Who says Quads have to be Electrostats? Quad 22L ...

1 When I first heard that Quadwas introducing a new line ofdynamic loudspeakers,designed and manufactured entirelyin-house, I wondered whether theywould be worthy of the quad many audiophiles, I've reserved aspecial place in my heart for Quadelectrostats, having owned severalstock and highly modified pairs overthe years. Thus far, nobody else's mod-estly priced dynamic speakers havebeen able to rival my reference,tricked-out quad electrostats when itcomes to musicality, naturalness, coher-ence, low level detail, microdynamics,and transient quickness. But couldthese new moving coil entries fromQuad itself close the gap? To get right to the point, the newfloorstanding quad 22Ls come closerto some of the best sonic attributes ofmy beloved electrostats than any otherfull-range speakers with dynamic driv-ers I've heard under $2K and they doa better job than some costing muchmore.

2 Not only do the L-series floor-standers maintain a lot of the "housesound" for which quad loudspeakersare famous, but they also are quitedynamic, go down to 30Hz (whichQuad's electrostats do not), haveJim HannonEquipment Review Copyright 2005, Absolute MultimediaAVguide MonthlyPage says Quads have to be Electrostats? quad 22L Loudspeaker and L-series Subwoofer"To get right to the point,the new floorstanding Quad22Ls come closer to someof the best sonic attributesof my beloved electrostatsthan any other full-rangespeakers with dynamicdrivers I've heard under$ "absolutely stunning looks, and arepriced within reach of more music andhome theater enthusiasts. quad haspulled off an undoubtedly tough, andsomewhat risky, balancing 22Ls approach some of thephenomenal aspects of their electro-static siblings in three areas.

3 First, thereis a musical "rightness" about them,such as their ability to reproduce thetimbre of instruments and voices natu-rally. Far too many mid-priced (andhigher-priced) speakers fail to do this,which is one of the primary reasons Ikeep returning to quad 's stats. The22Ls don't obscure or homogenize thesubtle sonic cues that differentiate thevery best instruments from their moremundane counterparts. Listen to thetimbre of the pre-war 10-10 clarinet onthe Musical Fidelity recording ofMozart's Clarinet Concerto on theseQuads, and you'll see what I mean. Attimes, the musicality and sonic realismof the 22Ls fooled me into thinking Iwas listening to their electrostatic sib-lings!

4 Second, the soundstaging of the22Ls is very good, rivaling speakerscosting much more. Admittedly, somelower-priced speakers I've reviewedrecently, such as the Wharfedale ,PSB T45s, and Snell K-7s, have verygood lateral imaging between thespeakers. The Quads excel here, too,but their soundstage has more depthand width that extends beyond theboundaries of the speakers at the frontof the stage. Listening to the wonderfulopera recording of Verdi's Aida[Decca/Speakers Corner], the expansivesoundstage helped pull me into themusic. While this may be an artifact ofthe recording process, it is a lot of funto "see" performers moving about thestage. Third, the quad 22Ls have low dis-tortion and are quite coherent for fullrange speakers with multiple dynamicdrivers, particularly in this price listening to instruments withbroad frequency ranges, such aspianos, transitions from one driver toanother are nearly seamless.

5 The 22L'sproprietary drivers have beendesigned by quad 's Steve Hewlettfrom scratch to work well together andminimize distortion. One agile Kevlarwoofer interfaces with the quick fabricdome tweeter in the critical midrangearea, while the other identical, long-throw woofer handles deeper bassonly. Other manufacturers likeWharfedale, another IAG company, andPSB use similar high-woofer/low-woofer arrangements to increasecoherency, and I do like this their powerful magnets, the Quaddrivers are able to start and stop quick-ly, which gives them transient quick-ness without excessive overhangacross their frequency ranges, enhanc-ing coherence. The 22Ls offer some real advan-tages over my more costly, modified,original Quads .

6 While I still prefer theQuad stats overall for two-channelaudio, my call goes to the floorstandersfor other applications. Let's face it, the22Ls are much more practical for multi-channel audio and home theater, offer-ing far greater placement and seatingflexibility, and a higher dynamic kept expecting them to poop out onlarge scale dynamic peaks, but theyhung right in there on all kinds ofmusic. The bass is so extended and sat-isfying that a subwoofer is not reallyrequired. Listen to Debussy's Imagespour Orchestre[Decca/SpeakersCorner] on the 22Ls and you'll hearbass that is deep and Quads fit in more easily withroom d cor and have the most beauti-ful cabinet work I've seen in any mid-priced speaker.

7 You can choose fromfour real wood veneers at no extracharge. My speakers came in bird's eyemaple and had an exquisite high-glossJim HannonEquipment Review Copyright 2005, Absolute MultimediaAVguide MonthlyPage "Although a lot of sub-woofers can move air, theQuad is also quick, controlled, and musical. Itdoesn't intrude on the purity of the midrange andis fast enough to keep upwith the smaller bass drivers of the 22Ls."finish, reminding me of the one on myGrotrian Steinway grand seven coats of lacquer, asQuad does on the L-series speakers, islabor and time intensive, but wellworth the results. I haven't found thislevel of quality and polish at the$1600/pair price point, or, for that mat-ter, in many speakers costing $3K/pair!

8 The Quads come with other nicetouches that make you feel like you'rebuying expensive speakers. They arrivewrapped in a cloth-like bag andinclude a set of white gloves to keepfingerprints from marring their highgloss surfaces. The speakers have adouble set of gold-plated bindingposts, and I found that bi-wiring addeda bit more purity to the the posts at first appear to limityou to using bare speaker wire or oneprong of a spade connector, you canhappily use banana connectors if youpop out the plastic red and black cov-ers on the terminals. Lastly the ship-ping containers have multiple layers ofprotection, including foam inserts,which protect the speakers from ship-ping mishaps.

9 It's a good thing, too,because the review samples arrivedwith a deep gouge in their outer , the gorgeous speakerswere unscathed. The quad L-series SubwooferFrankly, quad 's new L-series sub-woofer is so good in its own right thatit really merits a full review, but I'll tryto do it justice in a few paragraphs. Lastnight, I attended a per-formance of the SanFrancisco Ballet, andthey used a fullorchestra for aTchaikovsky dynamic peaks, Icould feel the pressureof the sound wavesagainst my chest, par-ticularly from the dou-ble bass, brass andtympani. The additionof the quad sub givesme a similar feeling, asthis baby moves a lotof air. It adds to therealism of an already fine system andmakes it more dynamic, extended,holographic, and a lot of subwoofers canmove air, the quad is also quick, con-trolled, and musical.

10 It doesn't intrudeon the purity of the midrange and isfast enough to keep up with the small-er bass drivers of the 22Ls. At times, Ithought I had failed to turn on the sub-woofer when suddenly, powerful deeptones emerged that sent chills downmy spine. The overall performance of thisdownward firing 12" subwoofer is thebest I've heard at anywhere near itsprice. It comes with a remote to controlthe sub's volume, low-pass crossoverpoints (from 35-85Hz in ten Hertzincrements, or you can by-pass it alto-gether), and phase (0 or 180 degrees)from the listening position. It is highlyuseful, and I can't see going back to asubwoofer without this , the L-series sub has thesame luxurious high gloss finish as the22Ls.