Robert M
pfm Member
Warning: Contains some Naim bits. Haha!
Nice and powerful looking.
Warning: Contains some Naim bits. Haha!
Still in the throws of building my second pair of these, so a bit of a mess with all the playing around but here is my set up as it stands, Acoustic Masterpeice Integrated amp (22wpc PP), Well Tempered TT with Reson Reca cart, Sugden phono and DIY Tannoy's.
Some nice pics so far!
Worth a mentioning the kit that i have had running this year at stages that stick out, Lampizator dac 4 very anologue sounding dac so saving pennies and also Hush isolation platform under the TT...marked improvement.
DSCN1048 2 by simon ms, on Flickr
DSCN1046 2 by simon ms, on Flickr
New Ply cabinets under construction,
DSCN1024 by simon ms, on Flickr
DSCN1026 by simon ms, on Flickr
Just listening to Grimes on this....
Cheers Si.
Current system & room layout:
T/T: Trio L-07D/Esco ZU 103/Benz Ace S; SME V/Ortofon Cadenza Blue.
Phono: Whest PS30R.
CDPs: Esoteric UX-1; Micromega Classic Solo.
Digital: NVA TFS (not shown).
Amps: Exposure MCX Pre/4 x Exposure XVI Mono Power.
Speakers: Jamo R909 on Townshend Seismic Sink stands
RCM: Okki Nokki.
Theo baby!
That lot and the room is not less than goddamned AWESOME.
Adopt me!
Never, not with that carpet anyhowz... superb system though
Nice and powerful looking.
Surprisingly good. I've had the 34 knocking around for a while now, plus I've got another earlier (bronze DIN) one in the other system / room with a 303 & Klipsch Heresys. It is way, way better than it's online reputation, in fact it compares pretty well to my Audio Synthesis stepped attenuator passive, only adding just a tiny bit of weight and maybe losing a tiny amount of air. I'd be hard pressed to tell them apart on anything other than a direct A/B to be honest, and even then I'd be reluctant to put money on it. I have a feeling that it's bad rep originates from the days where preamps were mainly assessed on their inbuilt phono stage, and for some reason I'll never understand Quad chose to load-up the MM stage with 220pf capacitance, which means it sounds like utter crap with a lot of carts (certainly with my 2M Black). It's easily fixable by swapping a couple of caps out (it's now set at 47pf). It's also got a LF filter on the mainboard that sucks the life out of the bass, but again that's easily fixable, and none of this impacts the line stage anyway.
The 306 is lovely. Sounds rather like a Sugden, but with more power on tap. A real sleeper IMO. It's one of Quad's current dumpers, so will be operating in class A pretty much exclusively in the context of big efficient Tannoys etc. Sounds like it too, very clean, clear and effortless, yet with some grunt when required too. It's a different sound to my Leak Stereo 20, but I'd not say I liked it any less, they both sound great to my ears. It's also exceptionally quiet, so it's nice not to have the usual hiss and hum high-efficiency speakers seem to find in just about everything. IIRC Rob stuffs some bigger caps in the PSU, so it's probably got a bit more grip and headroom than it had originally. It certainly sounds like a powerful amp. Probably also worth acknowledging that Quad / Tannoy is a safe and known-good combo, just about every UK studio ran it throughout the 70s. It does sound like a studio rig too, just how I remember things sounding in various control rooms etc with that big, easy and unflustered thing going on.
Will keep an eye out for the Ronnie Scotts box, do you mean the (very expensive) vinyl or is there a CD of it? Can't seem to find it on Amazon.
Lovely pic that.
Warning: Contains some Naim bits. Haha!
Nice to see the extension completed Piano sounding good in there?