Quad 12L

If you're on a budget and $1,000 is your spending ceiling, the Quad 12L speakers offer vibrant, full sound with strong mids. They are not very bass-heavy at all, if that's what you want. Vocals are more pronounced and percussion is much more detailed. More stripped-down, acoustic recordings will be very pleasant on these. Solid contruction, thick walls, and a company that takes great pride in workmanship. You often get what you pay for, but with the 12L's, you get more clean, balanced sound than other similarly priced hi-fi speakers. Don't bother with the 11L's; spend a bit more and you won't regret it! Of course, better speakers exist - but I give 5 STARS for sound quality, tone, tight mids, and balance for this price range.

Lot's of good things already said that I echo. I have been buying the best I can afford for my sound system for the past 35 years ! I never have had a big budget but big hopes. OH YES at last I sit to listen to music and I am carried by the feeling! Yes it not only sounds right, it feels right, its warmth and brilliance are blended to a distinctive level of reality.As a pianist I love to hear it as if I were playing. It touches that spot for me!

I looked a long way up the price scale to get anywhere near this and would have needed a whole new system to make other speakers give this sound? Look no further, I think you will find so too.

i have these speakers set up in an all tube system yaqin mc100b amp, musical fidelity nu-vista 3d cd player and use chord chorus 2 interconnects and 4 separate lengths of chord oddessey speaker wire.

the sound is incredible. these speakers work in synergy with this system. my speakers are about 9ft apart, 19inches from the back wall and about 25inches from the side walls. beautifully clear, solid,deep soundstage. imaging is pinpoint and very believable. voices are eerily displayed right in front of you between the speakers that beggers belief! every voice and every instrument has a reality and clarity and seperation and weight that i`m sure even far more expensive speakers will struggle to cope with. high frequencies are the best i`ve ever heard with awesome extention! the midband is solid all the way through. the low frequencies are deep and impactful in my room. definately no need for a subwoofer here. the low frequencies are perfect as a foundation for all kinds of music to build upon and offers fantastic ambience. the speakers offer superb detail retreival too, hearing things in your recordings that you may not have known were there.

i`ve thrown all kinds of music at these speakers, zubin mehta`s decca recording of holst planets, xrcd copy of eva cassidy`s songbird cd, shm copy of sheryl crows tuesday night music club, acdc, pink floyd, queen, various chillout cd`s, electronic music and much much more and these speakers lap it all up.

in my system, these speakers are dynamic, entertaining, gripping, impactful and amazingly holographic. music doesn`t sound like it`s coming from the speakers and everyone stands in there own space in time right in front of you.

in my system these speakers are just perfect and offer the most mindblowing musical experience every single time. these speakers and this system are keepers for life and make it a sheer treat everytime a cd is played.

i guess their nature is quite revealing so maybe system matching might be important but don`t quote me on this. they just seem to respond extremely well to each upgrade i make. i hear the difference every time i use and try different tubes in my amp and also responded extremely well to adding an extra set of oddessey speaker wires to bi-wire the speakers properly adding soundstage width and depth and extra depth and impact in the bass region and ambience and detail.

i cannot rate these speakers highly enough. amazing for the money and true chameleons in the best possible way

First off I rate nothing 5 stars so that's that. However these speakers are outstanding none the less. I bought them new and when they arrived and I opened the box I was simply floored by the fit and finish, so much so I didn't even want to touch them for fear of getting finger prints on them! I chose the Birdeye Maple.

I now have a classic British set up with the 12L's mated to a Roksan Kandy MkII integrated amp and the matching CD player. Wiring is Kimber Kable Silver Streak Se interlinks and 8TC anniversary edition speaker cables which are then bi-wired.

I did choose to enhance the low end audio spectrum with a Paradigm PDR8 subwoofer to get that "FULL" sound that truely is present in most music at one point or another. The combination is EXCELLENT and I would imagine quite hard to beat any where near this price range.

The scale of the music presented is really quite staggering and I love to see the look on friends faces when I put in a good cd or two. Lord of the Rings Two Towers sound track's first track is one great example. A wonderful crescendo culminating in a choral out burst that gets your hair standing up is a good hint of what these speakers can do. On the opposite end of things musically Eagles Hell Freezes Over XRCD Hotel California track can be played to volumes that are not even realized till one tries to speak above the music with great composure and clout.

