Hi-Fi: Profile: Quad System

Uncle Phil Hanson was lucky enough to write about these unique loudspeakers for us when they first arrived in New Zealand a few years back, but when the chance came up to hear them powered by the new Tim De Paravacini-designed Quad II-eighty power amps and a vinyl front end, we grabbed it like starving beggars lunging at a leftover pie. This statuesque, mostly Quad system is an interesting olde-worlde combination: valves, vinyl and electrostatic speakers (which, believe it or not, are based on a very old technology, dating back to the early days of speaker design), all completely updated for the new millennium.

Quad is an old-school English audio company but it’s actually owned by International Audio Group (IAG), a major Chinese audio conglomerate that owns a number of iconic English brands. Despite the foreign ownership, these Quad components are quintessentially British, which shows just how focused IAG is on keeping the identities of its brands true to the original values rather than watering them down with a global look and feel.

The 2905 electrostatics are the latest version of a Quad speaker design that was first available in the 1950s. There’s not even a solitary dynamic cone driver to be found behind that black grille; the 2905 uses eight full-range electrostatic panels, with the inner two laid out with concentric anodes to generate a point source for the sound.

The 2905s are sturdily built using tensioned aluminium extrusions, a stainless steel support structure and a piano gloss wooden trim to fully support the panels. And they’re huge – imagine two 58-inch flatscreen TVs stood on their ends at the front of your room and you’ve got the idea. Any room housing these speakers had better be large, because they need some space behind them to cancel out some of the rearward radiation of the electrostatic panels; soft wall hangings will help but there’s no point trying to cram them into a small area.

The new II-eighty monoblock power amps are impressive beasts and appear to have been transported, Doctor Who style, from a London hi-fi shop floor circa 1960. Every aspect of the design, from the gorgeous Champagne finish to the style of the logos, hearkens back to a bygone golden age of audio. But these amps have been re-imagined by the aforementioned Mr De Paravacini, who is something of a guru in the world of valve amplifier design. The 80 watts of available power would surprise anyone familiar with ancient valve amps, and while the II-eighty amps aren’t powerhouses in the Krell or VTL mold, they’re more than up to providing all the oomph the 2905s could need. The compact QC-twentyfour preamplifier is a purist valve product with no bells or whistles, which is in perfect keeping with the look and feel of the rest of the system.

A word or two about the Roksan Radius5 MkII turntable – and those words are “holy cow”. This is a fabulous analogue replay system. If I were presented with a choice of this setup or an equivalently priced  CD player, you could probably get me to choose digital over analogue at gunpoint, but otherwise you wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. The Radius5 MkII was fitted with Roksan’s own Corus Silver moving magnet cartridge and Nima unipivot tone arm running into a Musical Fidelity LPSv3 phono stage, and this ensemble performs even better than the spec sheet led me to expect.

Most reviews (especially mine) concentrate on what systems or components do, but sonically this system makes for some rather strange notes at the end of a listening session; notes that deal mostly  with what the system doesn’t do. There’s a very puzzling sensation when the components are first fired up that something is missing, and it doesn’t take long to realise that this is in fact the case. It’s mostly related to the 2905s; there are none of the colourations that are present with so many other speakers. Almost every cabinet-based loudspeaker makes its own contribution to the sound, caused by resonances, standing waves, bass reflex ports… The 2905s are basically nothing more than a very thin and lightweight film suspended in mid air, which is free to start and stop at speeds that can’t be matched by conventional drivers. Detail levels are therefore amazing, while the sense of vigour and attack on the leading edges of notes is splendid.

The massive overall area of the 2905s allows the them to generate serious levels of bass. No, they won’t reach the cavernous lows of big conventional woofers; but the electrostatic bass is so freakishly tight, fast and controlled that it sounds real, as opposed to a mere facsimile of an instrument. An endless stream of audiophile cliches springs immediately to mind, but in reality the Quads are so open, accurate and uncoloured that you’re simply hearing less extraneous additions to the music and more of the music itself.

Spinning Hugh Masakela’s ‘Stimela’ from the 45RPM vinyl edition of Hope was a mind-bending experience. I clearly wasn’t the only one feeling that way. A look round the room showed  nothing but tapping feet and heads bobbing to the beat; the song ended with appreciative and slightly stunned comments. It’s so easy to lose yourself in the music when it sounds so clear and effortlessly natural, so authentic, vibrant and completely free from artifice and extras. In the depths of this song, with the smooth vocals, searing trumpet and live ambience set against a dead quiet background, I  could have been told my car was being towed or my shoes were on fire and I couldn’t have cared less.

I felt much the same listening to Miles Davis on Kind of Blue. The Quad/Roksan system laid out a wide ‘over yonder’ soundstage, as in ‘the guy with the trumpet is standing right over there and the other guy is way over yonder’. The legendary guy with the trumpet has seldom sounded finer, and if you want to hear Miles’s trumpet in your home, these speakers will get you closer to the original performance than most.

A direct-to-disc audiophile 180g vinyl copy of Charly Antolini’s Knock Out again proved that the 2905s can do bass very well. They’re not going to do the Cerwin-Vega double 15-inch woofer room stomp, but this energetic drum, bass and percussion album was ultra-tight and completely believable.

More than one high-profile audio reviewer has called the Quad 2905s something like ‘the best speakers on the planet’, and I’d have to say that with the right front end and the new Quad II-eighty power amps, these distintive speakers are astonishingly good. Their sound is a revelation if you’re used to box loudspeakers – it’s different in many ways but is so enjoyable that it fast becomes an accepted reference for how reproduced audio should sound.

The Quads aren’t going to be all things to all people. For a start, their room requirements will make them unsuitable for many homes. They won’t lift the roof with club-style volume levels, either – too much power will trigger the protection circuits. And for that matter, they won’t go seismically low. What they will do is remind you of why you love music and for that reason alone they’re something that any audiophile worth his or her salt should hear at least once. ASHLEY KRAMER

SPECIFICATIONS

Quad II-eighty Power Amplifiers

Power Output: 80W RMS

Frequency Response : 10Hz-30kHz(+0dB/-0.5dB)

Damping Factor: 16 @ 1khz

Power Consumption: 180W maximum

Loudspeaker Taps: 4 ohm and 8 ohm

Valves: 2 x 6Sh7 input, 4 x KT88 output, 1 x 5U4G rectifier

Quad QC-Twenty Four Preamplifier

Valves: 1 x 6111 twin triode

Frequency Response: 5Hz-50kHz (+0dB/-0.5dB)

Inputs: 5x line level, 2x buffered tape loops

Quad 2905 Electrostatic Speakers

Type: Full-range electrostatic

Sensitivity: 86dB/2.83V rms equivalent

Impedance: 8 ohms nominal

Maximum Input: 10V continuous

Frequency Response: 37Hz- 21kHz (-6dB)

Dimensions: 1040 x 695 x 385m (H/W/D)

Weight 41.6kg each

Roksan Radius5 MkII turntable

Speed: 33 & 45 rpm

Rumble: <-80dB

Wow & Flutter: <0.04%

Dimensions: 150 x 400 x 350mm (H/W/D)

Weight: 7kg

Quad ESL-2905 electrostatic loudspeakers $15,000

Quad II-eighty monoblock power amplifiers $12,500

Quad QC-twentyfour preamplifier $1600

Roksan Radius5 MkII turntable $3995

Contacts

www.dencoaudio.co.nz

www.listening.co.nz