Bought my first pair in 1973 and had them restored last year after they were sitting for years in crates. In the meantime, I had used a pair of Crosby-modded '63s, from roughly 1990 to 2005 or so.
My old 57s with a fresh restoration sound fabulous-- matched with a pair of old Quad II amps that were sympathetically restored and re-glassed with GEC KT 66s.
Yep, they definitely have limitations. But, what's there is glorious.
Over the years I had used subs, ribbon tweets, etc. Now, no ancillary speakers. Small-ish room (a front parlor in an old Victorian Queen Anne house). They aren't my main system, so when I play them, I'm doing it purely for the enjoyment of those speakers. There is something uncanny about the midrange which, to my knowledge, has never been duplicated. (A reason why I prefer the 57 to the later Quad models, which are better all around speakers in terms of usability, bandwidth, dispersion, etc, but don't have the magic of the 57).
My old 57s with a fresh restoration sound fabulous-- matched with a pair of old Quad II amps that were sympathetically restored and re-glassed with GEC KT 66s.
Yep, they definitely have limitations. But, what's there is glorious.
Over the years I had used subs, ribbon tweets, etc. Now, no ancillary speakers. Small-ish room (a front parlor in an old Victorian Queen Anne house). They aren't my main system, so when I play them, I'm doing it purely for the enjoyment of those speakers. There is something uncanny about the midrange which, to my knowledge, has never been duplicated. (A reason why I prefer the 57 to the later Quad models, which are better all around speakers in terms of usability, bandwidth, dispersion, etc, but don't have the magic of the 57).