Resurrecting my Quad 99pre

wizons

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I seem to remember the 99pre was criticised for being a mediocre product when compared to the 909. I've just resurrected mine after five years and have made up a balanced cable to run from the D type ampbus output to my power amp's xlr inputs (a fiddly job).

I've recently been using a Benchmark DAC as a pre and before that a TVC passive (which was a disaster with my power amps). Somewhat surprisingly, the 99 sounds remarkably good. The difference is not at all subtle. It does have excellent features and the ability to alter input sensitivity is useful.

I wonder how much better a far more expensive preamp would sound (probably not much). It seems that component matching is far more important than cost per se.

 

RobHolt

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There is an awful lot of cobblers spouted about Quad pre amps being poor.

The gain can be a little high for some systems today but otherwise that are just neutral and versatile pre amps.

The engineering is the result of pragmatic design, and you wont find them stuffed with say 20 regulators when 2 will do the job well enough.

That's all a bit anti audiophile in approach, but in the hands of a good engineer it works.

So enjoy your 99 :)

 

wizons

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Thanks. You're right about the gain. As you know, the 99's balanced output is designed to feed the 909's input, which is set at 2v. My power amp's balanced input is rated at 1v, so I counter this by setting the preamp's input sensitivity to 775mV. This allows the volume control to have a respectable range of travel before loud volumes are reached. There is a little more hiss than I'm used to, presumably because of this issue, but that doesn't notice when music is being played.

I must say the more I learn, the more I become fed up with audiophile nonsense.

Cheers

 

pluto

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the 99's balanced output is designed to feed the 909's input, which is set at 2v. My power amp's balanced input is rated at 1v, so I counter this by setting the preamp's input sensitivity to 775mV
The right answer might lie in the purchase of a couple of these.

 

wizons

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The right answer might lie in the purchase of a couple of these.
They're a lot cheaper than Rothwell xlr attenuators. Presumably the lack of gold plating over high purity copper contacts causes a slight hardening of instrumental textures.... ;-)

 

kernow

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I have the 99pre and it's a very flexible box of tricks for the money. Obviously partners very well with the rest of the 99 series.

What mainly pisses me off though is it could be a bit more intelligent in quadlink mode. Listening to a record? CD player is still on, sorry. No optical selection for CDP2 or display button on 99pre remote, press standby to turn CDP2 off. oh.. it's turned the whole stack off. I ended up connecting the 99pre to 909 with quadlink and then the CDP2 via normal 50cm interconnects so I can have it in standby, because let's face it while it's a very good CD player and digital pre, it's still not a record player :minikev: and only gets used 5% of the time at present.

Nice having the CDP2 powered off the 99pre from the loopback IEC also.

edit: for a builtin MC/MM phono stage with selectable sensitivity it's actually very good. A puresound P10 saw it off but then you'd expect it to. If I was broke and had to resort to the builtin one again it wouldn't be the end of the world.

:minikev:

 

budgetblown

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quad 33 was pants - but - like anything else, I believe that synergy between the components that make up a system is vital. When I sold my Quad 303's and Tannoy Cheviots I gave the buyer silver plated copper speaker cables that seemed to work incredibly well to make sure he got the sound that he heard when buying them.

Reading the above post about quadlink makes me want to avoid ever getting more quad components to match up with my 77 integrated, mind you!

 

Clubsport911

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I love my 99 ! Made some subtle mods.

1. Replaced all the electrolytics with low esr types

2. Screened the mains toroid transformer with copper foil

3. Added new suppression caps on the mains input

4. Added new vdr's to the mains input

5. Carefully upgraded earthing (not much to do here)

All in all, a much underrated piece of kit and one for music not "spec-watching"

rgds

Steve

 

pimlicoquad

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It's a great bit of kit and I use it with the 909 and sometimes with old Quad II valve amps. Reasonable phono stages, although the MC stage is really too bright for serious use. Where it comes into its own (but of course this is heresy for quite a lot of people) is having the range of Quad's tone adjustments. I was listening to some piano music yesterday on several different LP's and the variation in recording positions was really startling. One in particular on Deutsche Gramaphon, a mid 60's recording remastered in 1986, was recorded with what felt like the microphone shoved in next to the higher strings, so was terribly bright and strong in the treble. It sounded like no piano I'd ever played and was in fact quite unpleasant on the ear. A quick play with the tilt control on the 99 which pivots the frequency response and the whole soundstage and presentation was moved back to produce a far more natural sound. As a pianist and a regular concert goer, I loved how easy is was to sort out a recording that was frankly flawed and be able to make it sound realistic and be able to sit through it comfortably. Rather that, than sit there with my teeth put on edge by a sub-standard recording.

I have to agree with the point Shaun makes about the Quadlink turning on the CD and tuner when you just want to play a record. It is a bit of nuisance and it's a shame they didn't make that system more intelligent so it only turned on the CD if you select the CD input. And you do need to remember where you've left the CD remote in order to turn off the display, which you can't do from the main 99 remote.

 

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