Latest addition to the "collection": a nice late grey 34/306. It joins a 33, FM3, 303 and another earlier bronze DIN plug 34 (plus I've got another 'spare' 33 listed elsewhere on the site!). I am not short of Quad electronics!
I keep coming back to Quad kit as I seem to like what it does / doesn't do - I think it has a priority-set that pretty much matches my own. I find it remarkably non-distracting - for several years now I've been delighted with the 303 running in my second system, it just gets right out of the way and I never end up doing the 'what would this interconnect / speaker lead / tube / whatever sound like?' thing that seems to blight any enjoyment potential of my main system (often far too many variables there to stay sane with) - it only draws attention to good music, not to bad recording etc.
As such I thought I'd try throwing some Quad in the main rig for a while, and maybe later even buy it a pair of '63s to play with, but that's a fair way off yet. I'm just running the 34 as a line stage as I have a nice EAR 834P knocking about. Rob is going to pop up fairly soon and give the Quads a long-overdue service / recap and maybe light tweak here and there (I don't think they have been touched since they were built, no leaky caps or anything evident, but they have to be on their last legs by now just due to age).
I'll hold off final judgement until it's all been recapped, but I certainly like the combo as it stands - a nice solid and sensible yet powerful presentation through the Tannoys, not the last word in detail, space, depth, air or anything like that, but smooth, weighty, fundamentally coherent and very enjoyable - the more time I spend thinking about audio the more I come to the conclusion that's all I actually want. It does that 'getting out of the way' thing that so much kit just doesn't. It doesn't hiss, hum or buzz at all either, which I suspect is a first for that system!
