[seavan]

Hi Everyone I have been reading this forum for some time. It's great to see so many nice people in our hobby!

I have been listening to Quad ESL 57 for many years now. I don't think I will part with them any time soon but I am thinking of getting a new set of speakers. I love the musical tonality of the Quads and I want to get more dynamics, energy, maybe more air and soundstage. I might be wrong but I think that open baffle speakers sound closer to the Quads than boxed speakers. In my quest, I went to a local dealer and I did not like the sound in any of their very expensive rooms. It was hard to tell if it was an electronic piano or not! They had mostly BW and KEF. I heard Caladans on a show and I thought they were a touch sharp for my taste. I realize that all that could be due to other equipment, source, room, and many other factors. However, I am sensitive for the sharpness in HF. I don't have an opportunity to listen to any of the GR speakers and to be honest, I think they will sound different in my setup anyways. I listen mostly to classical music and Jazz. Most of my stack is tube. I listen mostly to CD and SACD (I love my Sony SCD-1) and sometimes vinyl and DAC.

Long story short, I would like to build GR Research speakers. My room is pretty small 13x17 with windows and a french door. I do use quite a bit of acoustic treatment. I have been thinking of NX-Otica or X-Static but I am afraid they might be too big for my room. I am open to other options. Can I please ask for your advice.

[FullRangeMan]

Hi,
I don´t think your room is small IMO.
When you going to sell your SDC-1 let me know please. 

[NXSTUDIO-DRUMMER]

Here some suggestions from an old link regarding Ottica's.
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=175417.0

[EdwardT]

My room is 12x16 with an GIK treatment package and I like my X-Statiks very much. 

[seavan]

Thank you for your responses. It gives me some confidence about going with the X-Static.

[NoahH]

Just to call it out - your room is small but that is a good reason to do open baffle. You can get them closer to the side wall than sealed boxes, so you can get a bigger sound in that room.

[KTS]

seavan,
It is challenging for me to recommend one speaker over another; however, my room is around 17x21 and is well treated with absorption and diffusion. I am running NX Studio's on top of double trouble OB subs. This works very well in this size room. Just another avenue to look at. I am running class A 25W amplification for your reference.

[toocool4]

The Qaud ESL 57 are amazing, unless you are looking for a totally different approach I would not bother changing.

[seavan]

NoaH, KTS, thank you for your input.

toocool4, I am very happy with the Quads - I really appreciate their beautiful musicality and ability to reproduce tonality of acoustic instruments and intimacy of human voice. I love how they render piano. However, I think they are missing energy, speed, soundstage, and overall do not produce big enough sound. For example, drums sound a bit flat to me - I am not talking about subwoofer slam, it's more like a sound of energy of drumstick attack that they are missing. Sorry, I am not good at explaining sound. To summarize, maybe they sound too relaxing.

[Tyson]

Yes, well done OB speakers using good quality midrange and bass drivers like here will give you more punch and dynamics electrostatics or even planars.  Having the top section be OB is a really good design choice.

X-Statics won't need subs.  NX-Otica's will need subs.

[toocool4]

seavan, I understand what you are saying. Have you experiment with setup? Sometimes people chase new kit, when they have not fully exploit what they have to get the best out of what they have first. Most of us already have very good kit, but have not fully extracted the potential. We can always squeeze more out of what we already have, for zero monetary cost by just spending a bit more time.

A new user just joined the forum the other day, from the intro and image of his room, I thought he could get more out of his system. I made a suggestion and he tried it. See the thread here https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=193491.0

[Huskerbryce]

I have the NX-oticas in a room that is basically the same small size.  (13x20)ish  With a combination of absorption and quadratic diffusion panels I have achieved fantastic music and movie experiences.  I experimented with speaker placement and panel placement using Room EQ Wizard.  With the Otica about 3 ft from the back wall and 2.5 ft from the side walls and a listening distance (couch) about 8 ft away, I am happy.  I get a room mode (cancel) around the midbass range of 150hz.  I used a thicker rug, 10”  thick corner traps and put really thick absorption low and behind the mains with a quadratic diffusion panel stacked above the absorption panel behind the tweeter and midrange drivers.  Also put absorption on the ceiling above listening position and on the back walls.  I was able to control that 150hz mode to acceptable levels.  My listening experience is much better with open baffle in my small room than any box speaker Ive ever had in there.  I can tell you without a doubt that no matter what speaker you choose, room treatment will help immensely with any design.

[Endo2112]

If you just want to build a new speaker because of the audiophile itch, the NX Ottica's would be a great choice in that size of a room, and with a little eq'ing you can easily bump the bass, if memory serves Captainhemo was getting flat to 30 in the exact same size room. If memory also serves, thw Q57's only are good to ~45hz at best anyways so you wouldn't be giving much up. However, if you are a bit crazy, like myself when it comes to speakers, i'd get another set of 57's and stack them, one of the best systems that i've ever heard had that and they were spectacular, particularily the vocals. Add a couple subs per side and you are done.

Good luck,

Don

[seavan]

Don, can I ask you, what are the benefits of stacking Quads? How does it compare to NX-Otica? I definitely have that itch and I would enjoy building NX Ottica, but I already have too many projects going on experimenting with a new DAC, some woodworking.

I am not too crazy about bass - I tried subwoofer (Hsu) with my Quads years ago and while I can hear a significant difference, it does not do too much for my enjoyment of music for some reason.

Tyson, toocool4, Huskerbryce, thank you very much for your recommendations!

[Tyson]

I run NX-Oticas in my downstairs setup with triple OB servo subs per side.  I'd say it's in the top 5 setups I've heard.  The servo subs are no joke - fast and very musical.  Way better for music than any box subs I've ever heard.  Integration with the full OB NX-Oticas is seamless.