Guidance needed: Cost of restoration vs DIY vs part out....

[dshoaf]

I picked up a set of Quad ESL63s a few weeks ago. These are all-origianal and, from their serial numbers appear to be about 20 years old from their original owner, who hadn't used them in about 10 years. I'd always wanted a set but never could afford them. At the asking price, I decided to take a chance on them.

Needless to say, I'm discovering how much it will cost to fully restore them, which I, frankly, cannot afford. It appears all the panels need attention due to sagging mylar and lots of HV leakage across the stators, as well as the HV power supply diodes/caps need to be replaced - HV is about 1/2 of spec'd output right now. The good news is that I'm not into them too badly at this point, financially, but just don't want to go with the cost of a set of factory-new panels.

So, I'm trying to decide whether I'll just use the electronics and DIY my own panels of some sort or whether to part them out for others to enjoy tinkering with.

I'd appreciate guidance from others on how they may have dealt with this sort of situation.

Many thanks for all considerations and cheers,

David

[I_Forgot]

You can replace the diaphragms yourself if you are willing to put in a little effort. It won't cost much.

I_F

[dshoaf]

Yes, now that I spent a bit more time here and with my nose in the innards, its a lot more simple that I realized.

Should be a fun project.....thanks!

Cheers,

David

[dshoaf]

With coaching from Sheldon Stokes, the Quads will be rebuilt with the help of ER Audio's rebuild kit. I probably could have assembled the materials myself but they've done that part of the work and have thought out the mylar tensioning tricks, too. That's worth supporting them alone.

It will be a few weeks before the kit gets here but I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks for the support here, too!

Cheers,

David

[rpapps]

Hi
Have you seen this website

http://www.quadesl.com/quad_main.shtml

In particular, this article

http://www.quadesl.com/pdf/quadart.pdf

Some good DIY info.
Cheers
Rob

[stokessd]

Man, it's been a lot of years since I wrote that quad article.

The 63's are pretty easy to repair (the over-engineered input circuitry can be a pain to track down problems in). The biggest problem with the 63's is the fact that Quad used really marginal glue to attach the perforated stator material to the plastic grid. The stator glue bonds break and the stator gets pulled into the diaphragm, and it's panel rebuild time. Nasty, nasty...

As part of your rebuilding, you want to reglue all the stators to the support structure. If they haven't broken free, you can touch-up the glue bond with a syringe. I have been using polyeurathane glue with very good results. It's slightly flexable and sticks like glue...


They are pretty neat speakers, not worth what they did or do sell for, but for the amount of money you'll put into them to get them working, very worth it.

Sheldon

[Brian Beck]

They are pretty neat speakers, not worth what they did or do sell for,

Well, a few of us just might disagree! After listening to too many Wilsons and similar overpriced dreck, it's nice to hear neutrality again with ESL-63s.