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Electrostatic Speakers

I have been lusting after a pair of electrostatic speakers for my entire life. When I was a kid the Infinity Servo Static was the big dog in town. I heard a pair of stacked (4) QUAD electrostatic when Mark Levinson was saying they were the only speakers up to his standards.

So, It was with great excitement when I ordered a pair of QUAD ESL-2912 speakers. I set them up in my listening room and they were fantastic. Even the bass was impressive, tight and went very low. However not the bass output one would get from a big powered sub-woofer. One night I was playing internet radio and I heard thunder. I walked outside and there was no rain. The thunder was coming from the speakers! Not loud but deep and tight.

I have owned lots of speakers over the years. I sold stereo systems for years when I was younger. I worked for AR for a few years. In all those years I have never heard any speaker that came close to the QUAD ESL-2912 for clarity and transient response.

Then one day the party ended. One of the speakers made a loud single CLICK, just one and then back to normal for days. Then it got much worse. It clicked and thumped every few hours. Then it clicked and thumped every few minutes.

I sent an email to the Distributor asking what to do. No answer. I sent a few more emails, no answer. The clicking was making me nuts so I removed the back cover and disconnected the panel, there are five, that was making the noise. All was back to wonderful except the left speaker was a bit softer in volume than the right speaker.

Over the next few months I sent more emails and my tone turned angry. Finally they sent me a replacement panel. Before the replacement panel arrived more panels went bad in the first speaker and then the second speaker.

Next we shipped both speakers to the factory repair center. Six months they returned with banged up cabinets, torn speaker cloth and one speaker still not working!

So my $ 13,000.00 dream speakers have bitten me. Years ago I had KLH 9 speakers (also full range electrostatic) and never had trouble with them until they died and couldn’t be rebuilt.

Any of you have experience with QUAD electrostatics? Some people say a rebuilt pair of the old ones are way better than the new ones. I assumed that new modern manufacturing methods would have made the new speakers super reliable.

Thoughts?? Am I within my reasonable rights to sue these guys?
davidclarke
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cleeds
2,065 posts
 
davidclarke
Am I within my reasonable rights to sue these guys?
Is your dealer willing to intervene on your behalf? Are the speakers under warranty?
whart's avatar
whart
1,930 posts
 
@davidclarke-You might reach out to Kent McCollum at Electrostatic Solutions in the midwest. I know he restores the original Quad and the ’63. He restored my originals that I purchased in 1973, added a protection circuit, and more modern, standard connectors for power and signal input. They sound great!
You have certainly covered some ground in terms of great historical speakers. The first high end dealer I knew of as a youngster in Pittsburgh, Opus One, had used double KLH 9s back in the day.
As to claims and redress, you’ll have to explore your options. Sometimes state laws aimed at consumer protection allow for recovery of treble damages and attorney’s fees. Easy enough to look at the state law in question and do a search of relevant consumer protection laws. You’ll likely have to hire a lawyer in that jurisdiction (unless you want to sue them in your home state and risk that they won’t appear).
It will come down to a cost/benefit analysis for you-- unless you are simply vindicating principle, which is noble, but a rich man’s game. (I was a NYC lawyer for 36 years, now retired, who specialized in copyright matters; no legal advice intended here). Good luck.
davidclarke OP
26 posts
 
Cleeds - They were under warranty when they started to fail.

Whart - Thanks for the Kent McCollum idea.  I am going to give them another month and then call my lawyer.
davidclarke OP
26 posts
 
Whart - I worked for AR back in the days of the 3A and LST.  Such a great company.  We had a goal to solve all customer problems within 1 week.  Most blown speakers were over driven by too small an amp.  The amp and receiver were a different story.  The output stage could be burned up way too easily.  Remember the XA tuntable was $80.00 when new!  Sold zillions of them with Sure M91ED or V-15 type III.  The M91 retailed for $59.00 and the V-15 was $85.00!  

Here is a funny thing...  Back around 1976 we would give someone $100.00 trade in for a  Mcintosh MC240 tube amp.  People wanted to get away from tubes and go for a solid state amp.
whart's avatar
whart
1,930 posts
 
@davidclarke- So, you have some direct history. The XA was my first 'real' turntable and the LST was a pretty serious speaker in the day-- pretty inefficient as I recall (and ML did his thing with those as well). I slung hi-fi in late high school, early college years. I remember people trading in big ol' idler drives, which are now back in fashion. Life is funny. Good luck with your speakers, and welcome to Audiogon, where anything is possible, but not probable. :)
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