What is your most treasured component?

[MickeyVee]

It has got to be my Martin Logans.. I fell in love with them the first time I auditioned them and each subsequent pair has been better and better. No matter how my system evolves, I have my music, my ears and Martin Logan will probably always be part of the equation.

 

[stuwee]

Non componet- Music
Componet - Thorens TD 125 MKII/Shure SME 3009 II, bought used with my hard earned $$ in High School 1978, it's be through 6 or 7 house moves across the country 3 times. 8 cars, 7 or 8 cartridges, 5 S/O's and it's still in my main system. I know I could get a slightly better TT/arm, but it's my baby!! All I done is a few sips of oil and a fresh belt every 2 years. I've re-dailed in the suspension maybe twice (probably needs another go about now).

close second is a Sanyo Plus Series A35 integrated amp, first new componet I bought 1979. Has a sticker on the bottom 'built 8/10/79' *my birthday month and day!! Great sounding little amp, I use as a headphone amp for my AKG K 601's.

 

[Trn335]

Huh, thats a tough one. My main music system only has three components all of which I like a lot. So, I'll have to say my JBL Century L-100's, now a part of my office system. What can you say about a pair of speakers that cost more than a new car in their day, fit on a (large) bookshelf, were the de facto reference studio monitor for almost everything recorded between the late 50's and mid-70's, take whatever kind of power you throw at them, and 50 years later still kick butt? Often copied but never duplicated. I had ad pages of these speakers on my bedroom wall when I was too young to afford them.

 

[beek]

I would have to call a lot of old Girl friends, a lot of what I got rid of from 1975 to now

 

[tsv_1]

Most treasured = CLX

 

[squasher100]

My Krell TAS (Theater Amplifier Standard) Amp.

 

[Krazikiwi]

Quad, where it all began

I had to think about this, so many close runner ups.......but I still think it is the couple of pairs of Quad ESL57s that I cannot bear to part with.

The reason we are all here on this forum is Martin Logan's take on electrostatics, however, for me, the love affair really started with these.

The first thing I did when arriving in the UK mid eighties on my OE (overseas experience) was head for the Quad factory in Huntingdon. Low and behold, it was a public holiday but the receptionist let me in and 'enquired', soon old man Peter Walker showed up and took me around. He showed me the first handmade trestle he used to tension the static panels over with enormous pride and to think he was doing this in the late fifties!

For a naive kiwi from the other side of the world, it was like 'going to the mountain'.

He was such a down to earth pragmatist and yet he has changed the way we all listen to our music on this forum, it is his DNA that has inspired others like Gayle Sanders to improve what he showed could be done commercially.

There you go, I feel better now!

Fjeff
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/roadtour7/roadtour3again.html

 

[TrumpetDoug]

Love the Logans of course, but the Clearaudio TT is a thing of beauty!!

Doug - out

 

[Wardsweb]

Love the Logans of course, but the Clearaudio TT is a thing of beauty!!

Doug - out

Roger That!

 

[Bernard]

I had to think about this, so many close runner ups.......but I still think it is the couple of pairs of Quad ESL57s that I cannot bear to part with.

Fjeff

Jeff,

If you can't part with them, why don't you stack them and compare them with your ML's?

BTW are you going through an identity crisis? You sometimes sign off as "Fjeff" and sometimes as "Jeff". Is the "F" an expletive you sometimes delete ?

BTW do buy the Xiomara Laugart "La Voz" CD.

 

[Krazikiwi]

Is that Stat(ic) I hear or domestic distortion?!

Jeff,

If you can't part with them, why don't you stack them and compare them with your ML's?

BTW are you going through an identity crisis? You sometimes sign off as "Fjeff" and sometimes as "Jeff". Is the "F" an expletive you sometimes delete ?

BTW do buy the Xiomara Laugart "La Voz" CD.

Hi Bernard,

Each ESL57 set belongs to a Quad generation, 2 and 3 Series so no stacking for me. I did once bring back a pair of Gradient subwoofers from Finland with a view to upgrading to the ESL63 series but my ML Quest z indoctrination fixed that idea!

Ah the F word, many a laugh has been had over that one, however it purely family tradition that the first born male is named Frederick and then comes his chosen name, in my youth, Fjeff became a nickname that has stuck ever since.

