Quad 988 / 989 reliability ??

I have had my 989s for a year and a half now, with no
problems yet (I even moved 800 miles to a new job, and
they survived just fine). I use them a LOT, up to several
hours a day. I tend not to listen very loud, perhaps
around 86-88 dB (with peaks up to 6 dB higher).

Before my 989s, I had the ESL-63 US monitors for 10
years. It never failed on me even once in all that time!

Perhaps I've just been lucky. I do have a spare speaker
just in case my 989 dies (a Harbeth M40).

- Sridhar

I've had my Quad 988s since December and haven't had any problems whatsoever. For what it's worth, Hi FI Farm is no longer a Quad dealer, and, if you look back over the last few years, products that Steve and his salesmen say leave other equipment in the dust come and go faster than inventory at Wal-Mart.

I've had my Quad 988s since December and haven't had any problems whatsoever. For what it's worth, Hi FI Farm is no longer a Quad dealer, and, if you look back over the last few years, products that Steve and his salesmen say leave other equipment in the dust come and go faster than inventory at Wal-Mart.

9rw, congrats, I guess you have been lucky. On principle, the 989 is a wonderful tansducer, though voiced a tad darker than the 63s to these here ears. But then again, that soft bubbling last night coming from the right speaker near well drove me nuts. Ironically this morning it was quiet and left the blubbering noise to its left companion.I guess I'll listen to nothing else but Mahler, Berlioz and Heavy Metal from now on....)-:

Just to put comments in context I have had so-called 57s for over 25 years, I had 63 for 5 years. I found that these speakers were no more unreliable than cone speakers. For example I have a pair of broken Celestions that are no longer supported by the manufacturer or importer. All in all I think that the SLs are more robustly manufactured. Both the late Peter Walker and Roger West are brilliant designers but contemporary SLs are a tour de force that are properly engineered in many categories including reliability.