The Unofficial Quad Owners' Club !

hello all quad owners i auditioned quad 11L2 with atol, NAD and cambridge audio and loved them but lately quad announced 11L classic (2010) release. The Classic is new and improved, and is a determined attempt to recapture the magic of the original.

please help me with the amp and ICs budget is 60k, and can i demo 11l classic in mumbai and price? thank you

Quad 11L Classic Hi-fi speaker review - from the experts at whathifi.com

Quad 11L Classic - AVReview News and comment

Quad 11L Updates Classic Bookshelf Speaker | Audioreview Blog


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hai

i recently bought quad 11l classic

i have demoed few speakers but what according to my ears is...quad11l is very very clear and has very good sound stage n imaging...
 
I have been involved with Quad kit from the days of the Quad2 mono system and think that the formation of this club is a marvelous idea. I would like to be a part of this association.
At the moment my set up is a pair of 12L2s driven by a homebrew 60W Mosfet power amp and a homebrew preamp. Have almost finished modding a 44/405 combo and am eagerly waiting to try them out with the 12L2s, a sweet sounding pair of speakers if ever I've heard one.
Inputs are Rega Planar TT, Rega Planet CDP, IoBox100 NMT, and PC.
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^^ kayjay..

that is one seriously cool setup you got there. btw, are those TNT flexi racks that you have used for your audio equipment ?
 
Prashant,
Appreciate your kind comments.
The rack is also home brew. It is is based on a Mapleshade design.
 
My Gears

I have designed the stands, the rack and got them manufactured in my observation. Here are they for you - Marantz (CD & PM) 6003 with Quad 12L2. Audioquest interconnect and DAC 14 awg speaker cables with banana connectors
 

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hf - you got new speakers?

Ya, come over home. Totally radical experience.

--
helium
SB Classic> Beresford DAC 7510 MK4> Lyrita SET 2A3 + PMC TB2/ Vintage highly modified B&W DM4 > Lyrita ICs + Cables => MUSIC
 
have you shifted to gurgaon or still at the old place? Pls share the details of the speaker. Maybe I missed your update.
 
I got them for around 40k, rosewood finish as you can see, sharing some observations that may help guys here, I had initially paired with Norge 2060, tonality was good but the refinement was somewhat missing, then came Marantz, I have also heard with Denon 710AE, which is from the same house as Marantz now, good amp. I was in bit of doubt whether I should go with PM5004, 6003 or 7003 or 7004. PM7004 was out of my budget, could not find a 7003 either, and I was convinced by some other folks that 6003 has enough juices to drive these babies, in my demo, I had wharfedale 10.5, Paradigm monitor 7 and 9, I can tell you, 12L2 certainly beats them in speed, timing and presentation. Most natural sound actually I have ever heard. 10.5 was good in tonality, but timing was a bit let down, the not so good side of 12L2 is, it needs more power than you would imagine to get all detail that it is capable of presenting, owing to the low efficiency driver, but the sound has more weight than the likes of paradigm, which translates into less listening fatigue, this sounds grows on you, but has less wow factors on the face of it like slamming bass, it has enough reserves when called upon, I have thrown in insanely fast orchestra with violins, chello, drums, bass etc, the lowest notes are achieved with accurate tonality of chello which is really very difficult to achieve, bass with these speakers is not about heating your ears but immersing you to a level of aural depth that is awsome. I have also thrown in Bikram Ghosh, Pete locket, Zakir Hussain, Trilok Gurtu kind of stuff and each time I have been amazed with the result. This is a feedback after having them for 9 months now so I believe I know what I am talking about.

They need more power to float the sound in the air like a resonance of a piano note, or it would die down. I used to find the sound getting clumsy at times, but that was due to poor connection, bare wire is not the best, though many say that. Do use the best quality banana plugs, the change I have observed now after that is phenomenal. 6003 sounds adequately powered now for a 12 x 13 room.

It has its own limitations as well, the sound stage is huge but the range of that is not so, meaning, listen from 10 12 feet and it may not sound not so powerful with PM6003 (it is not the best amp to drive them I know), I usually listen from 8-9 feet distance. To get the similar quality in a large room filling sound, the budget would need to go up to at least 60k as per my observation and analysis. So, I am perfectly alright with these 12L2 for private/small room listening. The cabinet produces much better sound for their size, beating many floor standers at that tonal quality, if that is what you are looking for.

