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Quad v Naim

My experience is that it depends on the kind of music you like.

I listen to a lot of chamber music and the Naim gear mentioned makes chamber music go from "not so nice to listen to" to sometimes "awful to listen to". Their presentation, which can be so highly enjoyable with other genres of music just doesn't work here, at least for me.

In comparison, the Quad stuff mentioned enables one to listen to music for hours and hours on end, day after day....

I exchanged my Naim stuff for some Quad stuff and never looked back.

I would agree though that some of these Quad items can sound somewhat "shut in". But that can be sorted :)
 
FWIW the capacitors that Quad used in some of their vintage gear were sometimes of average quality (though the BHC psu caps in the 606 were excellent). Simply refreshing all electrolytic caps with some of the best stuff available today (i.e. Panasonic FM/FC, Nichicon KZ, Rubycon ZL for example) brings a surprising leap in sound quality.

I just inherited a 1989-era Quad 34/FM4/606 system and the difference before/after capping was pretty astonishing to be honest. Again using some good quality modern cables - no need to go insane with anything esoteric - makes a difference too from some of the cruddy original stuff some of these amps might be sold with.

Even the poor old Quad 34 - which often comes in for some unfair bashing - sounds pretty open and dynamic now, and that's keeping the original op-amps. No mods except refreshing the caps, and shorting out a few of the other caps which really aren't needed (full details can be gathered from the Dada electronics website, and their upgrade sheets). I actually already had an older Quad 34 which I went nuts with a few years back: replaced ALL op-amps with 'better' modern types (OPA227s and OPA627s), hand matching all resistors, replacing CMOS switches, new rectifier and double PSU capacitance... and you know what? The re-capped 'stock' Quad 34 actually sounds better to my ears... go figure!

Having built a Naim 180 'clone' and heard proper Naim gear too, I'd say that they're the better bet for rock and dance, but Quad is still the better all-rounder (and can still rock, just not quite as adrenalin fueled as a Naim!)

I'm sure once re-capped you'll be more than happy with this gear.

- John
 
I blame this:

LyckligQUAD.jpg



Well for the pipe at least.
 
Especially decapping or recapping the 44 gives an enormous leap forward...just begin with shorting the tants on the output...
 
I think of Quad as the pipe & slippers of hi-fi.

Well, I have neither the pipe nor the slippers, but I do have lots of Quad (currently running 44, 303, 606, IIs and ESL-57s). It always struck me that the hi-fi business is very much a fashionable, in which components fall in and out of favour. Look at Garrard turntables - there was a time when you couldn't give the things away, now their reputation is stellar. Quad always struck me as equipment which gave enormous value for money - it made a joyous noise and was virtually bullet-proof. Even their much- (and in my view unfairly-)maligned pre-amps were fine. I have a 33, which I no longer use, but only because I have the 44.

Naim? I own a chrome bumper NAIT 2 and have occasionally tried Naim bits out of curiosity. They were fine, but I didn't hear these enormous differences that other folk hear. The two have much in common, well-made and good-sounding. Perhaps if I'd bought Naim first, things would have been different - and probably more expensive. Overall, I'm glad to have Quad.
 
I have seen that picture many times before, always noticed the single speaker, but only just noted the Stereo pipes!
 
Didn't you upgrade the second chair?

At the time my late mother purchased the chair, they also came as single mono units, so she only got one.

Mind you, if I had been a little bit older and had been offered that minx sitting nearer the camera as a companion listener, I would have gone for the matched stereo pair!

Incidentally, Robert's version of the photo was reversed, and Michael's is correct: look at the controls on the preamp and tuner - largest knob should be on the left. (And before anyone suggests that the largest knob is sitting in the chair, smoking the pipe, just don't!)

And I wonder how so much of the day goes and I get so little done.......
 
Quad versus Naim ? Surely it's 'horses for courses' ? I heard Naim at Westwood's in Oxford, when it was a top retail outlet. Sadly closed now... The fact I was friends with the Prop. and Nigel Pearson, who worked there, doesn't colour the following. I had opportunity to listen to both Naim & Quad, mainly Nait 3 ( I think it was ) and more expensive Naim gear , plus Quad 34/306. Also a 405 sometimes. I used my own CD player and CDs, plus some recordings I made myself. I'm involved in semi-prof. audio, using high quality mics. and Blumlein recording techniques. I listened to the Naim gear first and was impressed by the clarity & detail coming through with the normal commercial CDs. When using my own recordings I somehow missed something, but couldn't quite explain why. OK, time for a coffee and set up the Quad gear. Again, as with the Naim, lovely clarity and detail, but added (?!) warmth. Then my own recordings. Ah, now things become clearer. The ambience of the recording space, a church, came through. Checking back using the Naim gear I realised I could hear the ambience, but it was covered up somehow. To my ears, which had been at the recording, couldn't connect to the recording using the Naim gear. With the Quad equipment I could. My conclusion was that I preferred the Quad, for my own listening. I can understand why people love Naim gear. Listening to my well known commercial CDs was great and I expect many people feel exactly the same. In conclusion it's what people choose to use to listen to their own music. To listen to my own recordings I liked the Quad gear... Martyn Miles .
 
Never mind that, what is his wife up to?

Well, I assume that his wife is off visiting her sick mother, which has given our pipe smoking hero the chance to invite his hot young mistress whom you see there to come round to listen to some beat combo on his fab new gear.
 
Sounds like Quad have a healthy following on here! I'm really looking forward to hearing the stuff when i get back and have a few permutations between the 33, 303, 405 and some speakers i have. The 33 and 405 were both serviced by Quad quite recently and not sure about the 303. I'm zero capability at electronics having never actually seen a soldering iron and pulling a board from a Naim pre-amp felt like high science - if i wasn't scared of killing myself or wrecking them i would try a re-cap or tweak if needed. I've seen the Dada and Net sites and a few others and know that Quad will carry out work as well so if anything sounds too jaded i'll consider the options - some look like complete rebuilds using everything new. Just need some of that groovy wallpaper, the standard lamp next and I'm sorted.
 
There are quite a lot of PFM members into modding Naim gear, and thinking of the changes in a friend's Naim system it has sounded ever more Quad like.

Similarly getting old Quad gear properly serviced and/or upgraded improves the areas where it is weak compared to Naim.

One thing to bear in mind with the 303, it is designed for harmonious coexistence with ESL57s - it cannot damage the ESLs, and it doesn't mind having its outputs short circuited. Some of those design decisions are not ideal for other speaker types, which is where the likes of Net Audio come in.

I tend to think of Quad as the Porsche of the hi-fi world - they tended to plough their own furrow regardless of fashion or convention, every design decision has its own (sometimes freaky) logic, the engineering and after-sales support is second to none especially when it comes to vintage products. Not necessarily the last word in performance, of course.
 


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