Conference hips::uk_audioo

Three of us (two fully paid up QUAD owners and me) went to the QUAD evening 
organised by Reading HiFi a few weeks back. The man from QUAD demonstrated 
both the new CD player and the new (remote controlled only) pre-amp on a 
variety of types of music. Given all the myths about ELS power and non-bass 
performance, they gave a pretty impressive demo in quite a large barn at 
Pincetts manor.

The CD player is Philips based. They've chosen to keep the controls very 
simple - really just load-and-go plus select-and-play. If you happen to have a 
full function Philips remote controller, then you can make it do all the other 
clever things like select-granny's-favourite-track and skip-the-Ringo-sings- 
-tracks-from-my-Beatles-albums. 

The pre-amp can only be controlled from a large (�100 a throw) remote control 
pad. This is about the size of a copy of your favourite hi-fi mag, and 
designed to sit on your armchair's armrest. It features pretty solid knobs and 
buttons unlike the average device. They sell the box and the controller 
separately, just in case you want one per armchair. I thought the new look, no 
frills boxes were quite attractive.

They took a long time hatching the CD because they wanted to get the quality 
right. As the man said, they build the stuff to last as long as you want to 
keep them, so they plan for at least 20 years of support.

I can't give a proper assessment of the sound because of the listening 
arrangement, namely 120 or so people in a large hall. Even in those conditions 
it sounded good enough to me that I'd certainly want to have a closer listen 
to the CD player once I've saved the pennies to buy some ELSs. Reading HiFi 
have one for demo, but deliveries will be slow for a while.

Chatting to the QUAD man afterwards he made a couple of interesting comments 
about reviews. Firstly they don't send review copies out - the mags have to 
buy them if they want to review them. Secondly he said that the problem with 
reviewers was that they didn't review equipment against the objectives of the 
manufacturers. He felt that reviewers should find out what the manufacturer 
was trying to achieve with the equipment and then test the kit against those 
objectives. He reckoned that manufacturers had a variety of different but all 
perfectly valid objectives. Theirs was to generate exactly what was recorded 
on the medium at the point where the sound left the speaker. 

    Reviewers should NEVER review against the objectives of the
    manufacturer, in my opinion. They should review against the needs of
    the customer.
    
    Andy

Reviewers should be honest and say what they are reveiwing against.

They usually know what the manufacturers claim they are trying to do, 
and can say whether they succeed or not. They can set up scientifically
valid tests to demonstrate this.

They  DO NOT know what every customer wants, so cannot say whether
the equipment will be suitable for them. They can only offer subjective
opinions (which are not worth the paper they are written on) as to
"suitability for the customer".

/. Ian .\

    But their opinions upon the worthiness of the Manafacturers objectives 
    were, would be somewhat useful if that's what they're measuring
    against.
    
    - Andy ��� Leslie
    
    

re the latter: agreed - its reviewers who ignore the manufacturers comments
and simply decide whether the unit is good for an unmeasurable audience that
I object to. Might as well look at the blob rating in a consumer guide...

Back to the subject: has anybody any idea how much the new Quad stuff will cost?

Since I never do anything with a CD except play it (all of it, starting at the 
beginning and proceding to the end) it sounds like it fits my needs nicely.

The new pre-amp sounds, well, interesting? perhaps, but I rarely adjust any
control on the amp, could get along with a NAIM style simplicity, etc. This 
raises a question: if the pre-amp and the fancy remote control are separate 
purchases can you use the amp without the remote, and if so what controls do
you get.

/. Ian .\

    Re -1
    
    Sorry, forgot to mention the price...
    
    The CD was around 450 and the pre-amp was around 600 (I'm a bit hazier
    on that) plus 100 for the controller.

    450 sounds rather overpriced.

    Noel Keywood in HiFi Review checked out the Quad CD player in the feb.
    issue. He auditioned it within the context of the new Quad preamp, 405
    power amp, and ESL63 speakers, comparing it with his Cambridge CD1.
    
    To summarise, his response was "So what?". It didn't measure any better
    below 60db than many other CD players, in spite of the hand-picked
    Philips chip-set. Consequently it didn't really give its competition a
    run for their money sound-wise either.
    
    NK liked the build quality, which was superb. He also like the remote
    control of the new preamp.
    
    Dave

    For any of you interested, I bought a Quad cd player over the phone for
    450 pounds + 10 pounds p&p from;
    
    	LINTONE AUDIO
    	7-11 Park Lane
    	NE8 3JW
    	091 477 4167
    	fax 091 477 2771
    
    I dealt with Tony Gascoigne.........this is the second time a kiwi has
    bought such a unit from him at such a price, the last time was for
    cash. I did it with a credit card but also bought a Michel Iso for only
    10% less retail, so giving these guys some kind of mark up and allowing
    for the credit company taking some % of the total transaction.
    
    The CD player is not for me but I have the use of it for the next few
    months, my initial impressions sound wise are 'so what'........it
    sounds pretty much like my multi cd player at half the price from
    Fisher (cough cough!!) but it is built very
    solidly...........admittedly, to be fair, it is operating via a
    1950's  vintage all QUAD valve set up that may be crushing the players'
    dynamics somewhat.