Quad 66/606: what to do?

[Eremite]

So I've been running a quad 66/606 system that I bought in the early 1990s (new) and it's getting to that age when I wonder whether it should be poked a bit by a hi-fi doctor. Is is likely that something of this age will be suffering from drooping capacitors?

If I should get it looked at, what's the best strategy these days? I'm a little concerned at the obvious answer of "take it to a Quad dealer" as I get the impression that things are not as they used to be at IAG.

[julesd68]

I can thoroughly recommend the work done on my 405-2 by Lee at Red Hill Audio - http://www.redhillaudio.co.uk/index.html

Came back to me absolutely singing and retaining its "Quadness" which I was a little concerned that a service / upgrade might alter.

[DSJR]

Quad's service dept are still highly and fondly thought of, so please don't worry! They won't butcher and bodge the hell out of them either!

The 66 preamp can suffer from dry joints but you'd have found this out by now. The 606mk1 can have the larger value supply caps fitted and although the transformer was changed too in the 606mk2, I don't know if this makes any sonic difference. The 606-2 sounded when stone cold like a well warmed up mk1, whereas the mk1 could sound a bit rough when first switched on.

The 66 preamp gets ignored by many, but I like the light and airy presentation it has and never had a problem with the remote, unlike the horrid 77 thingy which had many hiccups early on.... As for the 606? Well, I really rate a good one and can think of a number of revered Top End amps absolutely trounced by one, so there!

[Barry]

Quad's service dept are still highly and fondly thought of, so please don't worry! They won't butcher and bodge the hell out of them either!

The Service department at Huntingdon still retain and maintain the impeccable reputation Quad had for customer service. Send you Quad gear to them with confidence. They wont charge you an arm and a leg either.

[RobHolt]

All the Current dumping models (306/405/606) run on quite high standing current due to the small Class A amplifier which causes idle power consumption to sit at about 30w.
All are physically small amplifiers without case ventilation, so the internals get rather warm even when the amp is doing nothing, which impacts the life of electrolytic caps. Good idea to get them checked every 10-15 years. However, the beauty of these designs is that nothing else drifts during the useful life of the amplifier so servicing is usually confined to just a handful of electrolytic caps - value about £40-£60.

If the pre amp is working well and is noise free - no clicks or pops when changing inputs or settings - I'd leave it alone.
If it has become noisy this can indicate leaky caps passing dc.

Rob

[Eremite]

Thanks to all for your advice. Since the patients are showing no adverse symptoms at the moment, perhaps I should just leave them alone!

[spendorman]

Usually worth at least looking inside to see if there are any electrolytic capacitors that are leaking, or beginning to leak. Could save a lot of trouble. I had to fix two 405's for a friend, both had leaking power supply caps, in one amp they had made a real mess.

[DSJR]

The 606 isn't as hot running as the 405 series, but I agree that it would be worthwhile having a look inside to see if they're (supply caps) bulging or not. If they are, get the 15,000 ones as fitted to the mk2 model.

Look on the dada website (including webshop and blogspot with loads of advice).

[tannoyman]

Sounds like it might benefit from the doc. Quad will give it the once over for £48 + parts + the dreaded VAT and for an extra £20 per order (what they call silver service) you can take it in the the morning and they will do it while you wait.

Hope this is helpful

David:

[Eremite]

Sounds like it might benefit from the doc. Quad will give it the once over for £48 + parts + the dreaded VAT and for an extra £20 per order (what they call silver service) you can take it in the the morning and they will do it while you wait.

Hope this is helpful

David:

Yes that is helpful; twenty quid to turn two journeys to Huntingdon into one can't be passed over!

Nothing against Huntingdon, you understand; just the driving.

[Barry]

Whilst Quad are at it, they will replace other components for free (should they need replacing), provided the replacement costs does not exceed £50.

And the people there really know their stuff. I spoke to them about the balanced line input for the Quad 520f and the service engineer could not have been more helpful.

Send your 606 back to Quad with confidence - they'll do a good job.