FixIt

The Quad Electrostatic Loudspeaker is one of those very, very few things that you may own which is about 20 to 30 years old, that you would want to spend any time restoring to original condition. However, it seems that there's quite a few folks out there who still prize the sound of this speaker above all others, and stacked pairs of them...(?)...even more so.

So, you've taken the "mental plunge". You've got the mind set. You're going to buy a pair and restore them, or you have to restore a pair you were left in your Uncle's estate, or you have to restore a pair you've owned yourself for 25 years. The pages in the links (above left) are full of information on "How To..." do various things to a Quad Electrostatic Loudspeaker. The task of restoration requires patience, care and attention to detail. Some parts are hard to get, others irreplaceable. Oh, and if you're not to familiar or comfortable with handling the high internal voltages involved, don't do it at all. Some errors are merely shocking, others may be fatal.

My personal philosophy is to bring the speaker back to its original condition as far as possible. I don't use graphite coatings. I don't use LED power lamps. I don't use ... a lot of things. Why? There are better materials available for some parts of the speaker now? Yes, in some cases that is true, but I would like mine the way they were, except where old components might be inadequate or dangerous (e.g. old wire, diodes, resistors). How you re-build yours? That's your decision.