For book shelf speakers in this price range I think an audtion is completely warranted and advised!

You just can't go wrong with those speakers.They are transparent,have a huge soundstage and excellent bass for its size.

They are BEAUTIFUL to look at,specially with the black piano finnish.

The only thing I did not like about them is their CHEAP rubber "feet".

The bottom line is that they are CLASSY and sounds TERRIFIC.

Bi-wiring them is the best option, giving them at least a good 100 Watts/8 Ohms and you'll hear what music is all about.

Put them at least 7ft apart and give them space behind,let's say 20 inches from their rear wall in order to obtain a tighter bass.

I bought these in Japan for less than 800USD/pair new.

I have been using B&W CDM1 NT (great speakers on their own right) and I keep both in my listening studio, I keep switching them with a tube amp, a Marantz pre-amp, a Sansui pre-amp and an Audiolab 8000 series pre-amp.

The B&Ws are too revealing (and the Nautilus tweeter make a big impact here, I think). The Quads are very revealing too but better balanced. Sometimes I had some fatigue in listening to the CDM1 NT for more than an hour but with the Quads, so far it has been very comfortable listening to them for more than an hour.

This is not a negative comment, but there is maybe a lack of bass for some types of music, but overall the bass is great for the size of these speakers. Some people might want to add a sub to supplement a hunger for deeper and extended bass (I actually tried it and I took the subwoofer off because it affected the natural balance of the Quads).

If you want a "quasi" audiophile level (and affordable) speakers, I can recommend these Quads. Another tip: if you think in buying the Quad 11 because you don't have all the money to buy the 12s, please wait. Save money and buy the 12s. It is very worth having the patience here as the 12 presents a bigger woofer unit. If you want to hear/see the difference, go to a shop and check it out.

Transparency. Midrange is flawless. Superb looks. Excellent bass for its size. This loudspeaker is wonderful. It's very accurate when it comes piano solo. Hearing Beethoven's piano sonatas on Quad 12L's is as close of the real thing as one could get!

Obviously, the Quad 12L are small bookshelf speakers. If you like/require slamming bass, you need a good and quick subwoofer placed and set up properly with them, or you will NOT be happy. But for their size, they are pure dynamite. I took the B&W 705's back to their dealer and thanked them for the chance to audition, and happy settled on the Quad 12L's (from a different dealer).

Maybe the Quad 12L are not the most transparent pair of loudspeakers of the world but extremely pleasant to live with, easy to drive (always used with tube amps), good sensibility, have listened hours and hours long to them without any auditive fatigue. A best buy difficult to beat !

I purchased a pair of Quad 12Ls after much reviewing in a number of local shops that don't mind someone coming in and wanting to listen to this and that. I was originally going in for 11Ls mostly based on the reviews I'd read, but it was the vocal performance and, to an extent, the extended bass of the 12Ls that stole my heart. This is a beautiful sounding speaker with excellent performance over the entire range. It is just as at home in a 2 channel set-up as it is in a multi-channel one. And it is a little performer going as loud and rocking as hard as you, and likely your neighbours, can take it. But a word of warning here: the Quads like good kit behind them. They are highly, highly transparent, meaning that they are going to pull out everything in a recording--good or bad--and they will emphasise the quality of your equipment--good or bad. In other words, pair them with quality cables and quality amplification and you will *not* be disappointed. The sound these speakers are capable of producing is sublime if given a decent signal. In my own set-up, I have found that they like to be backed up by a relatively powerful amp, something over 80w into 6 ohms or better. Give them plenty of power and they'll give back so much more. A lot of people go on and on about the fit and finish of the Quads, but don't let that make you think that these speakers are just for show. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I don't quite know what to make of the people who've given poor reviews here. I really don't know what they are looking for or what they might have partnered the speakers with, or even what kinds of rooms they might have heard them in. But the 12Ls produce in no way a 'boxy' sound. They are supremely neutral and, on proper stands, can give you that almost mystical 'floating in space' experience so many are looking for. All I can say is audition them for yourself. Don't listen to us. Give it a go yourself. Go on, you know you want to!