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A vintage Quad thread.

No, thank you. In the box was the original. I'd just looked on line earlier because I couldn't be bothered to fetch the box...and missed the diagram!

BTW listening between Angouleme and Poitiers now. Whereabouts in France are you?
 
Yes, not very far. I have family there actually!
They have great white wines. Do you know that Chardonnay is the name of a nearby village?
 
... The revision number is printed on the mainboard. Mine is something like 6.666 or something, so a bit of a beast.

Apologies for bringing an old subject back to life, but I just finished reading through this thread while waiting for my new 34/306 to arrive.

I think I might know why the Quad 34 Rev 6 has '666' on the board. There are 3 colors of screen printing on mine, and each of the three 6's is one of the colors (yellow/white/orange). Printing the 6's together could function as a print alignment test/verification. It's kind of like the color/alignment patterns you see in inconspicuous places on things like cereal boxes.

You can see a multi-color 777 on the bottom left of this 34 Rev 7 board:
https://kenrockwell.com/audio/quad/images/34-preamp/D3S_5921-inside-bottom-1600.jpg
 
I may have found a good paint match for Quad grey faceplates, e.g. 34, 44, 306, FM4.

My new 306 has a few tiny chips on the fins. I happen to have a RAL fan deck and remembered it contained a few metallic colors. I was surprised to find a fairly close match. It is possibly a tiny bit lighter than the actual color, but the texture and grain is almost perfect. The paint chip even feels like the right texture. It may be suitable for touching up small chips where the primer/aluminum is showing through.

The color is RAL 9007 Graualuminium:

47058211624_8a46e21e37_c.jpg


I might buy a small bottle and give it a shot.
 
Did you try that paint? if so how good was the match?
I bought some off eBay that called itself RAL 9007, but it really came out as a homogeneous average of the colors flecks in the RAL fan deck. Actually, a bit lighter than the fan deck color as well.

I think that to get this textured color you'd need to do powder coating. That stuff is sold in bulk as dry powder, and it's not a DIY project. So you might as well call a few powder coating places and ask if they carry that color. Even then, it might not even match that well.

I have a hunch the repainted faceplates that DaDa sells are powder coated in this stock RAL color.
 
Bear in mind, when Quad made such things RAL colours were not even a swatch in the creators eye (RAL only introduced in 1993 as a standard in Germany; and it remains a very limited palette, only 200-ish shades) The UK colour standard description was/is BS4800, introduced 1972, updated several times since.

So I'd start with BS4800 colour references - I might have a swatch pack somewhere - but imo it's just as likely Huntingdon one day called a contemporary supplier like, say, 'Trimite' and just had a play.
 
yep - and today, with ability to digitally -scan and make a custom mix small-run pot of paint, I'd suggest trying such a route.

(BTW good body shops can do this, and it's run of the mill stuff, not expensive - 3yrs ago I had a damaged panel repair on a car that was a BMW standard colour, but the repair guy simply had a patch of old scanned & replicated to better-match the colour actually on the car - it worked! I didn't know this was a thing before)
 
I don't think this is as simple as a color scan/match. If you look close, the Quad 34/306/FM3 finish is made of tiny specks of several colors. I believe it is a powder coat process with a mixture of these different pigment powders. A computer match with liquid paint (aerosol, car, etc.) would just give you the average color of the finish, without any grain. If you blur your eyes they would appear equal.

Anyway, the RAL 9007 color looks very close in person, not only in average color but texture/grain. If it was available as a touch-up product, it would be almost perfect for little chips.

In the end, I ended up buying small bottles of black and medium gray model paint and mixing drop by drop until it was close. I can't tell where I touched up now. These were obvious chips (white primer or shiny aluminium showing through?) but fortunately very small.
 
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As stated earlier I’d also view the suppression cap on the transformer with great suspicion, especially if the 303 has already been serviced to some extent. It is the little grey cap on the far left of the picture,

I recently picked up a Quad 303 and have a question which gives me the chance to bump this excellent thread! I have the full DaDa kit and opened a thread in DIY about the PS/Output caps as the kit now comes with generic ones - at least mine did, and I am planning to replace those. I think I am sorted there, but I didn’t get assistance with this “suppression cap”, which I believe is C4 in the service manual. The component list in the service manual on DaDa’s site gives the value at 0.02u while the circuit diagram says 0.03u. I’m assuming that difference doesn’t matter - let me know if I am wrong - but the manual doesn’t give voltage or any other specs.

Can anyone point me to a proper replacement? (I am in the US and ordering from Mouser.) FWIW, mine looks like the one in the pic on this page (have to scroll down) rather than the one in Tony’s picture.

I am planning to replace the 3 4700uf caps with Kemet ALT22A472DD100 if anyone has any thoughts on that.

Thanks.
 
You have the rare DIN version :)
Leave that cap alone.
Do you use old ESL speakers?
The Kemets are a good choice. There are four 2000 µF, no real need to go beyond that for output caps if you use ‘statics.
 
Yep, the rare DIN version with mini Bulgin power. Probably only a few hundred of those ever made, right? :)

I had RCAs added to my 405-2, but I think I am sticking with DIN this time. Got cables from Sounds Heavenly (DIN) and Designacable (power). That’s after I got two wrong DIN cables from US suppliers, learned my lesson, and got in touch with folks in the UK!

I aspire to some flavor of ESLs, but I don’t really have room. Probably LS3/5a.

I am happy to leave well enough alone but also would like to do this once and be done.
 
The little cap on the bottom of the mains transformer is only a switch suppression cap, it stops a ‘pop’ when powering on/off. It isn’t in the audio path. It should be Class X or Y these days I guess, I can’t remember which.
 
Hi there Tony and guys, long time no see... I enjoyed immensely my Quad II/303/ESL 57 system back in the days. I still think it's maybe the best classic, musical "no nonsense/affordable", stylish and good looking system around. Small children and curious kittens convinced then to part with them reluctantly but I kept the 303 for a long time, as a "swiss knife" amp, always surprised by its efficiency and musicality whan needed, then it visited a friend who wanted and needed it more than me and finally kept it but in my mind, its "must-have" qualities always remained as strong as they were back then.
So I recently acquired a 303/33/FM set, which i always fancied for its classic looks/design. Supposedly perfectly working :D it actually needed serious service, provided by a great tech guy we are lucky to have around here, in the Beaujolais region. Except he wouldnt touch the faulty tuner. Im not sure i'll have it serviced but its a beautiful object to sit on top of the preamp.
Another pending acquisition is an ESL 63 pair of speakers. Lurking aound, I found out the 303 isnt a good match for them, neither are Quad IIs ( which were pending, too, closing my revival years). Better being safe than sorry, I've been reading how ESL fans are happy with 405-2, 606, 909 and up. Americans are more into superpower amps, from Bryston to Krell ML and up. French seem to be more versatile and adventurous about it. I'm gonna try several home faves, Westrex/McIntosh A116, Nuprime ST10, De Havilland Aries 845. They won't be here until next month so ill keep you posted. In the meantime, ESL63 talk is welcomed.
 
To add something here, I have now lived with my Quad 34/306 for a while and I’m extremely happy with
it running into my Stirling V3s.
I had been using a Nait 2 up to buying the Quad combination, and enjoyed the Nait/V3 pairing.
The Quad/V3 pairing sounds different ( understandably...) to the Nait/V3 pairing, but no
less enjoyable.
 


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