Shiny brand new second hand things in my system today V1.2 (Part 1)

Was wondering if this would work

That reads a bit like it is for line level rather than phono cartridge (so different impedances to be optimised, possibly including whether the effective capacitance of it would bork up the response of a MM cartridge). I take it the gain of the phono stage isn’t adjustable?

1 Like

I’m sure it’s extremely simple if you know what to do.

It’s the phono in a quad 34

Maybe I’ll get an adjustable mm phono stage one day

The Quad 34 is unusual in that it is designed to provide just 500mV out. That suits the original 303 power amp which only needs 500mV input for full 45W power out. Most other amps, including more modern ones, need a bit more input than that. So if you use the 34 with them you find you can’t get all the way up to the amp’s full power even with the 34’s volume knob rotated to maximum.

The fundamental problem is that you almost certainly need more out of the 34. Fortunately there’s a simple fix for this. Quad designed the 34 to give 1.5V out and then right before the output socket they put two resistors in, as a resistive divider, to attenuate the signal to 500mV for the 303. This divider can just be removed. It’s even a Quad-approved mod, apparently. Then the MM disc input, which has a sensitivty of 3mV (so just right for your cartridge) should give plenty of output for your power amp. If instead you boost the signal from the cartridge with some sort of step-up to get more than 500mV out of the 34 then technically you’ll be overloading the pre-amp electronics. They might have enough headroom to cope with this overload. But if they don’t then that’ll degrade the signal.

If you remove the internal attenuator to fix the MM Disc problem then another issue might well appear. All the other inputs on the Quad 34 are, by modern standards, over-sensitive. So if you set the volume control at a level suitable for playing records and then switch to some other input the music will now be way too loud and the signal from, say, your CD source might be overloading the 34’s input. If you don’t want to get to work on the 34 to make its other inputs less sensitive then you could just attenuate the signals from your other sources down to the level that the 34 was designed for.

This problem’s been known for a while. Here’s a 2013 PFM thread about it Quad 34 Volume Sensitivity | pink fish media.

1 Like

Currently using it with the 306,though do have a 303 here as well

The stock 306 is even more sensitive than the 303 (I’ve read 375mV input needed for full output). But they can be modded for lower sensitivity. Assuming your 306 hasn’t been modded you should find that the MM Disc input on the 34 goes plenty loud enough with a 3mV cartridge. But with the volume set to give plenty of sound on MM Disc, all the other sources may be way too loud. If that’s the problem then the cause is that all the other sources are supplying a lot more signal than the 34 wants. The ‘proper’ thing to do would be to attenuate the signals from all of those sources before the pre, or to modify the pre to make its inputs other than MM Disc less sensitive.

Is that the problem you’ve got ?

Yes,I think I’ve probably got used to the line levels being loud enough on one two clicks whereas the 3mv cart needs a few more.
I’m currently using another cart so it’s not an issue at the moment

Picked these up yesterday bigger than they look in the “for sale “ ad on maverick - interesting just getting acclimatised to them .

25 Likes

You’ll regret selling those SIT amps now

Couldn’t get my tune audio primes to work with any valve amps, Modwright KWI200 and a Sugden A21SE had good control and sound.

Bass can be a bitch to tame on those though

Heard a pair in jacks room at the Cheshire show and they sounded excellent. Guessing he was using modwright

1 Like

Right on both counts :+1:
Definitely more synergy with the little Hiraga monos and yep taming the bass is definitely needed - originally they were on castors ,did nothing for the bass all over the place ,swapped to spikes better.
Got some Stack Auva’s coming to see if that helps
Lots of messing about needed before I decide to sell the Voxativ field coils.

Always loved the Ortofons I’ve had. It’s at least 6 now with 3 of these being Jubilees. I pinged the cantilever off this one a few years back but last month I decided to send it to Ortofon for their repair scheme at €1300. The piss off was the bank charged me £33 for a non UK currency transfer. It got held up at Danish customs for 10 days but was indeed returned to me within Ortofons estimated one month turn around. I did have to inform UK customs that this was my property sent back to the manufacturer for repair but this was done by email and no forms to fill in.

It’s getting its first spin right now.
s’cuse the crap photos.




X.

17 Likes

Not new and not new to me but finally got my bargain Wilmslow Audio SM110 speakers up and running, putting them through their paces with a rare child free weekend…
I think some finessing is required in the crossovers as they are not as smooth in the treble as they could be but punch in the bass from that 10" Volt BM2500.4 driver.
The Belles Soloist 1 certainly seems to have quite a bit of headroom and control in the bass is up there with anything I’ve had.

22 Likes

Looking very good Rob :ok_hand:

I had been toying with the idea of trying a sub with my Borresen standmounts so when this SVS SB2000 came up for sale at the Mav show auction yesterday I took a punt. Looking forward to hearing the results.

18 Likes

The SVS certainly fills out the bottom frequencies nicely. Just wish I could set it up with a remote or app. Unfortunately not on this model.

18 Likes



The GPA drivers are too heavy to perch atop little things so I will have to be content playing with the BG Neo 8 planars and the EV ND2 for the moment. After ten mins I swapped the bass to my old OB 15" jobbies

More bits added to my collection

16 Likes

I picked them up on Saturday. It was a full days work for three of us. I only got them out of the boxes earlier. They’re immense. Effortless, spacious and room filling. Depeche Mode sounding very good via a simple blu node at the moment. I’m so pleased with them. I will refine the positioning over the next week. The room has a lot of hard surfaces, I’ll try and work on that too.



34 Likes

They look absolute monsters. I’ve never heard a pair of ML’s but I’m pleased you’re pleased with them.

1 Like

Nice one mate :ok_hand:

1 Like