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Quad 909: anything to watch out for?

I think they’ve got a bit of a bad rap dating back to the Naim or nothing flat-earth press days. I thought my Quad 34 was surprisingly good once it had been recapped, and I did change out all the 4066 cmos switches for something with better specs. The Quad Artera Pre looks interesting though, and got a good review by Noel Keywood in Hi-Fi World (both subjectively and for measurements).
Think it's the pipe and slippers image that persists...my 909 paired with the cdp 2 as a pre amp and as a dac for streaming is the best music centre I ever heard.. but if you pair the 909 with higher end kit? The amp sounds better and better..believe it or not this pipe and slippers amp is a muscle amp in disguise...
 
Where do you guys get the idea that some 909s are made in UK? Aren't they all made in China from the very start? How would you recognize a UK made one if you think there are some of those?
 
First time I've heard of a 909 having a red LED, I thought they were either green or blue (i.e. the silver models had green LEDs and the black models had blue LEDs)?
 
I think the Chinese workers will be pretty good at soldering an amp together by now. I had a Melody i880 kt88 integrated for about 6 years and it is a beauty very well built.
 
First time I've heard of a 909 having a red LED, I thought they were either green or blue (i.e. the silver models had green LEDs and the black models had blue LEDs)?

Indeed. I have an older one that has a green LED when it's on and if you have a quad preamp connected to it and you turn it off via preamp, but don't unplug if from the wall socket, then the LED turns red. Newer ones have blue LED when they're on. But all of them are built in China as far as I know. That's why I'm asking where the info that there's UK built ones is coming from. I believe that's a myth.
 
First time I've heard of a 909 having a red LED, I thought they were either green or blue (i.e. the silver models had green LEDs and the black models had blue LEDs)?

Lots of early writing if you google, amo:
"Rob Flain from IAG / Quad have told me, that the earliest 909's was made in silver finish with greenish leds. A very few of them was made in England. After production moved to China they were also made in black and Champagne finish with blue leds. There is no information available about serial numbers before and after the move to China.
So if you have an older silver 909, there is a small chance that it was made in England."

"The 909 was made for about a year in IAG's factory in Bradford. Thereafter they were made in IAG's Shen Zhen factory."
 
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I have an English-made 909, with a name card with the persons involved in building it. The green LED is fed by a higher resistor and not so bright anymore.
Nowadays it is allegedly the 909 (or current dumper) with the lowest distorsion in the world. It's a secret how ;)
 
QSP and 34 here. Sounds bloody splendid. I love the 34. Looks great, sounds great and has tone and balance controls for in-room correction.
 
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QSP and 34 here. Sounds bloody splendid. I love the 34. Looks great, sounds great and has tone and balance controls for in-room correction.

Amen! Lots of daft negative internet hyperbole about Quad pre-amps. In fact, just been comparing a passive Khozmo preamp with my Quad 34. It was recapped a while back, a few signal caps bypassed, plus the cmos 4066 switches upgraded to Maxim types. Original op-amps retained (preferred them to modern types). The Khozmo is clearer at the frequency extremes, but it’s absolutely not a day & night difference at all. People do like to blow things out of proportion in audiophile land don’t they! Enjoy the 34. It’s a classic and looks fab too ;)
 
Amen! Lots of daft negative internet hyperbole about Quad pre-amps. In fact, just been comparing a passive Khozmo preamp with my Quad 34. It was recapped a while back, a few signal caps bypassed, plus the cmos 4066 switches upgraded to Maxim types. Original op-amps retained (preferred them to modern types). The Khozmo is clearer at the frequency extremes, but it’s absolutely not a day & night difference at all. People do like to blow things out of proportion in audiophile land don’t they! Enjoy the 34. It’s a classic and looks fab too ;)
Quite. I used to have thousands tied up in a ridiculously complex Linn Aktiv system. These, a Topping E30 and a pair of Kef 104.2's sounded far better and were capable of going a LOT louder. Although now they only have a pair of the fearsomely inefficient and smaller 103.2s hanging off them, which they also seem to get the most out of.

I suspect that the last 34s with the orange logo might be a little better engineered and put together and such complex devices will have plenty of components to drift out of tolerance over time, which might explain some of the negative views.
 
Thing to look out for with a quad 909 is a really good sound..you will notice this Immediately..this really good sound..its really good..I got really good speakers and even better cabling and the quad 909 sounds really good..so when you get your quad 909 watch out for its sound..its really good...only irritating thing is the 909 on/off switch is at the back...not good..but the really good sound coming out of your speakers will more than make up for that slight annoyance of the switch at the back...
 


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