What speaker to replace ESL 63?

Jdanielh, I have a suggestion which could help you with your ESLs, protecting them against humidity, when you are away abroad. I learnt this from a dealer friend and it works well:

Get yourself a roll of that stretchy-elastic see through plastic wrapping and wrap it around your speaker, inclusive of the bottom electronics part, in about three to four tightly stretched layers. I assure you, moisture will not get through. You could of course also consider leaving them on all the time, as I do, but a certain fire hazard can of course never be discounted and mould could perhaps form all the same. The wrappings should do the trick, I'm pretty sure.
Cheers and happy listening! Detlof

State of the Art driver and crossovers, unique internal damping methods, ambient driver, Hovland caps in the "SE" models, add up to a very quick, transparent, dynamic speaker that delivers a wide soundstage. The VR3.5's(list 3k) have been compared to the new $7k Quands, with more balls to the wall low-end and punch! Price increase effective Nov 1st will bump prices up significantly but, will remain competitive with other brands at similar price points. See at www.vonschweikert.com

Detlof: How broken-in were the P-10's you listened to? The Piega's I have did not become magical until about the 400th hour. They sounded real good out of the box, but improved by a wide margin with break-in.

I do not own the Quad's, but listened to them recently at a friend's house who compared my Piega's with her Quads. She agreed with me and bought a pair of P-10's.

Jtinn: You pose a good question. I cannot truly say. but it was surely below 400 hours. The Quads were broken in. I know, because they were mine, schlepped along for the trial. You may well have the answer here, for the P-10 sounding a bit rough in the midrange. Cheers, Detlof

I heartily second the motion on the Harbeth Compact 7, which, although not easy to find-you may have to purchase from the Canadian distributor-is worth the effort. And it will keep you at the lower end of the price range you mention. In its objectives this extremely well-constructed speaker comes from essentially the same school as some of the greats, e.g., Quad (although it's not an electrostatic)& Spendor. The company, which is primarily in the studio monitor field, has been around for a while.