Quartets?...follow up

[bosskag]

OK, I've been doing some serious listening in the past week. Here is what I found. Like Wes said "I love my Quartets". I am using the Quartets in the corner of a room about 10' x 12' about 1 1/2 feet from the back wall and about 6" from the side wall. I used a Pioneer SX-980, Yamaha CR-820, Sansui G-4700 and a Carver TFM-25 amp with a Carver CT-7 pre-amp/tuner. The vintage receivers performed as I expected. Nice overall mellow sound, but the Carver really let me down. Really harsh highs and midrange and no bass whatsoever. Then I hooked up my Carver M-1.5t amp to the CT-7 and a whole new world opened up!...excellent bass (almost too much!) and nice crispy (?) midrange and highs. Amazing what a few years can do...Wes, don't tell me the tube thing is better than this...I can't afford it!...Did I mention, I love my Quartets!

[Sancho]

Ah! a fellow Quartet owner. I myself have owned a pair for the last ten years or so and have no desire to change them. As such, I can justifiably claim, "I love my Quartets". I can think of no bigger bang-for-the-buck speakers than these; highly sensitive, fairly even frequency response and, above all, damn near indestructable (the new reference series products seem like flimsy toys in front of these). Moreover, because of these attributes, all my upgrades for the last ten years have occurred around the same set of speakers! Having said that, I have also found them to be quite placement sensitive, requiring a fair bit of time in experimentation to get them to give of their best. Nevertheless, and speaking strictly for myself, a little patience and perseverence has yielded enormous dividends in terms of imaging, soundstaging and bass response (the CARA optimisation software was a Godsend in this respect). As to criticisms of the Quartets' bass output, I personally get a clean 30Hz in my listening space which, given my musical tastes (eclectic but biased towards rock, blues, female vocals and techno), is more than adequate. And yes, they could have deeper, tauter bass and more sparkling highs but, hey, they play real loud and have a mid-range to die for - a fair trade-off in my books since to get more extension in the frequency extremes than what the Quartets already provide would cost a lot more money. To put it in perspective, while recently auditioning cd players and preamps I was confronted with two systems each employing US$ 5,000/- speakers (B&W 803s and Amphion Xenon's) and neither rig could produce the full, BIG, deep sound that I was used to from the Quartets (which, I believe, go for US$ 500 on ebay!). This is exactly why every single component that was originally paired with my Quartets has since been retired/sold while they remain solidly fixed in their appointed positions in my listening room - I simply would have to spend far more cash than I can currently afford to better them. So, enjoy and please do let me know how you're getting on with them.

My System:

Music Hall MMF2 Turntable

Musical Fidelity A3.2 Upsampling CD Player

Rogue Audio 66 LSR Preamp (Magnum version)

Carver CT-6 Preamp (used as phono stage only)

Musical Fidelity A3CR Power Amp

Chord Co. cabling throughout (Chameleon 2 interconnects and Odyssey speaker cable)

[Soundthought]

Hello Gentlemen,

Just read this post and wanted to say that

I Love My Quartets!

They sound great on any source i've hooked them too. I seem to always go back to them for musical comfort. Mix that with some Southern Comfort and you got a relaxing mix.

Unfortunately, I need the crossover rebuilt in one and a passive woof in the other.

Klipsch will rebuild the crossover for a flat rate, but the woofer is no longer available.

I wonder why? Seems like these speakers should last for a while. Any suggestions on a suitable replacement?

BTW I've got my set up 6ft apart and 6ft from me with 11in. from the back wall and 1in. from the sidewalls. Sounds phenominal. Blissful.

I try not to question why.

Never sniff a gift fish.

[Sancho]

Good Heavens Man! what have you subjected your speakers to? The most I've managed to mine over the last decade is some damage to the veneer on one speaker - the unfortunate but wholly forseeable consequence of having pressed them into service for countless New Year celebrations, assorted parties and other general gatherings. But apart from that little aesthetic damage they are otherwise unsullied. Be that as it may, if they still sound good to you even with a fried cross-over and a damaged radiator all I can say is, damn, that's one fine transducer!

More to the point, from what I can tell you have them in a fairly small space (1" from the side walls is what gave it away) which to me is a little counter-intuitive. In my experience, like all big speakers the Quartets like some room to breathe. To my mind that's just one more testament to this speaker's versatility if they sound good to you even in such a confined configuration.

I, on the other hand, am lucky enough to have a bit of space to my name (14'W x 19'L x 10'H). My Quartets are placed along the long wall about 10' apart, with the front baffle roughly 3' from the back wall and some 4' from the side walls. The listening position is 9' or so from the lateral plane of the speakers. Toe-in is asymmetrical (to compensate for inherent sidewall interactions) such that the left speaker is turned in only slightly while a straight line drawn from the right tweeter would pass outside of my left shoulder. Also, the right speaker is slightly forward of the left. With this set-up (achieved over some years and not a little computer aided assistance!) the soundstage is wide (though not too deep), imaging is as precise as I can make it (I've heard better), and the bass is as tight and extended as it's ever going to get in this particular room.

Good luck with the X-over and PR.