Quad 12L speakers.... first impressions

[RunOutGroove]

Ok... I've been building my audio system piece by piece and honestly I thought that I was done with the big stuff, but as I'm sure a lot of you can relate, I can't keep myself off of the local internet ads, looking for the crazy deals on audio... even if I really don't need anything. Anyway, I saw this pair of Quad speakers for sale at what seemed to be a very good price, looked up the reviews and since they were mostly positive, I reasoned that I could maybe buy these and fund them by selling one of the pairs of speakers that I currently own. I initially messaged the seller about what model they were, since the ad was very basic and didn't have that info. By the time she got back to me to say that they were the 12L model, she doubled the price as she said that someone told her they were probably worth that much. When she messaged me again and asked me if I was interested in them, I said yes, but only at the original price. She agreed to that and I bought them (score!)

After hooking them up I realize that they're in perfect working shape, though cosmetically they have a few scrapes, but nothing really bad. Lots of grime, but the slick, piano black finish on these things polishes up nicely. They also came with some really beefy looking Audio Quest cables; the kind of with the biamp 4 prong speaker side connections. I can't use these with the Quads though as the room where I have them is the "remote speaker position" and the wires I need are too long, going though my basement. I thought about using them in my main room with my Jamo C103 speakers (which also have a biamp configuration, but unfortunately one of the speakers is a bit too far from the amp for the length of this cable. Without those four connector speaker wire, I needed some jumpers, which I made out of some spare hard type wire that I had laying around.,,, and I hooked these things up.

Anyway, though I like my Elac Debut 2.0 B6.2 speakers that I had in the spot where the Quads are sitting now, I'm liking these Quads much better. Though these Quads only cost me a bit more than I paid for my Elacs (which I also got used for a decent, but not quite as fantastic a price), they seem like they're really in an entirely different class. The Quads are super transparent sounding with lots of detail that the Elacs just don't have. They seem maybe even more transparent sounding than my Jamos and I thought that those speakers had a lot of that. I'm listening to a CD that's one of my go to recordings for high fidelity, something by the drummer Leon Parker called Belief and it's really never sounded better; I've never heard the kind of clarity that I'm hearing from this. The imaging is really nice too, again maybe even better than the Jamos and I thought that they did that well. I feel like I can really hear into the recording. These speakers seem pretty ideal too for near-field listening as they're placed on stands to either side of my computer desk and as I'm sitting here typing this they sound great, a bit like very big headphones, wrapping the sound around my head! One thing that I noticed with these was that string bass really sounds woody. These little speakers don't go very low with the bass as one would expect, but the bass that they do have is really rich and seems to carry with it all of the overtones (this is something that I always notice with speakers)...

I did play one thing, an LP of John Abercrombie's Gateway album (a big favorite of mine, with Jack Dejonette and Dave Holland) and it sounded very good, but honestly on that particular one the Quads sounded maybe a hair too sharp, but that could just be a matter of my ears adjusting to the sound of these things. I do think that my Elacs (and to a lesser extent, the Jamos) probably work better for more roughly recorded music as they are far more easy going and may even sound all-around better for more aggressive rock type music. I also can see that though they're more efficient than the Jamos and can crank pretty loud before any distortion happens, I have to say that they sound a bit strained when played loud – the Jamos seem to be better for that. I think that I'll be OK with these compromises though because I'm much more likely to listen to more subtle stuff at lower volumes when I'm in the particular room that these Quads are in.

Overall, I'm really happy with these things. I know that the Quad brand make some very high end, very expensive speakers but honestly I wasn't even aware that they made anything more affordable or small like these 12Ls. That is until I found the ad with these things for sale. I went on only a hunch that I'd dig these things, but they're really perfect... at least from what I'm hearing so far. I think that selling my Elacs along with the Audio Quest speaker cables that I got as part of the deal that I'll likely get this upgrade for free or I might even make a bit of profit, which is just how I like to do it!

