Stacked Quad ESL63?

[malcesine]

Anyone ever seen, heard or have vertically stacked ESL63's (as is common with the original ESL / 57)
If so, what was your experience or advice?

 

[bencat]

Yes heard two sets . They both sounded excellent but just not enough room or partner goodwill to try them . I would suggest that you contact Andrew Jones at AQuadThing Audio as he has the knowledge of building these for customers and has already found out the pitfalls and best practice .

 

[Paul55]

Vertical stacking of 63s is unlikely to be a good idea, as you would end up with separated point sources producing the same signal, a recipe for interference (of the constructive/destructive sort).

You could try placing them side by side but with an angle between them. You could try side by side and restrict the outer (or inner) to bass frequencies. You could find a pair of 989s...

 

[bencat]

Vertical stacking of 63s is unlikely to be a good idea, as you would end up with separated point sources producing the same signal, a recipe for interference (of the constructive/destructive sort).

You could try placing them side by side but with an angle between them. You could try side by side and restrict the outer (or inner) to bass frequencies. You could find a pair of 989s...

So you have have heard this working and come to that conclusion ? Ahhh no you are guessing , stacking Quads is a very long standing thing and was even part of SME owners music room for many years . There is work and skill needed to get the best results hence my advice to contact Andrew Jones for advice . Mistrust have heard stacked quads are very positive about the musical results when they do not sound anything like the 989,s .

 

[terrycym]

I've heard a pair of stacked ESL-57's.
They were like a mirror image with the lower speaker upside down.
Sounded truly amazing to me
You do need some bespoke metal work to fix them together.
He had Quad II's driving them.

They did dominate the room!

I'd imagine the 63's would be enormous in comparison but sound even better.

BTW
Do give them a good service when you're mounting them together, give the insides a good clean. The internal components probably need renewing by now

 

[Paul55]

ARA had two pairs of 63s in his music room, they weren't stacked.

Stacked Quads almost always refers to stacked 57s which are a whole other topology and where stacking is obviously a good idea. Perhaps you can produce some examples of successful applications of stacked 63s?

 

[bencat]

Abject apologies like the idiot I am I read this wrong and presumed the stacks were 57,s . I have never seen it heard stacked 63 but I do know ARA at one time had stacked 57,s but we're later replaced with 63 and no idea how they were used .

 

[terrycym]

Stacked 63's are going t be over 6' tall!

 

[malcesine]

Thanks all, sounds like 57 and 63 are fundamentally different speakers, also explains why I could find virtually nothing online ref stacked 63's.
Would like to try 57's (stacked or otherwise) one day.

 

[bencat]

Thanks all, sounds like 57 and 63 are fundamentally different speakers, also explains why I could find virtually nothing online ref stacked 63's.
Would like to try 57's (stacked or otherwise) one day.

Well if you are ever in the area of Liverpool you have an open invitation to come and listen to mine .

 

[Mr Raj]

Hi everyone.
Interesting topic Stacking Quad ESL63.
If I was to do it, I would use the 2nd one in a vertical stack and bi wire them and feed the one at the bottom through a low pass filter say below 100hz, by doing this it will improve the bottom end and won't effect the point source output of the unit above it, so your dispersion will not be effected too much. Just a thought.

 

[rabski]

I've had stacked 57s, but personally I wouldn't try with 63s. If you look at 'naked' versions of each, you'll soon see why the 63 is a very different beast. The concentric 'ring' design of 63s involves time alignment, so they behave like a point source. You could low/high pass filter them so they deal with separate frequencies, but then you'd throw away the main point of having stacked pairs in the first place.

With 57s, it definitely offers significant improvements. With 63s, I'd just leave 'as is' and accept what they are.

 

[Paul55]

Abject apologies like the idiot I am I read this wrong and presumed the stacks were 57,s . I have never seen it heard stacked 63 but I do know ARA at one time had stacked 57,s but we're later replaced with 63 and no idea how they were used .

I found a reference that suggested the second pair of 63s were facing sideways and fed with low levels to enhance 'ambiance'.

Stacked 57s are a very good idea. We had a pair in a small bedroom at Scalford one year, and we brought a different arrangement of 4 a couple of times, placed one their sides and driven via some custom DSP to attempt to make the results less directional. Worked quite well, and there's plenty of opportunity for development. Awkward to accommodate at home though, for most people...

In my back office I have 8 57s with an outline plan to do something absurd with them.