advertisement


Quad 33 & 303 queries

Agreed but I got a pair of boards with faulty capacitors to experiment with. The amp originally came not working before I changed the capacitors. Touch wood iv never had any problems soldering onto the boars so its reversible.

Using digital source the tone controls cure a problem their removal has fixed. Also I'm very bad with things I can play with
 
LPSpinner said:
One of the main reasons I still use my Little 33 every so often is because the tone control and filtering can be used to dress up some of the less than perfect recordings in my music collection.
Click to expand...

There was a Stereovile review that said that Quad is for music lovers rather than audiophiles, hence the tone controls, useful for exactly the reason you said, getting the best out of less than perfect recordings. My 44 has the same facility, and although I rarely use them, I do have a play every now and then, and am always surprised at what they can do.
 
…My 44 has the same facility, and although I rarely use them, I do have a play every now and then, and am always surprised at what they can do.
Click to expand...

Ah … the 44 Probably QUAD’s most flexible Preamp. I didn’t quite agree with the slope filtering options fitted to the 34 (the choice of just two corner frequencies and two fixed slope settings seems a little limited). The 44 gives you all of the options you get on the 33 with the performance, flexibility and extra inputs of the more modern design. I think its QUAD’s best ever preamp.

I think QUAD kind of lost it with all subsequent preamps and the new stuff just doesn’t have that nice tactile feel and user interaction use get with all the preamps up to the 44.

I have quite a few historic performances of classical and jazz music. Both LP and CD recordings can benefit from a little judicious tweaking of filters and tone controls. Its also surprising the amount of badly mixed and produced modern recordings are bass heavy or recorded with a shrill top end that also need a little trimming.

LPSpinner
 
Yeah ok I see what you mean. I did co e across a bad recording which was veiled and swapped the old boards back. Very impressive. But the boards with the tone controls bypassed sounds better than having the regular and cancel pressed. Think I need to stop being a wuss about them.
 
I have a 33 with a 303. Also use a Croft 25 pre. The 25 improves things immesurably for a more 'high end' sound. However can't bring myself to sell the 33 as I had it serviced and it can as has been said be very handy for adjusting the levels on knackered vinyls from auctions/ car boot sales.
 
regafan said:
I have a 33 with a 303. Also use a Croft 25 pre. The 25 improves things immesurably for a more 'high end' sound. However can't bring myself to sell the 33 as I had it serviced and it can as has been said be very handy for adjusting the levels on knackered vinyls from auctions/ car boot sales.
Click to expand...
Can you explain what you mean by "The 25 improves things immesurably for a more 'high end' sound."? Do you mean "higher priced" or "better high frequency response"?

I am always confused when people try to describe the differences between various HiFi systems and components or dismissively say that "X is much better than Y". Having just the one system, it is difficult to make comparisons so I tend to assume that cost relates to satisfaction but I just can't bring myself to believe that NetAudio's £270 upgrade of the Quad 33 or some of the incredibly expensive cables can make such a massive difference to the perceived sound.
 
The netaudio adds greatly to my enjoyment of the amplifiers. The amplifiers need servicing from time to time and there are better components available than previously.
 
DonWall said:
Can you explain what you mean by "The 25 improves things immesurably for a more 'high end' sound."? Do you mean "higher priced" or "better high frequency response"?

I am always confused when people try to describe the differences between various HiFi systems and components or dismissively say that "X is much better than Y". Having just the one system, it is difficult to make comparisons so I tend to assume that cost relates to satisfaction but I just can't bring myself to believe that NetAudio's £270 upgrade of the Quad 33 or some of the incredibly expensive cables can make such a massive difference to the perceived sound.
Click to expand...

Cables indeed make no difference (wait for the backlash to that....) but improvements to amps can bring huge benefits.
Cost most certainly does not always relate to satisfaction.... in hifi anyway!
 
I knocked up some van damme interconnects and couldn't be bothered to leave them in to be honest, neutral probably. I make my own because i biamp. I use the van damme speaker cable and more than happy with them. Obviously it should be the components which make the difference and sound as they are meant by design, usually with pretty basic cables. It's better to change a resister than a cable.
 
Arkless Repairs said:
Cables indeed make no difference (wait for the backlash to that....) but improvements to amps can bring huge benefits.
Cost most certainly does not always relate to satisfaction.... in hifi anyway!
Click to expand...

Well they should not but a badly designed amp may be susceptible to reactive loads or prone to pick up the local taxi firm. As far as I am concerned if you experiment with cables and it makes a difference you have sh*t kit.
 
mrmaxy said:
I knocked up some van damme interconnects and couldn't be bothered to leave them in to be honest, neutral probably. I make my own because i biamp. I use the van damme speaker cable and more than happy with them. Obviously it should be the components which make the difference and sound as they are meant by design, usually with pretty basic cables. It's better to change a resister than a cable.
Click to expand...

