*** ESL57 speakers are now sold ***
*** Final price drop for the 2xIIs, 22 and FM1, to £1000 ***
Here for sale is my Dad’s QUAD system comprising a pair of ESL57 speakers, pair of II power amps, 22 pre-amp and FM1 mono tuner. Happy to sell the speakers separately, but the IIs, 22 and FM1 come as a bundle, will not split these. If you don’t want the 22/FM1 then up to you to sell them on.
All are currently located at my Dad’s house in Bletchley near Milton Keynes and hooked up in his conservatory so can demo by arrangement (have an old DVD player hooked up to play CDs). Will need to be collected - there is one speaker box and another can be made up. Alternatively I may be able to deliver early next year when I visit him, bring them south (Woking area), deliver locally or wam taxi may be possible via @Non-Smoking Man .
Full set of photos and couple of videos here
Am asking £500 for the ESL57s, and £1000 for the 2xIIs, 22 pre and tuner.
These were bought by my Dad in 1963, serviced 3 times at Huntingdon (25 July 1977, 8 September 1986 and 17 July 1989), and last used in the early 1990s before being carefully stored until now.
All units are in pretty much original condition and working well.
I believe the ESL57s have the clamp boards installed, done in 1977 (have some paperwork), and come with the mains leads with 3 pin bulgin connector and 3 legs each. There’s a spare set of legs (in pieces) and some ply shims to prop the rear legs up. Serial numbers 11135 and 11173. These were powered up overnight before partnering with the amps to check their condition. There are no obvious sound defects, no pops or crackles. Bass and treble is all there but as the panels are old I can’t guarantee 100% SQ. Cosmetically there’s the odd blemish on the wooden end panels, but generally pretty good for their age, I’d say 9/10. There is a video showing condition of the speakers with the sound of the system audible here and with the tuner here. So in good condition cosmetically and sound fine to me.
The amps and tuner were inspected by Henry at Surrey Hifi Repairs (@toprepairman ), some components on the IIs were replaced, serial Nos 47410 and 49514. The valves are the original GEC ones:
No work was required to the 22 pre-amp nor the tuner. One of the mains switches on the 22 rotary volume knob (blue channel) which powers the II amp seems not to work perfectly, it may improve with use. I bypassed this switch using a length of wire between the 2 live terminals at the power amp end. I did have the amps working OK without it. The 22 comes with 2 original working adapters - PU RIAA and a TAPE N. The latter provides a nominal 70mV input for the tape RCA inputs, but I found its a bit quieter than the radio input and SQ isn’t as good.
The tuner works fine, hooked up to a ribbon antenna.
Henry’s verdict on the IIs was “a nice pair of amps”, with the original GEC valves in good order and matching.
Happy to answer any questions, I will need to be comfortable with any purchaser before putting in contact with my Dad.
*** Final price drop for the 2xIIs, 22 and FM1, to £1000 ***
Here for sale is my Dad’s QUAD system comprising a pair of ESL57 speakers, pair of II power amps, 22 pre-amp and FM1 mono tuner. Happy to sell the speakers separately, but the IIs, 22 and FM1 come as a bundle, will not split these. If you don’t want the 22/FM1 then up to you to sell them on.
All are currently located at my Dad’s house in Bletchley near Milton Keynes and hooked up in his conservatory so can demo by arrangement (have an old DVD player hooked up to play CDs). Will need to be collected - there is one speaker box and another can be made up. Alternatively I may be able to deliver early next year when I visit him, bring them south (Woking area), deliver locally or wam taxi may be possible via @Non-Smoking Man .
Full set of photos and couple of videos here
Am asking £500 for the ESL57s, and £1000 for the 2xIIs, 22 pre and tuner.
These were bought by my Dad in 1963, serviced 3 times at Huntingdon (25 July 1977, 8 September 1986 and 17 July 1989), and last used in the early 1990s before being carefully stored until now.
All units are in pretty much original condition and working well.
I believe the ESL57s have the clamp boards installed, done in 1977 (have some paperwork), and come with the mains leads with 3 pin bulgin connector and 3 legs each. There’s a spare set of legs (in pieces) and some ply shims to prop the rear legs up. Serial numbers 11135 and 11173. These were powered up overnight before partnering with the amps to check their condition. There are no obvious sound defects, no pops or crackles. Bass and treble is all there but as the panels are old I can’t guarantee 100% SQ. Cosmetically there’s the odd blemish on the wooden end panels, but generally pretty good for their age, I’d say 9/10. There is a video showing condition of the speakers with the sound of the system audible here and with the tuner here. So in good condition cosmetically and sound fine to me.
The amps and tuner were inspected by Henry at Surrey Hifi Repairs (@toprepairman ), some components on the IIs were replaced, serial Nos 47410 and 49514. The valves are the original GEC ones:
- 2 resistors (R7 and R9) and the 2 coupling capacitors C2 and C3, on each amp (see photos)
- On one amp, the C4 capacitor was short circuit, so a replacement has been soldered in place with the terminal connected to the original cap loose and wrapped in tape. This is to allow the new owner to replace the 2 caps in the aluminium can and preserve originality if desired.
- The 4 caps C2 and C3 that were removed, are provided, in case the new owner wants to repack them.
- The bodies of the 2 original 2 pin bulgin plugs feeding mains to the II amps have perished, the inner bullet connectors are provided. I have fashioned some bullet connectors in the meantime which connect to the original live/neutral cables via wago connectors.
- Jones connectors are intact.
- I've gently cleaned up the casing, there are some rust patches which are quite usual on these amps
No work was required to the 22 pre-amp nor the tuner. One of the mains switches on the 22 rotary volume knob (blue channel) which powers the II amp seems not to work perfectly, it may improve with use. I bypassed this switch using a length of wire between the 2 live terminals at the power amp end. I did have the amps working OK without it. The 22 comes with 2 original working adapters - PU RIAA and a TAPE N. The latter provides a nominal 70mV input for the tape RCA inputs, but I found its a bit quieter than the radio input and SQ isn’t as good.
The tuner works fine, hooked up to a ribbon antenna.
Henry’s verdict on the IIs was “a nice pair of amps”, with the original GEC valves in good order and matching.
Happy to answer any questions, I will need to be comfortable with any purchaser before putting in contact with my Dad.
Attachments
Last edited:
