Is It Possible?

It seems that everyone here admires those Quad speakers. Maybe only people who admire them feel the urge to participate.

I have a bit different memory of them. It was in and, more correctly, around Salzburg in 1990-1991. It was a year of Mozart’s death anniversary and many venues were commemorating. Exhibitions, concerts, etc. Quad was a supplier of music systems in those spaces (maybe not concerts, but wherever else the music was playing) and I was excited to finally hear the magic. Well, in some sort of a castle or a huge villa up in the hills, I entered one room and poof. It was truly underwhelming. I tried to convince myself it was great, but it really was not. I tried a few more rooms and it was all the same. It was not painful, but it was underwhelming. Speakers so perfect, at least that is what I had heard and read, were as plain as they get. They were memorable only because they were so non-memorable. I do not doubt that most of you have fantastic experiences, but this was mine. Maybe next time, I will be impressed.

For me speakers should be first of all reasonably full range, if they are not I don't care about how pure some sounds might be coming out of them. And then other things.

glubson, truly sorry to hear of your Quad experience. That’s the way it goes sometimes. I wouldn’t read too much into it. 😃 Besides, audiophiles are generally admirers of Quad speakers, not Quad music systems. Follow?

I love the virtues of electrostatics but in a reasonably large room the Focal’s frequency extremes will unquestionably be better & they will play louder. The Focals Beryllium tweeters will certainly have advantages. If you wanted to usefully narrow the gap in the midrange, then replacing the xover parts with EXTREMELY high-quality polypropylenes i.e. the top Wimas and/or Teflon capacitors (probably in an external xover) along with rewiring it with kimber or similar would be required.

Jonh1,

You're right.  The higher the volume,  the better the Focal sounds compares to the Quad.  I'm using Synergistic CTS SC now which seems to be good for fit for both speakers.