@noromance, I've read that the back of the Quads were padded to make them useable closer to the wall (those small English parlours!). When they are far enough from the wall behind them (no less than 3' they say, 5' imo) that is no longer a concern. If you remove the rear burlap but leave the felt over the tweeter strip, the back wave is now different from that of the front, with less high frequency output. The Quad can use all the help in can get in that regard, so I say remove it. Or at least try it to see if you like it. I've seen Quads with opaque (a very, very light gray) dust covers on the rear, but never the front. I don't know if they are opaque from paint, or if that is the color of the plastic itself. Perhaps because of the charge on the ESL panels, the covers can get quite a layer of dust on them. Careful with that feather duster! |
@bdp24 From Stereophile:"
Quad decided to paint them gray when it was
discovered that the gleam of raw poly was visible through the grille.
The treble panel's dustcover escaped that indignity owing to the fear
that the weight of the paint would affect the high-frequency
performance—and it probably would.)" Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/listening-42-page-2#CEaByOuWpD38icWJ.99 You can see mine in Virtual Systems. I may try removing the mid/treble pad some day. Thanks for replying. |
@noromance, guess my memory is failing even more than I was aware of! I have a spare treble panel in front of me as I write, and it’s dustcover is clear. My Quads are actually still down in S. California, awaiting my next trip down. I put the stock grilles back on for storage safety, and not recalling the bass panels’ dust covers were gray, assumed they were the same as the treble ones. I ran them for years with the Crosby grilles installed on front, the stock on the rear (but with the burlap removed), due to the damn cat my better half refused to get rid of. It liked to jump up and hang onto the grilles, it’s nails protruding through the grille holes! It finally died, thank God. |
@noromance Peter Walker said in an HiFi News interview that the felt on the back of the tweeter panel was to dampen a resonance problem around 2khz. And the burlap reduced back wave interference with the front radiation. HiFi News did a test with the 57's placed on 24 inch stands, with burlap removed. Sound quality was noted as more "open", particularly in bass/midrange. So I tried the same on my first pair, including removing the felt. Sounded quite good! |
