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Loudspeakers
Builds electrostatic loudspeakers and valve electronics from Huntingdon, England, pioneering the ESL since 1936.
where to hear it
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rooms in 5 states
rooms outside the US
strongest states
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about quad
Quad was founded in 1936 by Peter Walker as the Acoustical Manufacturing Company, and it occupies a singular place in audio history. Walker's original Quad ESL of 1957 was the first commercially successful full-range electrostatic loudspeaker, a thin diaphragm driven across its whole surface that became a reference for transparency and remains one of the most historically significant speakers ever made. The company has built around that electrostatic principle, alongside valve and solid-state electronics, for nearly nine decades. The current line continues the electrostatic lineage with the ESL-2812 and ESL-2912 panels, descendants of the landmark ESL-63, and pairs them with amplification and source components including the Artera and Vena electronics series. The electrostatic panels remain the brand's signature, the product every audiophile associates with the Quad name. In the US market Quad competes with planar and electrostatic makers like Martin Logan and Magnepan, positioned as the originator of the genre with a continuous review record. The brand has been carried by MoFi Distribution and is sold through authorized US dealers including Kemela in Atlanta, Vinyl Sound in Buffalo, House of Stereo, and Underwood HiFi. Stereophile has reviewed the electrostatics across generations, from the original ESL and ESL-63 through the ESL-989, ESL-2805, and ESL-2912, making it a name every serious US dealer recognizes on sight. Quad is owned by the International Audio Group, with electrostatic production rooted in Huntingdon, England.