A bit overly ripe as they say. Well built, very nice looking speakers which can't seem to put it together musically. They are another speaker in IAG's stable. Let us know what you think.
The Quad L-series has, for the last five years, been at the very peak of performance in its category. Sales around the world have merely highlighted the superiority of this range, which has served to introduce the brand to a whole new generation of audiophiles.
Behind the scenes, Quad has developed rapidly over the last three years and now is poised to move forward with an even more competitive product portfolio.
Our UK engineering team is developing cutting-edge technologies, capable of significantly enhancing the brand's reputation for innovation, whilst at the same time producing more of the traditional designs, which have long been the cornerstone of the Quad brand.
2008 will see the launch of a raft of new electronics products, and continue growth of the new 2805 and 2805 electrostatic loudspeakers - widely regarded by critics as the finest loudspeaker on the planet.
Castle existed as a British brand from the '70-80's. They were a somewhat indistinguished line that built using components from KEF and Celestion to create unlicenced and not always inspiring copies of the better BBC and British designs. One or two of their less expensive speakers got decent enough reviews to become low priced recommendations but as a whole Castle never left much of a mark on the audio world.
Still, using familiar names in an attempt to sell on nostalgia has long been a common theme in audio. Where lines such as Quad and B&W have maintained high quality standards when produced offshore names associated with Emerson or Castle are in no way a reflection of the original company's intent. I suspect the current Castle line would be a good example of why conglomerate sameness are not good for audio.
I still own the Castle Warwick 3. Which was a real Castle Acoustics model, not IAG.
It's a nice speaker. Also had the Conway 3 for a little while. Also nice.
I haven't heard the new IAG models, but have been told that they fall short in many areas. One guy I talked to described them as awful sounding and a disgrace to the former Castle Acoustics name and reputation.