Quad ESL 57's with a Audax HD-3P Gold Dome Piezo Tweeter.

[JohnG]

Advice required on how to combine the Audax and ESL 57 .
This is a long term ambition of mine, that has been on hold, due to a long absence from HiFi.
So after one year of being" back in the game" and aquireing two pairs of HD-3P Gold Dome Piezos, with the purpose built crossovers and having learned to successfully refill them with air.
I am now in a position to attempt my old ambition to couple to the Quads a Tweeter that I believe will do their performance proud.
Here is my usual failing, I have many ideas, but am lacking in the answers, especially when it comes to fundamental electronics.
If there is any body out there, who can guide me through this to achieve the desired set up, it will be greatly appreciated.
A recent development in the possibility of the end product, is that after being kindly donated two HD-3P's to assist in my endeavor, I can consider the HD-3P's set up in a Dipole array.

[bob orbell]

I have listened to ESL 57,s in stock and One Thing Audio revamp, and the HF in both cases were fabulous, I think you would be better to consider an upgrade by One Thing Audio, fitting a moving coil speaker to these wonderful speakers is, in my opinion, bloody stupid. BOB

[Phil Y]

Hello JohnG,

Why do you want to use these standard (all be it exotic) tweeters?
My understanding is that if people do anything with the 57s is is to add a purpose designed super-tweeter such as the Townshend Maximum. I believe they even make a special bracket for mounting them to the Quads.

http://www.townshendaudio.com/supertweeters/

Regards, Phil.

[JohnG]

Thank you for the prompt replies.
I have a reasonable understanding of the products available to me to, that can be coupled to the 57's.
I am also going through a process of elimination through trialling different speaker set up systems.
I have a Original pair of 57's that had a complete overhaul by Quad in the early 2000's, owned by me a year after the service was carried out.
I also have a OTA rebuilt in 2013 pair of 57's with the OTECR Treble Panel.
I am on the verge of being given a audition of Stacked 57's that have been matched and have the OTEC 2 Treble Panels.
The idea of coupling the Audax HD-3P, due to its over all delivery, seems to me,
with limited experience in such matters, to be a very nice match for the 57,s.
The fact I feel I can produce this with a minimal outlay seems well worth, putting a old idea into place.

Please don,t let any objections deter your willingness to help me put this investigation into place.

[pre65]

I don't understand what help you need ?

You have the tweeters, so just try them. Isn't that what DIY is about ?

[bob orbell]

Originally Posted by JohnG

Thank you for the prompt replies.
I have a reasonable understanding of the products available to me to, that can be coupled to the 57's.
I am also going through a process of elimination through trialling different speaker set up systems.
I have a Original pair of 57's that had a complete overhaul by Quad in the early 2000's, owned by me a year after the service was carried out.
I also have a OTA rebuilt in 2013 pair of 57's with the OTECR Treble Panel.
I am on the verge of being given a audition of Stacked 57's that have been matched and have the OTEC 2 Treble Panels.
The idea of coupling the Audax HD-3P, due to its over all delivery, seems to me,
with limited experience in such matters, to be a very nice match for the 57,s.
The fact I feel I can produce this with a minimal outlay seems well worth, putting a old idea into place.

Please don,t let any objections deter your willingness to help me put this investigation into place.

Well to the best of my knowledge, QUAD stopped servicing the ESL 57's in the early 1990's, .

[JohnG]

I do have the Tweeters and I do intend on trying them, as a DIY Project.
The reasoning behind my seeking help, was that I am trying to avoid frying them as a DIY Project.
Does this mean, I can splice a extra cable at the banana Plug at the speaker terminal , that will then be fed to the HD-3P crossover,
and as a result there will be no risk of doing harm to the HD-3P when being fed a by the Power Amp.

[Phil Y]

Hi again,

Yes, if you connect them in parallel with the Quads, using their own xover, no harm will be done.
They will be giving full output from 4.5KHz upward which is a huge overlap with the quads. As a result you would be getting far too much treble energy, roughly double and also the potential for large and unpredictable phase cancellation effects.

As Philip says, if you want to try it then just go ahead but I am really not sure what it will do for the sound.

Regards, Phil.

[Greg.]

Hi John,

Phil’s advice to you is good. Just bear in mind that the Gold Dome crossovers I supplied you with have been altered from the original Audax spec to fit in with the sound balance of KLS3 Mk2’s as that kit required.

I would have thought all you would need is a cap and resistor in series to protect the tweeter from being fried which appears to be your concern. I don’t have a clue on the values you should use as I am not knowledgable on this, but looking on other forums, maybe a 2u3 cap and a 12R resistor would be a good starting point. You can listen and change components to improve the sound performance thereafter.

Actually, I would take a lot of notice of what Phil Y wrote. The panel speakers are your priority. Anything added is a bonus and certainly stacking pairs is a positive approach. They probably won’t benefit from having the gold domes attached but a super tweeter might be a way to go. My experience of all Quad panels is that rather than being short in the treble, they would respond better with more bass. Hense the Celestine 600 dipole design Noel Keywood introduced a few years ago and documented in the WAD DIY Supplement some things for you to think about.

[Richard]

Try an amp with tone controls to improve the lack of bass and treble without (hopefully) losing their good qualities.