quad ESL 2912X is a flagship six-panel electrostatic loudspeaker with a point-source time-delay design and UK-made audio transformers.
The Electrostatic Sound
With an extremely thin, light membrane vibrating to produce sound, electrostatic speakers have a characteristic presentation. First, because the membrane is so easy to move while being full range, you get delicacy of detail and tremendous coherence over the frequency band. Second, there's no enclosing box, so distortion and coloration are extremely low. Third, they produce sound to the back as well as the front, resulting in tremendous spaciousness.
Of course, each of these features comes with drawbacks. The light membrane doesn't move much air, so while microdynamics are amazing, macrodynamics can be muted or polite. Bass reproduction is a known weakness of electrostatics, so subwoofers are strongly recommended. The dipole design is much harder to place in a room, and that rear wave needs many feet behind the speaker to properly disperse. The result is that electrostatics have a much smaller sweet spot than you'd expect, and performance is more room dependent than with conventional drivers.
Once you're in that spot, it's very sweet indeed. We have the Quad ESL 2912X playing in our main demo room, and one recent afternoon, we took turns sitting down and experiencing how piano, violin, and voices play so effortlessly in a wide-open space. The term "soundstage" feels limiting because stages have hard stops, while the ESL sound feels boundless. To ears accustomed to the slap of dynamic drivers, the ESL initially sounds a little muted and polite, but once you're attuned to its utterly clean, undistorted presentation, you realize these are speakers you can listen to all day while still connecting deeply with the music.
We're bringing in Quad electronics as well, but we're so excited to keep you in the news that only the ESL 2812X and ESL 2912X are currently on our website. Electrostatic loudspeakers are polarizing, but if they are your thing, they will absolutely mesmerize you. Call to set up your panel session!
Electrostatic speakers use high internal voltages, so they need transformers and have to be plugged into the wall.