Thank you for the music pointer, there are a couple of others from you and Todd that I need to order next from Amazon.

Seriously, a valve 2 Series hifi from Quad with old ESL57s is pure heaven considering they are over 50 years of age, vintage stuff for a holiday house that makes you smile when you you want 'old school' stats and music. Must have really been revelatory in their day!

Jeff (with a silent F)
http://www.audiophilia.com/wp/?p=1665
http://www.stereophile.com/artdudleylistening/606listening

 

[Bernard]

Jeff,

I'm sorry I don't follow your statement about the Quad series 2 and 3. Were they so different that they cannot be combined?

I used to have a pair of 57's, but unfortunately they did not work well in my room; the holographic imaging I had heard in the salesroom was not there in my small room. Great as they sounded, I could not hear any depth; no such problem with my SL3's. I think the Quads need a lot more space to work correctly.

Alternately to Fjeff, are you also known as Fredj (as in Flintstone)?

I know you like medieval music, but how about Gregorian Chant and other religious music?

Bernard

 

[Krazikiwi]

Quadrophenia anyone?!

Jeff,

I'm sorry I don't follow your statement about the Quad series 2 and 3. Were they so different that they cannot be combined?

I used to have a pair of 57's, but unfortunately they did not work well in my room; the holographic imaging I had heard in the salesroom was not there in my small room. Great as they sounded, I could not hear any depth; no such problem with my SL3's. I think the Quads need a lot more space to work correctly.

Alternately to Fjeff, are you also known as Fredj (as in Flintstone)?

I know you like medieval music, but how about Gregorian Chant and other religious music?

Bernard

Not wishing to hog this poll but in case the question might be of interest to others, here are a couple of URLs showing the two generations of Quad hifi, basically 1950's valve and 1960's transistor technology, both of which drove ESL57 stats from Quad. Historically speaking, this is where the commercial manufacture of electrostatic speakers first began and to think we drove this with such minuscule amounts of wattage!........15 watts.......

http://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/history.php?page=2

Half way down this page is the Quad 22/II generation
http://www.rewindmuseum.com/valveamplifier.htm

Likewise, halfway down this page is the Quad 33/303 Series as well as the 'heaters' as my wife likes to call the ESL57's
http://www.hifi-studio.de/hifi-klassiker/quad.htm

So I guess I 'treasure' both systems I have boxed up waiting for a holiday home to be built for them having enjoyed both systems at different times on the journey towards my MLs. I originally used the 33/303 system with Magnaplanar 1 series, my first real "stat" like system. The 22/II Series with ESL57's got me through my first five years without my Maggies in Europe and must blown the doors off conventional speaker thinking in the 1950's when Peter Walker first showed them.

We as ML owners owe him a lot IMHO, to have had an afternoon with him in Huntingdon, UK is forever etched in my hifi journey mind map.

Jeff

PS: A brief history lesson on the beginnings of electrostatic speakers
http://www.quadesl.org/History/Quad_History/quad_history.html
http://www.quadesl.org/History/Actual_ESLs/actual_esls.html

 

[beek]

My New incomming Logan's

 

[randerson3024]

My Kiseki Lapus Lazuli moving coil.

 

[gordonmenninger]

It has to be my Krell Ksa300s amplifier along with the KrellS-1200u surround processor/preamp. Ah, and of course my beloved SL3's

 

[gcchifi]

Well, the gear is irrelevant without a voice...so I would say it is my ML SL3s. After that it is the amp of course.

 

[Bevensee]

When I was a young music lover and aspiring audiofile in the late 80's, I was awestruck by the sound and visual impact of a Michell GyroDec driving a pair of Sequels through a tube amp. This so far ahead of the system I had at the time (Luxman DD turntable, Denon integrated, KEF R104.2) in terms of realism that it could hardly beleive it.

Now I have a Michell Orbe driving a pair of Vantage through a tube preamp/hybrid monoblock. But I think the Orbe is the most cherished. That was where my "audio dreams fulfilled" system started, and it still the heart of it.

 

[user 10615]

Of course it's the ML's but each item helps. the new Magtech is really helping the ML's give of their best :clap:

 

[JonFo]

Of course it's the ML's but each item helps. the new Magtech is really helping the ML's give of their best :clap:

Congrats on the new Sanders amp, after my ML's, it is also my favorite piece.