Quote Originally Posted by David W. View Post
Hello Barry,

The experiment with the Quad amplifier driving the BC1s was long enough ago that I can’t remember the details, and the woofers going “all over the place” may be an exaggeration. But I do recall that, as we tried the BC1s at similarly very high volume in turn with the Quad and the Sansui (which I had on home demonstration at the time), the speakers went into distress mode with the Quad - which was the first of the 4xx series.

An experience that favoured the Quad over the Sansui concerned the moving coil input. My friend John and I each bought an Audio Technics Signet MKIIIE MC cartridge and found it had an impedence mismatch with our amplifiers.

I wrote to Sansui about this, asking if they’d still honour the warranty if I had the impedance increased by a professional. I received in return a bundle of advertising brochures for their products but no answer to my question. I wrote again and they advised to “keep trying different cartridges until you find one that matches”! Running the cartridge signal through AT’s dedicated transformer into the MM input provided the answer.

John gave Quad a call about the same problem. They invited him to take the amplifier to Huntingdon (20 miles away) where they’d modify the circuit free of charge while he waited. What a difference in service!
The Signet cartridge was lovely - a friend of mine had one, though I think his was a fixed-coil design.

Yes, the customer service provide by Quad was (and as far as I know, still is) second to none.