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Sixty year old technology. Any progress?

Nada
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Nada Grand Champion

Nada

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The video shows refurbished  Quad 57's from the 1957 design in action with a Garrard turntable.  It starts with a conversation that reveals the  quality of he recoding gear and also the room timbre. Later the Quads start up. For playing acoustic music I dont think there's been any  improvement in design in sixty years except for digital annihilating those annoying pops from records. Sixty years and where's the real progress?

 

For sceptics that think Youtube playback cant possible reveal the quality of  system please just move on.

 

Disclaimer: I dont have Quad 57's or a turntable but I think Ive been conned.

 

 

 

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Al.M Veteran

Al.M

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I haven’t heard any mega or other conventional cone speakers that can do midrange and imaging as well as the Quad 57, however they can do better bass, treble and play louder.

 

Other more modern ESLs can do almost as good or equal midrange and imaging but overall better bass, treble and play louder.

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10 hours ago, frankn said:
[mention=106714]Grizzly[/mention] have a look at this rack as well as the system. 8-9min in the video. 

That's a neat design. I'll look further into that one.

 

 

Edit- $7500US........ wow.

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Guest Sime

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20 hours ago, Nada said:

For sceptics that think Youtube playback cant possible reveal the quality of  system please just move on.

Agree with this perfectly. And to those that don’t, it isn’t as simple as you think. Sure, your hearing that system through your speakers, but in this day and age, portable recording gear is very good and you can instantly get an idea of a systems clarity and detail from a YouTube video. I’ve watch 1000’s of videos like this and have bought MANY albums that I’ve heard in demos on YouTube that made me buy that album and have heard the quality of said recordings on my own system. 

 

Youtube isnt just shitty low quality cat videos……………………

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Addicted to music Life Member

Addicted to music

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On 04/05/2018 at 4:33 PM, Sime said:

Agree with this perfectly. And to those that don’t, it isn’t as simple as you think. Sure, your hearing that system through your speakers, but in this day and age, portable recording gear is very good and you can instantly get an idea of a systems clarity and detail from a YouTube video. I’ve watch 1000’s of videos like this and have bought MANY albums that I’ve heard in demos on YouTube that made me buy that album and have heard the quality of said recordings on my own system. 

 

Youtube isnt just shitty low quality cat videos……………………

Agreed with @Nada and well said @Sime  that’s where the 67 yrs of advancement has occurred.  

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crisis Veteran

crisis

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On 04/05/2018 at 4:03 PM, Sime said:

Agree with this perfectly. And to those that don’t, it isn’t as simple as you think. Sure, your hearing that system through your speakers, but in this day and age, portable recording gear is very good and you can instantly get an idea of a systems clarity and detail from a YouTube video. I’ve watch 1000’s of videos like this and have bought MANY albums that I’ve heard in demos on YouTube that made me buy that album and have heard the quality of said recordings on my own system. 

 

Youtube isnt just shitty low quality cat videos……………………

I can understand buying an album but my PC speakers cannot reproduce the "quality" of a system no matter how well it is recorded. Not only am I hearing music reproduced through the system being recorded but I am now hearing a second generation representation through seriously crappy speakers. If my PC speakers reproduced it properly we could all save a lot of money.

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LogicprObe Life Member

LogicprObe

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1 hour ago, crisis said:

I can understand buying an album but my PC speakers cannot reproduce the "quality" of a system no matter how well it is recorded. Not only am I hearing music reproduced through the system being recorded but I am now hearing a second generation representation through seriously crappy speakers. If my PC speakers reproduced it properly we could all save a lot of money.

 

Wait until you hear it through your inbuilt TV speakers!

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Guest Eggcup The Daft

Guest Eggcup The Daft

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On 03/05/2018 at 7:44 PM, Nada said:

The video shows refurbished  Quad 57's from the 1957 design in action with a Garrard turntable.  It starts with a conversation that reveals the  quality of he recoding gear and also the room timbre. Later the Quads start up. For playing acoustic music I dont think there's been any  improvement in design in sixty years except for digital annihilating those annoying pops from records. Sixty years and where's the real progress?

