Loudspeakers

‘There is no doubt music sounds very nice, more like the real thing than ever before. Another interesting feature is the complete absence of any fatigue effect. All sensation of listening to a loudspeaker is lost.’ So said HFN’s Ralph West in his review of the Quad ESL [HFN Nov ’57]. Designed in the UK by Peter J Walker, founder of Acoustical Manufacturing Co Ltd, and David Williamson, designer of the famous Williamson amplifier [HFN Jan ’10], the ESL was the first full-range electrostatic loudspeaker and highly anticipated. It’s unlikely, though, that West would have imagined it remaining – albeit in updated form – a mainstay of hi-fi nearly 70 years later. ‘Time will tell whether we settle for this style’, he noted, before explaining the ESL was not a showy speaker in comparison to some moving-coil rivals – ‘the top doesn’t sparkle all the time, and the bass doesn’t shake one’s tummy’.

West’s tests were with a single ESL, not a stereo pair, but ‘when listening on or near the axis, the effect is as of an open window looking directly on to the performance’. He also acclaimed a transient response superior to horn-loaded models, and concluded the Quad ESL was a speaker ‘designed to be listened to and enjoyed in the home’.