[Bill]

   In the past I owned a pair of Quad ESL-57's and used a pair of QuadII amps  with good results. I'm not sure why I sold the combo but I am in possession of another pair of Quads and wondered if the the new Ultravalve would mate with them. Along with this pairing and since the Quad basically looks like a capacitor to the amp, would a long (say 15' max.) speaker cable be too much for the amp. I have read where a speaker cable for an electrostatic should have low capacitance and inductance. Not many cables out there can juggle these two requirements. Or would longer interconnects be the solution. I have read on this site that it is better to use longer speaker cables (AVA seems to be in the minority on this) but does this take into account the load presented by an electrostatic speaker.

Thanks

[jtwrace]

I've always been under the impression that you want long interconnects and short speaker wire.

Yes, the ideal is both short as possible.

[JackD201]

ESLs do well with even stock Dynaco ST70s so I really can't think of any reasons an Ultimate 70 wouldn't do well with them. Only Frank knows the full extent of the changes however so I guess only he can satisfactorily answer your queries. Following this logic, the Ultravalve should fit right in likewise.

Also I think cables will not be an issue. There are some weird cables out there for sure but any 12 or 10 gauge should be quite alright.

[Bill]

Thanks for the responses so far. I'm not sure if a thicker gauge wire addresses the issues of low capacitance and inductance since this is mostly determined by wire spacing, winding and so on. Keeping the cables short would keep the cap. and ind. down but at 15' would there be an issue?

Thanks

[bobgn1]

Bill
I have a pair of the ESL 57's powered by two Dyna Mk IV's with 12ft. of Straight Wire Maestro speaker cable and don't have any problems with the Quads.

[avahifi]

Your Quads should play great with an AVA Ultravalve amplifier.  It should be an awesome match.

Don't worry about the speaker wires as long as they are not braided woven high capacitance designs (bad for any system), but do keep the length and capacitance per foot of your interconnect cables as low as practical.

Hoping you have great listening.

Frank Van Alstine

[Wayner]

A pair of Ultravalve amplifiers and a phase inverter bridge (making the Ultravalve a 70 watt mono block) would be a giant killer. We ran this combo at last years RMAF with Jim Salk's HT-4 (SoundScape 12?)s and it was very impressive. I have ran the single Ultravalve thru my MartinLogan reQuests and was quite pleased.

Wayner 

[Bill]

A pair of Ultravalve amplifiers and a phase inverter bridge (making the Ultravalve a 70 watt mono block) would be a giant killer. We ran this combo at last years RMAF with Jim Salk's HT-4 (SoundScape 12?)s and it was very impressive. I have ran the single Ultravalve thru my MartinLogan reQuests and was quite pleased.

Wayner 

The only problem with this is that the Quads were designed for 15 watts so I think just one would do. But thanks for trying to "pump up the volume!"

[bobgn1]

The only problem with this is that the Quads were designed for 15 watts so I think just one would do. But thanks for trying to "pump up the volume!"

Your right Bill, just don't crank the Ultra up too much, the Quads are not Rock speakers!

[Wayner]

What impedance are the Quads?

Wayner

[JackD201]

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