cjyosemite
pfm Member
I have not owned a 909 for some years now but at one time I had 5 of them & never a moment's problem with any of them. Had previously owned a 606 bought in 1987 & as far as I know it is still in use at the local school to which I donated it around 15 years ago. The Chinese versions of all Quad amps were of dubious quality initially but that problem did not last long as Quad UK made it quite clear to the new owners that they would kill the brand if they did not maintain the quality standards. It was difficult to get a 909 for some time & Quad UK never new when they would be shipped. Due to this I tried a pair of 99 mono power amps instead but they got so hot there were unusable so they were returned for replacement which suffered from the same problem. Quad were so embarrassed they agreed to sell me the 909 review model (the one in the Ken Kessler review) at a reduced price & I was a very happy chappie. I subsequently bought a single 99 power amp (overheating problem solved by this time) for an AV system & later bought a second one to make a stereo pair. Later bought another pair as I preferred them to the 909 - the 99 mono does not use the 909 current dumping system which was a major marketing thing for Quad so the 99 mono never really took off despite Quad acknowledging it was better than the 909. Still have a full 99 system of fm tuner, cdp2, pre-amp & pair of 99 power amps. Only repair necessary was new transport on cdp2 & system still in daily use other than ceps which has been retired in favour of Oppo 105 universal player to create space for turntable. The present Artera Play & Power are simply more modern developments of the 99/909 series including the built-in DAC inputs - Quad were way ahead of the competition of this facility & on the Elite series (tarted-up 99's) one of the optical inputs was replaced by a usb input. Quad back-up info & service are excellent so you should have no concerns about reliability & 909 holds its s/h prices quite well so no great loss if you do not like & decide to sell on.