Any Quad 34 owners here?

[Pieter1267]

Hi,

Looking for some user experience exchanges on the famous Quad 34 pre amp of the 80s.

The biggest draw for me was the tone control system. its actually called an ambler tone control read about it here

The bass control makes it very easy to increase bass at a set level for smallish speakers, or to take out bass, wich is ideal if you need to correct for instance, corner placement of your speaker and dont have/want to go through extensive PEQ control with REW and UMIK measurements.

The Tilt controle is for higher frequency adjustements. Normal and up dan down 2 settings. Its very simple, easy and in a way you only adjust something once or twice and then leave it there, whereas with other pre amps and equalisers, you are endlessly fiddling. This Quad system makes listening a very stress free exercise. Perfect for me.



This is comprehensive preview and test of the Quad 34

another website with Quad 34 info

Quad 34 service manual

One of the most important things to remind yourself as owner, is the radio input is fixed on 100mV while the Tape and CD is at 300mV. This gives a 10db difference in output on an already lowish 600mV main output. This Quad 34 was made to me connected to a Quad amplifier like the 405 or 606 but if you use a different amp, using the CD input especially will leave you wondering why it doesnt have the oomph you expected. Likewise, I feel that at higher volume settings, the radio inputs actually isnt the best. The volume knob is a rotary switch and gives different outputs at different settings. For instance, the steps between 1 and 5 is bigger than 8-12. Also, if you use the Radio input, you might feel difficult on lower volume settings to find a satisfying setting. If you play music through a DAC and put that in the Quad 34, usually the app (like Spotify) has its own volume slider. I find its better to make volune changes there, from the couch, and just put the Quad 34 volume knob at 5 or 6 (or higher if you want to enjoy higher SPL)

There are companies and also Quad itself might be able to adjust the output from 600mV to 1V (or maybe you can do it yourself).

Another quirk: the Radio input puts signal directly to the controls, while tape and CD has some kind of filter before sending it through.

 

[sergeauckland]

Lovely pre-amp. Had one for a few years. Can't fault it in any way except lack of remote control, which at the time wasn't common. Especially liked the way the output voltage could be set to match pretty much any power amp, albeit less easily than the 44.

S.

 

[Kr2d2]

Yes, my sentimental favourite system consists of Quad 34 > Quad II > Quad ESL 57. I also love how the 34 looks, so cool!

 

[Veriwide]

Good day. I just picked up a 34 for 1 specific reason - tone controls. I had thought to use it specifically as a eq in my main preamp tape monitor loop. So far, no luck, and I don't know why. My model is the earlier one with DIN connectors. I happen to have what I think is the proper connector - DIN to 4 RCA outputs. When connected this way in my preamp tape loop, playing music, I get nothing coming through. When I connect my turntable to the phono input I do. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Kr2d2]

Not very familiar with this kind of adapters, but isn't it DIN to 2 RCA inputs and 2 RCA outputs?

 

[Veriwide]

This is what it looks like. If you think about it, what else would work as it is just the DIN output?

 

[Veriwide]

Problem fixed! I had it hooked up incorrectly. I now have the output going into my pre-amp input and the output of the pre into the Aux of the Quad. It works perfectly and what a great eq solution for me vs a graphic eq.

Thanks