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Quad 34/306

Tryant

Tryant

pfm Member
Picked up these two unmolested units a while back for peanuts and have just plugged them in while my Bryston B60R is down at PMC for a service. Blimey. They're good. Love the look too.:)
 
That's a tidy stack. What were you doing with two tuners? I can't see parting with my 34/306. They're one of the great second-hand bargains.
 
Great little pre/power combo. I liked mine a lot, though ended up selling my 306 to Lordsummit as I wasn’t using it!

With a little light surgery to reduce the impact of the bass-sucking rumble-filter and applying the correct loading for the cart in question the phono stage of the 34 is surprisingly good. Better than quite a few stand-alone phono stages IME.
 
They are lovely aren't they ? They were my last solid state combo before I got into valves. I foolishly sold the 34/306 and now I really wish I hadn't ! My second/office system is a 33/303/FM3, but with the possible exception of the 303, the 34/306/FM4 was significantly better in terms of sound and build quality. Probably the best looking kit QUAD ever built imho. Hang on to it, or better still sell it to me:)
 
Very nice.

At some point I’ll have to get a 44 or 34 to go with my office 405. I’m assuming the grey ones are better. That wouldn’t match, but it’s only in a second system.
 
MikeMA said:
My second system is a 33/303/FM3, but with the possible exception of the 303, the 34/306/FM4 was significantly better in terms of sound and build quality.
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Depends entirely on the speakers IME. If they are easy to drive with no low-impedance dips I prefer the 303 as there is something I really like about its mid-band, otherwise the 306, which has a lot more power on tap. I use my 303 with a Verdier valve preamp, though have the 34 as a backup, and either makes for a very nice combo into either the Tannoys or JR149s. I let the 306 go figuring if I ever really needed more grunt than the 303 on tap has I’d hunt down a nice 909. I just don’t need high power in my current scenario.

PS I don’t agree with you with regards to build quality. The 33, FM3 and 303 were beautifully made IMO. Many early 34s have failed due to board corrosion, many FM4s due to leaking batteries (the 306 is superb). You have to be careful soldering the 3 series kit as the tracks can lift on the old pre-glass fibre boards, but other than that they are pretty much bomb-proof and the workmanship is as good as it gets with beautiful looms etc.
 
I've always been interested in Quad but somehow never got around to owning anything. It's thanks to people like yourselves who let these things go for next to nothing that I finally now own these delightful little units. I'd be keen to try them with some small, similarly under-valued, speakers from the same period. Any suggestions?
 
No doubt others will drop in with suggested speakers - but my modest suggestion would be Monitor Audio R252 ( two way ) or 352 ( three way ) speakers. Not to everyone's taste and early ones can be a bit toppy ( treble ). But look around for ones in good condition and cheap.

Heybrooks might be a step up from them. Also nice.
J
 
To keep with the Quad 34/306 vibe and be period correct the Spendor-made Quad 10L would be perfect as they were designed to be part of the system, but they are fairly scarce. The closest modern equivalent would be the Spendor 3/5R. I’d be more inclined to hunt down slightly larger Spendors of the period, say Preludes, or Rogers LS7s, something like that. Obviously earlier ones would be fine too.

The Chinese made Quad 11L seem to divide opinion, I rather like them and they can be had very cheap. They look very similar to 10Ls, but are ported and have different drivers.

PS The 306 will drive ESL63s to reasonable levels too, they are the speakers pictured in the manual! To be honest the 306 will drive most things, it is a good punchy 50 watt amp, so pretty much anything is on the map unless it is crazy inefficient, reactive, or real heavy rock levels are required!
 
tyrant said:
I've always been interested in Quad but somehow never got around to owning anything. It's thanks to people like yourselves who let these things go for next to nothing that I finally now own these delightful little units. I'd be keen to try them with some small, similarly under-valued, speakers from the same period. Any suggestions?
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I've had several 306s through my doors, always to use with BBC type speakers, and the results were always very good.

Recently though I had a temporary system with an inexpensive valve pre, an unmolested 306 and some Goodmans Minster speakers that cost me all of £40. The sound was staggeringly good for the outlay. The little Goodmans are 95dB so I was probably never using more than the first watt of the 306's current dumping circuit...
 
Tony comes along and suggests another lovely sounding speaker or two :)
My dad had Rogers LS7 - for The Clash to Classical via Bill Hailey and His Comets.

- J
 
The 306 is better at driving real world speakers than the 405 mk1, despite the lower nominal wattage. It is current dumping done right
 
The 405 MK1 had many deficiencies in driving reactive loads, in crossover distortion etc
The MK2 was an improvement, but still had too large a dead zone in the dumpers.
The 306 is a considerable refinement, the only major flaw was the case finish.
 
davidsrsb said:
The 405 MK1 had many deficiencies in driving reactive loads, in crossover distortion etc
The MK2 was an improvement, but still had too large a dead zone in the dumpers.
The 306 is a considerable refinement, the only major flaw was the case finish.
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What is wrong with the case finish? It is proper paint, not the naff nextel of the 606. I never got the impression it was any less durable than say a 303 or 405. Mine was pretty much mint!
 
A couple of years back I purchased 34/306 from a nice gent in here

They were delivered to Quad UK for a full service and packaging

Performed beautifull on my Royd and Neat speakers
 
Thanks chaps for the ideas. I'll have to try ESL63's one day for myself. I've heard them in other people's living rooms a few times over the years and liked the sound but never liked their looks. I have the 34/306 in my study/office, where the Bryston has been for the past ten years (bought from a fishy at a fraction of the current price), hooked up to Spendor S3/5r's.
A slightly unrelated question. I was looking at a Martin Colloms review from Hifi Choice in the 1980s of the the Rogers LS7's and noticed there was no mention of impedance. I have a vague feeling that back then it was common to talk about a speaker's sensitivity but less so about impedance, or am I imagining that?
 
Tony L said:
To keep with the Quad 34/306 vibe and be period correct the Spendor-made Quad 10L would be perfect as they were designed to be part of the system, but they are fairly scarce.
SNIP
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The 10L was part of the 77 series, hence their full name: 77-10L. AFAIK, they were introduced a few years after the introduction of the 77 series electronics - not sure which year exactly, but the review in Gramophone is from 1996.
 
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