I love talking about old Quads!
Ive got a 33, 34. 2x 303s 2x405s. I guess you could say I've got Quad bad.
Ive had about 10 405s. Heard most board incarnations. And most output devices.
Ive used several passive pre's with them, Ive used Music First Audio TVCs with them. Ive used a Croft 25 pre with phono.
Ive used ls3/5a and Spendor s3/5r, s3/5r2, sp3/1r2 with them.
However Ive come back to the 33. The high end kit has gone...
It is the longest serving bit of kit I have. Had all the electrolytics replaced a few years ago. Gives a great noise. Sometimes you get fed up of all the analysis with more revealing pre's and just want to sit back and listen to something easy going that was designed to partner the old beasts. Some of my most pleasurable listening is done not in full analysis mode, but rather while doing other things, more background. In this case a fully tuned system is not what I'm after.
In terms of pre's used, my vague results are. Passive- yes very nice more detail than a standard 33 34, but no ooomph, no beans. Active preferred.
Music First- TVC- lovely- detail AND power. But costly.
Croft 25 with phono.- lovely sound, smooth and great flow. Maybe not so much detail as MFA, but could live with.
With vinyl especially poor condition charity shop vinyl I find the tone controls essential. Its all very well trying to get the max performance from a pre, but if the source needs a bit of help then filters and tone controls are very useful.
Also being a Quad user I'm also a bit tight with kit. Like the best for not much wonga! I get guilt about partnering a £1000 preamp with Huntingdon's finest. So eventually I have to sell it. And back to the good old cheapo but nice 33. Bliss.
The build quality on all Quads is top notch, solid and sturdy. Neat internal wiring unparallelled for the cost. The kit is reasonably priced and Quad Huntingdon will service it to original spec. for a fixed price fee. Most have lasted 40 years and are to be found in all manner of professional as well as home environments. No reason they wont go 50 more!
The designs are also British design classics and deserve a 'big up' rather than derision.
They may not be the best sounding compared to the latest 'hi end' offering but for me and probably others too they are 'good enough'
Keep it Quad!