 

For sceptics that think Youtube playback cant possible reveal the quality of  system please just move on.

 

Disclaimer: I dont have Quad 57's or a turntable but I think Ive been conned.

 

 

 

I have fond memories of a system with '57s I heard on a few occasions, that was pretty much contemporary to the period - the amps concerned were built from a 1950s HiFi News article (power amps) and a kit built pre from the early days of stereo, and the turntable a period Thorens. It seems that hifi developed to a high art practically as soon as the LP was introduced.

 

The answer to your question with these speakers is in the video - these days we can have excellent fidelity across the full audible range. The reproduction of the double bass is behind modern speakers at the same price in real terms. (I'm not going to comment further based on even a decent recording of the system).

 

There has been improvement. I've only mentioned one area in which that has happened. No need to feel conned.

 

 

 

 

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MrRogers Veteran

MrRogers

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No progress for me - still using 60 year old technology.

 

Well at least for the speakers and power amps.  The turntable is only 35 year old technology [emoji14]

 

Yes but it’s all connected together with the latest state of the art Aurealis cables. The cables make your system shine.

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Tony M Grand Champion

Tony M

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"Morning Bird" by Sade.  Pretty sure it was mentioned somewhere on the site.

 

 BTW, Shazam (or similar app) on your phone is just great for identifying tracks.

 

 

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Frameperfect Collaborator

Frameperfect

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On 04/05/2018 at 2:33 PM, Sime said:

Agree with this perfectly. And to those that don’t, it isn’t as simple as you think. Sure, your hearing that system through your speakers, but in this day and age, portable recording gear is very good and you can instantly get an idea of a systems clarity and detail from a YouTube video. I’ve watch 1000’s of videos like this and have bought MANY albums that I’ve heard in demos on YouTube that made me buy that album and have heard the quality of said recordings on my own system. 

 

Youtube isnt just shitty low quality cat videos……………………

 

On 05/05/2018 at 4:59 PM, crisis said:

I can understand buying an album but my PC speakers cannot reproduce the "quality" of a system no matter how well it is recorded. Not only am I hearing music reproduced through the system being recorded but I am now hearing a second generation representation through seriously crappy speakers. If my PC speakers reproduced it properly we could all save a lot of money.

 

I'm quite interested in this debate, having watched plenty of videos of gear on youtube, and read the comment section screeching the same 'this is stupid remarks'.

 

My guess is the quality of microphone, positioning, room dimensions and treatment would be the deciding factor, and not the speakers themselves. But microphone type used is paramount. 

 

When an album is recorded, different mics are used for different takes. The drums, pianos, strings, vocals all get different microphones as far as I know. These microphones specilise in the particular dynamics and frequency of what is being recorded. The individual takes are mixed. 

 

Therefore, when we listen to these youtube videos from one microphone the microphone used matters. I'm no expert, but I'd say the youtube videos that really impress one, are done on microphones used for recording vocals. This is a suspicion but I will elaborate. 

 

I performed an experiment. My speakers are in the bedroom of my rental, the room is 3m x 3.7m. There is no room treatment atm. My speakers are VA BBG's. I used a $150 USB mic I use for discord. I recorded the same Sade song used in the youtube video above. Heard through my speakers the Sade song has a lot of bass, that youtube video is all mid range, the bass is significantly lower. It's so low in fact, I put my own recording done with my USB mic into my DAW, and had to cut the 60 hertz and under frequencies right out to get the same sound as the youtube video above. The overall quality of my recording with my general purpose mic was pretty low resolution, but what it did show me was that compared to the youtube video, it may have been low quality, but it had the full frequency spectrum, whereas the youtube video was able to capture the mid range brilliantly.

 

This is 100% a guess, and I'd be happy to hear a proper explanation, cheers. 

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