Is It Possible?


Help!!!

Is it possible for a pair of Quad63 sounds better than a pair of Focal Utopia Scala I?  I am was using the Scala in my system and was very happy with the overall result, except for an occasionally bright sound on certain recordings.  I recently bought a pair of non-working Quad63 at a garage sale for $250, had them serviced for about $650.  I was going to use the quad in my office for background music, but I decided to have a A/B test against my beloved Scala.  I almost fell of my chair when heard what came out of the Quad. The vocals and the instruments just came alive, especially the female's voice.  The only advantage I gave to the Scala was the soundstage, which is wider and a little deeper than the Quad.  How can this be?  What am I doing wrong with the Scala?  How can a pair of $900 speakers sounds much better, in my opinion, than a pair of speakers that cost me almost $25,000?

myaudio168
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.