As I mentioned before, there were several reasons that made it worth our time to come to D.C. from California for CAF 2019. As I’ve also mentioned before, I love Quad ESLs and enjoyed listening to the Quads in the EMIA room. If you haven’t already, you can read my post about that room here, but they weren’t the only Quads at the show.
Robyatt Audio and Sound Advice teamed up at CAF, and Robin Wyattt’s Electrostatic Solutions Quad 57’s ($6,000/pair) got more than one visit from me over the weekend. I had already heard so much about how great this combo sounded, and I wasn’t disappointed.
The System
Robin paired the Quad’s with Butler Monads power amplifiers ($19,000/pair) and the Mytek Manhattan II preamp ($6,000). The preamp included a Roon card ($1,000) and Phono Stage mm/mc ($1,500).
The vinyl front-end was a skeletal version of the VPI HW 40 turntable ($15,000) with a Metal Mat’s CU180 Cirrus Platter Mat ($1,375). The first tonearm was a VPI 12″ Fatboy (included in the price of the turntable) mounted with a Miyajima Infinity Mono Phono Cartridge ($3,350). The second tonearm was the Schroeder SQ Reference ($9,950) mounted with a Miyajima Destiny cartridge ($7,500).
The rest of the system consisted of Finley Audio cables, a Wax Rax LP-H Console ($8,500), a TT-1 Turntable Stand ($7,000), and an LP-C Record Pedestal ($1,650).
Four years ago, I reviewed a pair of Wayne Picquet’s restored Quad ESLs. I never got the kind of sound from them in my room that I heard from this system in a hotel board room. The sound was so very fast, yet it had wonderful big tones. The transparency was the best I have ever heard. There was nothing at the show that I wanted to take home with me as much as I wanted to take home a pair of these speakers and amplifiers!
This is actually looking pretty amazing and at first I thought it was made of another DIY hacks but it turns out to be another masterpiece that I was eager to wait.