Forgot to add, PM5004 drove klipsch bookshelf form their reference series easily, but was really under powered to drive these Quads, never pair them up with anything below Pm6003, it has a good dynamic power which does not become evident on the specs, wpc is not the best judge of an amp's capability always. I also paired them with a roksan 100 wpc amp, and even that needed the volume to notch up to drive these Quads than it needed to drive Klipsch 52 ii floor standers. That says something about the sensitivity aspect (97 vs 88 db). Make sure you do not have the tweeters above your ear level, this really will help to get the best imaging else the details and floating nature of sound would be lost.
 
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appreciate ur post - shyamtanu..as it has confirmed my observations for 12L2.
i had 11L driven by CA 540A (60w/ch 8 ohms) and liked it much..then i upgraded 11L to 12L2, the quad experience is now missing.. i thot something wrong with 12L2...now i realise it needs more power..

can Marantz PM7004 (70w/ch) do justice..or shud i be looking at power amp and use CA540A as pre ?

my budget being 30k..i have below offers..which one will fare better..pls note i cant take auditions..?
ROTEL RA-06 (used)
MARANTZ PM7003 (used)
MARANTZ PM7004 (new)
DENON amp (85w/ch) (demo piece)

cheers !
 
need to put few notes -

1. How old is the 12L2, and how many hours do you have on them? A speaker not broken in enough will always sound bit different than old opened up speaker. Quad 12l2 needs almost 100 hrs of breaking in, do not drive them too loud initially, the tweeter needs bit more time to get sweet, initially it may seem bit too bright/harsh.
2. They need more space around them. try this - 2 feet from side walls, 1.5 feet from rear walls at least is needed. Otherwise The woofer (too powerful) would kill the high frequencies produced by the tweeter, so you may get clumsy/muddled sound
3. Have no experience of CA amps beyond demo, but on spec they seem to have good power, but I always found marantz to perform more over their published spec, PM7003 would be best, 7004 is overkill in my view (too pricey), spend that on quality interconnects. An amp is more than power, it is about control on the speakers, damping factor etc.. how much are you getting PM7004 for?? This should cost you nothing below 40k if new.
 
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Hi, I was using the Quad 22L speakers. The quad's need some Power to control its drivers. I dont think the Marantz may be a good match and the Rotel will spoil the warm magic, which the quads are known for. Try the Cyrus, Arcam and Naim. They will take your quads to new level. I was using the Arcam with the Quad22l and the Arcam did make the quads sing.

regards
Vijay





appreciate ur post - shyamtanu..as it has confirmed my observations for 12L2.
i had 11L driven by CA 540A (60w/ch 8 ohms) and liked it much..then i upgraded 11L to 12L2, the quad experience is now missing.. i thot something wrong with 12L2...now i realise it needs more power..

can Marantz PM7004 (70w/ch) do justice..or shud i be looking at power amp and use CA540A as pre ?

my budget being 30k..i have below offers..which one will fare better..pls note i cant take auditions..?
ROTEL RA-06 (used)
MARANTZ PM7003 (used)
MARANTZ PM7004 (new)
DENON amp (85w/ch) (demo piece)

cheers !
 
1) 12L2 are 4 months old..must have crossed 100 hrs.
2) currently they are 6" from rear wall..will try move them in front further..
3) 7004 new is 34k with B+W. 32k w/o.. 7003 someone selling for 20k..
4) Cyrus, Arcam and Naim - nothing below 70k..i guess..my budget is 30-40k max.

One more question:
To add more base for full range sound:
1) shud i add Quad woofer
2) sell 12L2 and go for 22L2

cost turns out to be same in above 2 options.

Thanks guys !
 
Go with 7004 is my view. 12L2 is good, 6 inches is nothing, I keep them at least 1.5 feet from rear, even then I get boomy bass if playing at high level, or applying some tone control at times, keep experimenting, CA is not a good match for Marantz in my opinion, CA is way too bright. What type of music you listen, how big your room is, what is your listening distance, tow in everything matters, pls keep experimenting.
 
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