audiomarc1

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $600.00 from Goodwins High End

Summary:
Very well made preamp with "state of the art" digital volume control running in the analog domain. Functions can be controlled via remote or front panel. 5 inputs, 1 output, and MM/MC phono stage which is supposed to be of very high quality.

Strengths:
Build quality, sound, ease of use and mates well with any source component or amp. mates especially well to other Quad "99" gear. All aluminum construction and standby mode which keeps it warm with a trickle charge but draws almost no wattage.

Weaknesses:
On-Off switch in back is hard to find and you have to fiddle around for it. Better to keep it in stand by. Hard to read display from a distance or maybe it's my poor eyesight?

Similar Products Used:
Coda, Aragon, Classe

Price Paid:  $1000.00 from internet

Summary:
I love my little quad. Great features, flawless operation. I find imaging is great, very detailed but doesn't sound at all analytical or what you might expect "detailed" to sound like. Rather, it has incredible presence, especially in the midrange and lower mids, and allows you to hear deep into the space of the recording without strain - almost like every instrument has its own amp. Imaging is great, imo - palpable would be the word. Vocals have incredible presence and purity with no bloating on the low end or hardness up top. Bass is very solid, if perhaps a little sluggish - but that could be my speakers in my small room - very good control in the bass, though perhaps not as "taught" as some preamps (which i suspect is a coloration on their part). Treble doesn't jump out and definitely isn't harsh - but is sweet, transparent, delicate even. If your idea of audiophile is limited to realistically hard, dynamic cymbal crashes, this may not be the preamp for you - but on the other hand, the sound is totally un-hard and un-fatiguing, even with crappy recordings. The quality of the treble is hard to describe. Blows away everything in its price range, with the possible exception of the adcom 750, which i haven't heard. but the adcom lacks remote and tilt controls. Input sensitivity selection is nice feature - and i swear, some recordings sound better with the sensitivity set at 100, some better at 300. it's kinda like having two preamps in that respect. i love it.

Strengths:
Midrange space/depth/imaging. Features. Non-fatiguing, open sound. Insanely cheap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weaknesses:
Volume control steps could be finer. Bass might be tighter. Dynamics could be better. Limited number of inputs and tight spacing of rear panel jacks.

Similar Products Used:
Bel canto, Aragonf

Price Paid:  $1200.00 from galen carol audio

Summary:
I would not profess to having auditioned a bunch of pre amps before settling on this one. In fact I did not audition any other pre amp. Reading the review by Paul Seydor in TAS is what got my attention. I can say that I have used some very fine equipment in my home and this is one fine little pre amp(maybe not SOTA but very very good and extremely user friendly). However when you factor in the features that it has including a very fine phono stage (it replaced a stand alone unit), along with very usuable tone controls, balance control,adjustable input sensitivities for each input and a very nice remote, it is hard to go wrong. Now that the price has come down I think it would be hard to find a better pre amp with the features this one has for anywhere near the price.

Strengths:
lots of very well thought out features (see above) and very good sound.

Weaknesses:
I hate the back of the unit. It is very hard to plug and unplug the interconnects.

Similar Products Used:
Nothing recently

Price Paid:  $1650.00 from Hi Fi corner Edinbur

Summary:
I have the 909 and 99 preamp. The tonal quality is excellent. Not quite as open as the Quad valves (which I could not afford). I use the musical fidelity A3 cd (I found it gives a little more detailed sound than the 99 cd player) with 989 speakers. This combination is wonderful

Strengths:
Wonderful tonal quality and easy to listen too.

Weaknesses:
I don''t want to go much now!

Price Paid:  $899.00 from Hi-Q Audio/Video

Summary:
With 200 hours of playing time behind us, we are hearing a detailed, slightly warm, midrange-accented, dynamic presentation. Burn-in seems nearly finished; the occasional bursts of "extra" reverb or hollowness have ceased. We're very pleased with the sound. This preamp has tamed our very live room. Nothing else for the price touched it. We do wish that we had a few more low volume settings; the McCormack beat this product in that regard.

Associated Equipment:
REGA Planet 2000
McCormack DNA-125 pwr amp
JMLab Electra 915.1 speakers
Audioquest interconnects
Alpha-Core Goertz MI2 speaker cable

Strengths:
Features: input sensitvity settings

Weaknesses:
Soundstage, appearance.

Similar Products Used:
Rogue 66, McCormack RLD-1