Tubes or solid state for Quad-ESL 63's

[Pat D]

I have a pair of old Quad ESL 63 electrostatic's and am looking for a new amp. Have had only solid state before but have heard tubes might be very good. Unfortunately I have a limited budget and will need to go used(i.e. < $1,000). Any suggestions?

I drove mine with a Quad 606. Rotel makes excellent power amps in your price range and they would have no trouble driving the ESL-63. If you want to increase the output impedance of the amp, put 1-2 ohms resistors in the positive speaker wire, which will make it sound more like a tube amp. (Or, you could find out the output impedance of the tube amp you are considering and put a resistor in the speaker line of that value, which is likely 2-5 ohms).