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A vintage Quad thread.

Hi,

Just got a QUAD CD 66 for the princely sum of 40 €.

Not working, of course. The seller said, “Bad laser”. Mmm. I’ll take it anyway Sir. Absolutely mint in original box.

The usual 47uF Philips blue of course. Tried something else, pah, useless. Now a Vishay, 47uF 40 V is in place and everything working fine.
 
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Yes they do don’t they?

I was listening to some posh Linn speakers the other day... oh dear.

Just do yourself a favour and don’t listen to what people say... try a 33 and a 405 mk1 (protection resistors fitted), they just gel and you don’t want to go any further, really.

I also have a 303 (fully serviced) but like it less.
 
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chartz said:
Yes they do don’t they?

I was listening to some posh Linn speakers the other day... oh dear.

Just do yourself a favour and don’t listen to what people say... try a 33 and a 405 mk1 (protection resistors fitted), they just gel and you don’t want to go any further, really.

I also have a 303 (fully serviced) but like it less.
Click to expand...

These have clamp boards fitted, so I'm braving it with a 520. Pre is a Linn Akurate Kontrol.
 
The other day, I was in the mood for some tweaking.

I replaced the LM301 op-amps in my 405 with some TL071.
Guess what. Absolutely no difference whatsoever.

I think there is some kind of belief - or good old snake-oil placebo - in this domain that op-amps sound different, well they don’t.

The same goes with CD players, preamps...
I have tried over the last 35 years many mods of the kind, never noting any significant progress (no I’m not deaf).
 
An interesting experience this week with the French place's system.

I've happily assumed the 33 to be a poor preamp (based on a mate's vinyl setup in the 80s) which always sounded soooo dull into his 405 and Kefs of some type, plus comments above, some of them mine!

3 years ago, when I bought a cosmetically perfect 33/303 combo, freshly serviced by Quad, I was more than happy to leave the 33 in its box and use the 303 first with a Linn Classik acting as pre and more recently a Tisbury passive pre. I was happy with the sound into my lovely Spendor SP2s fed with my Avondale AAA+.

A pfmer last week posted a classified looking for a mint 33 so I said I'd take pics for him on my next visit here. I duly took the pics and wired it into the system to check it was still working. It was, and it sounded fine. Too fine in fact! and CD after CD followed. The sound is liquid and beguiling...like a valve/vinyl system in fact. I cannot believe how good it is and I take back everything I've ever said about the 33. Admittedly this one is factory fresh, but it really is good.

The only thing missing is, perhaps, a tiny bit of detail compared with the passive, but everything else (bass, slam, smoothness etc) is there in spades.

I don't listen loud and my preference is for listening to classical chamber music and some jazz.

Stunned.
 
They are far nicer than their reputation, as one would expect given Quad sold about 120,000 of the things into a discerning marketplace. I’ve likewise got a fully rebuilt one and it sounds pretty respectable, my main issue with it is too much gain for CD (though the tape in works ok) and I hate DIN plugs! It is a nice thing to have knocking around as I could recreate my very first system of 33/303 & JR149s!
 
Welcome to the 33 fan club. I use one with both refurbished 303 and 405, the latter sounding much better on my ‘57s.

It does sound superb on CD, even more so on LP.
Sorry but I love DIN plugs and sockets, and I can’t understand why people would tweak Quad stuff by adding silly RCAs.
 
Well I can recall how stunned both myself and the mate who owned a 33 were when he fitted "Sound Box" upgrade modules back in the '80's https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Quad-33-pre-amplifier-SOUNDBOX-upgrade-boards-amp-paperork-/264230378105?nma=true&si=GUV%2FnwHmhuqkxl1jCX4HuvIzTqY%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

And they are probably nothing to write home about really...

It showed the original 33 up for what it is.

I've never understood why anyone would have strong feelings either way as regards DIN or Phono...
 
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Arkless Electronics said:
Well I can recall how stunned both myself and the mate who owned a 33 were when he fitted "Sound Box" upgrade modules back in the '80's https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Quad-33-pre-amplifier-SOUNDBOX-upgrade-boards-amp-paperork-/264230378105?nma=true&si=GUV%2FnwHmhuqkxl1jCX4HuvIzTqY%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

And they are probably nothing to write home about really...