 

[liemjerry]

Hello
I am happy to hear your review that represents my desire to buy Quad 12L, the thing I want to ask, what I want to ask the most is how is the quality of the bass?
Is the vocal sound as natural? In my opinion, the bass is excessive and tends to be boomy.
How about for this 12L Quad?
thanks

 

[fredgarvin]

I heard those years ago and I liked their sound as well. However it's said by many that the active version is a good step up.

 

[RunOutGroove]

Hello
I am happy to hear your review that represents my desire to buy Quad 12L, the thing I want to ask, what I want to ask the most is how is the quality of the bass?
Is the vocal sound as natural? In my opinion, the bass is excessive and tends to be boomy.
How about for this 12L Quad?
thanks

After having these things for a while, I do feel like they are a bit of a step up from my old Elacs in that they're more transparent sounding... more detailed with a deeper soundstage. They're a bit thinner sounding though than the Elacs, which to me might be a better speaker than the Quads if you mostly play stuff like rock and roll or bass heavy electronic music. I have them as a second set of speakers in a bedroom/office and they're well suited to that as when I'm in this room, I'm typically listening to more subtle kinds of things at lower volumes and not the kind of stuff that requires the might that these speakers don't really have so much of. Rather than boomy, I actually find the bass on these things a bit thin, though I would imagine that with the right subwoofer they might really be a great. Funny, but a set of Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 speakers that I once had in the same room, despite the fact that they were much cheaper and had a smaller bass driver seem to have stronger, tighter bass than the Quads do. They weren't nearly as detailed sounding though and didn't have the sense of depth that the Quads have.

 

[Manifold]

Congratulations. I have owned a pair of original Quad 12L's for several years and they are superb stereo speakers.
It took me a while to get the best out of these. I have them on solid stands, biwired with 12 guage copper cables, and set a minimum two feet from the wall to avoid bass cancellation from the rear ports. They are stunning with good quality recordings.

 

[RunOutGroove]

Congratulations. I have owned a pair of original Quad 12L's for several years and they are superb stereo speakers.
It took me a while to get the best out of these. I have them on solid stands, biwired with 12 guage copper cables, and set a minimum two feet from the wall to avoid bass cancellation from the rear ports. They are stunning with good quality recordings.

After some months with these things, I've gone back and fourth with how much I like them. At one point I wanted to sell these and get something else. I realized though that for where I wanted these things, in a bedroom/office space where I'm really tight on space (they need to fit on stands on either side of a computer desk and between two doors), I needed something really small, like these things are too fit. Any bigger and I've be bumping into the them. All of this would mean more limited choices for replacements and it seems that the really tiny monitor type speakers that are considered to be really great, tend to be very expensive and out of my budget (tittle chance of better these Quads without spending a LOT). When I thought that I might be selling them I hooked them up in my main room (rather than on the same system but as remotes) and maybe because of the bi-wire cables I have in that room, they sounded much better to me and I've decided to keep them. They still don't sound as good as my Jamo 103 speakers (bigger, newer, more expensive speakers though) in that big room but they sounded much better than I ever thought they would. Now I just have to deal with the making of bi-wire remote cables and running them through my basement (replacing some old light gauge 2 conductor wires). I figure that they'll probably sound good enough in that little room that I won't feel like I need much else. I'm getting closer to an end to the whole upgrade path thing, at least for the time being and becoming more OK with the stuff that I already own.

After having these for a while and experimenting with them, I feel like I can really hear the strengths and weaknesses of these things. They do seem to lack a bit in dynamic punch, particularly with the bass, but they also have a lot detail and the soundstage has some depth to it. They seem to be better for more introspective type music, like a lot of jazz stuff, and less exciting for rock and roll, but since I mostly listen to more introspective type music when I'm in that extra room where I'll have them set up, they seem to be a good match, if not absolutely perfect. For what I spent on these things, which was essentially nothing, they sound fantastic!