The design of the circuitry itself is 90% of the whole game! it's a waste of time trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear by better components if the actual design is not optimum ;)
The best designs built with cheap crap second hand parts from old telly's will still sound better than a dubious design with designer capacitors etc
 
DonWall said:
Can you explain what you mean by "The 25 improves things immesurably for a more 'high end' sound."? Do you mean "higher priced" or "better high frequency response"?

I am always confused when people try to describe the differences between various HiFi systems and components or dismissively say that "X is much better than Y". Having just the one system, it is difficult to make comparisons so I tend to assume that cost relates to satisfaction but I just can't bring myself to believe that NetAudio's £270 upgrade of the Quad 33 or some of the incredibly expensive cables can make such a massive difference to the perceived sound.
Click to expand...
Just seen this, sorry late.
I'm not normally one for hifi mumbo jumbo, but having the 2 pres there is a difference, but each is enjoyable in its own way. Much like comparing your everyday cup of standard coffee with an expensive filter coffee. The standard gets on with the job, satisifies, you get back to work, you don't think twice about it. The filter coffee you might sit down and relax , savour the flavours and think 'mm that tasted nice.' You pay more for the latter. But is it really any better? Different flavours for different moods/ situations.
 
Old ( New ) Quad 33 FM3 and 303 on the go eventually :)
Bought them as part of a closing down sale in a local used HiFi shop back last year. Been sitting in a box for ages whilst I think about what to do with them.

Eventually contacted Stewart Welcher at Dada USA - which turns out to be less than an hour away in Burlington, Canada.
( He has a lovely basement workshop where he also makes up pcb cards for a well known hifi manufacturer )

So I drove them over to him to take a look. A mixed bag of good and bad as various bodges to all of them at some time. All fixable.
Anyhow after a couple of weeks Stew let me know they were ready for collection.

Lots of work on his part. It turns out that Dada in Europe has gone very quiet - hope Stefaan (?) is OK. Anyhow Stew fished around for good condition Quad cards that he had removed from other conversions and re-populated them with new components and added an Alps for the volume as the original switch on volume was kaput. So have lost on/off for the time being but can do that at the 4 way gang box. He also swapped out the outer case on one for one in better nick. There is a bagful of bits of bobs.....

Connected them up last week in the basement and had problems with earth hum and not all the signal on left channel. After a phone call with Stew - pushed the cards back in firmly and added a "flying" earth to the tag on the back of the 33. I should have sussed the falling out cards. Gave it all a test run with old Monitor Audio 252 - all good.

Then this week some new cables arrived from Flashback - David is quick. I ordered a yellow 4 pin din for the output from the pre-amp and a brown 5 pin for the radio so I can easily identify them. As always, nice stuff from David.

Moved the kit upstairs today and paired with my JR149. Rocking out with B52's on vinyl , even Fela Kuti, Sharon Jones, James Hunter Six.......Also all good also with FM3 radio and Apple Airport Express into Radio 2 input.

So its not a true original but it's not over upgraded. Sounding great this Sunday afternoon.
You never know I might have to move on from the A&R amps that I have :-0
I will try to get some pics online sometime.
Happy listening - Julian
 
Last edited:
Excellent stuff. A second hand 33/FM3/303 & JR149s is where I started out back in the late ‘70s. A great system IMO. Over the years I have re-bought them all again, thoigh they are split between different systems rather than working together (a 303 driving my Tannoys and the JR149s upstairs with a Leak tube amp). The 149s in particular constantly stun me, they are truly amazing loudspeakers.

What is the large Japanese turntable below in your photostream? Looks very impressive.
 
Sadly the Pioneer is not mine. A fellow Pink Fisher from the UK asked me to take a look from a local Canadian seller before he purchased. It was in sellers garage next to the lawnmower !
It is a PL-90. Was in great condition and triple boxed for postage to UK.
 
Tony
Thanks for this forum - without your advice I would not have the JR149 and now the Quad stuff. I was using an A&R A60 or sometimes an A&R SA150 to drive the JR149. I counted the other week that I have eight systems in various boxes.....
 
FWIW rather than alter the preamp I'd tend to buy a cheap audio switchbox from someone like CPC and add some attenuating resistors inside it. That way you can use something like a 33 as-is if it is in decent condition and get the volume control up at a sensible setting, etc. By soldering resistors inside such a box you don't need to be so tidy or able to work with tiny items. Or you can even replace a rotary switch with a passive level control if you're only needing one input.
 
I use a pair of 10dB Rothwell source attenuators on the output from my DAC to a Quad33. This used to match its range on the Quad volume control to other sources quite well. Now I’ve paired this system back and only have the DAC connected. I still use the 33 and set the volume control to 4 for everyday listening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top