It showed the original 33 up for what it is.
Click to expand...

Ha! I actually bought a set of the first version of those new at the time (‘83)! One of those hi-fi tweak things I tried very hard to persuade myself was better, but then took out a few months later once I realised I didn’t want to play records anymore! They just dried/bleached the sound, removed the organic natural warmth of the Quad kit. They removed the coherence. I eventually concluded they were a kind of no-man’s land between the old-school classical naturalness of the Quads and the edge-of-the seat rock thing that was coming in with Naim etc, but failing on both counts. Yet another example of not meddling with things you actually like as-is! The 33 isn’t perfect by any stretch, but it is coherent and balanced and with the 303, and with the 149s made for a really nice little bedroom system (all I had at the time).

I did obviously end up going in the ‘edge of the seat’ direction for a decade or more, but I’m back into a more traditional BBC/Quad/Tannoy classical voicing/presentation now.
 
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Tony L said:
Ha! I actually bought a set of the first version of those new at the time (‘83)! One of those hi-fi tweak things I tried very hard to persuade myself was better, but then took out a few months later once I realised I didn’t want to play records anymore! They just dried/bleached the sound, removed the organic natural warmth of the Quad kit. They removed the coherence. I eventually concluded they were a kind of no-man’s land between the old-school classical naturalness of the Quads and the edge-of-the seat rock thing that was coming in with Naim etc, but failing on both counts. Yet another example of not meddling with things you actually like as-is! The 33 isn’t perfect by any stretch, but it is coherent and balanced and with the 303, and with the 149s made for a really nice little bedroom system (all I had at the time).

I did obviously end up going in the ‘edge of the seat’ direction for a decade or more, but I’m back into a more traditional BBC/Quad/Tannoy classical voicing/presentation now.
Click to expand...

The system was Walker CJ55 TT, Linn LVX, can't remember what cart but could have been A&R P77, Philips CD104, 33, 405 II, KEF R104ab's and we found no such shortcomings but that to use the old cliche "a veil had been lifted" and it was much more transparent, tight, grippy, open etc. It just made the stock 33 sound muddy and shut in.
 
Might well be the speakers, 104ABs could do with all the tightening up they can get! 149s are obviously leaner, but exceptionally nimble in the bass. I’d have had an Ariston RD80, AT1120 arm and probably an Ortofon M20FL.

PS I’d have been playing around with solid core twin & earth as speaker cable too. Because Hi Fi Answers, obvs.
 
I can assure you that my 33 is not at all veiled or muddy.
I’ve tried no preamp, many very good ones too (like my top SU-A4, my Hiraga valve preamp - not DIY) and the dear old 33 is just not what you say. It is dynamic, open, detailed and images superbly.
Do the new caps make such a difference then?
 
Is there a table somewhere of serial numbers/dates? Looks like my Pair are late ones at 98821 for the 33 and 76927 for the 303.
 
Nic Robinson said:
Is there a table somewhere of serial numbers/dates? Looks like my Pair are late ones at 98821 for the 33 and 76927 for the 303.
Click to expand...

Yes, in KK’s book. I could send you a scan if you wish.

Nic Robinson said:
Also...how do the trim pots for the tape board actually work?
Click to expand...

They aren’t trimpots, they are jumpers that you move to rise or lower gain (two screws).
Have a look at the user’s manual.
 
Nic Robinson said:
Is there a table somewhere of serial numbers/dates? Looks like my Pair are late ones at 98821 for the 33 and 76927 for the 303.
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell four-digit serials were done by 1970 (mine are late four digit and as far as I can tell bought around ‘69-70). The 33 went up to about 120,000, the 303 about 90,000 (more 33s as it was partnered with the 405 too). I’d except sales to slow by the late ‘70s/early-80s when they were starting to look a bit old spec wise. As such my guess would be about ‘77 or so. I’d email Quad, they’ll know I’m sure.

Nic Robinson said:
Also...how do the trim pots for the tape board actually work?
Click to expand...

They aren’t pots, just three preset levels for input and output. All explained in the manual. Plenty of headroom too as it was designed to cope with 15ips open reel etc. If you want to plug a CD player or DAC into it that’s where I’d stick it.
 
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