Proud New Owner of a Quad 33/303

[dantheman91]

Hi

Yesterday i bought a Quad 33/303 for £150 from my local hi-fi shop condition is absolutly mint they have the orginal boxes and manules and sound stunning im well chuffed :):cool:

[Beechwoods]

Welcome to the club! I am very pleased with my 33-303 setup. Mine's paired with a couple of Rogers JR149 speakers. 3 Series Quad really are a bit of a bargain. Will you be going for the retro look with an original teak sleeve for the two of them?

[Rare Bird]

Brilliant Dan

[dantheman91]

i coul'nt belive the price of the for the condition there isnt a mark or evan a blemish on them iv'e been listening to them this morning the sound compared to the cyrus is unreal its truely stunning. i will keep a look out for a teak cab for them i just love the retro look of my system.

[Jonboy]

There's plenty of smiles fo miles and bang for bucks with vintage Quad 33/303

[Rare Bird]

i coul'nt belive the price of the for the condition there isnt a mark or evan a blemish on them iv'e been listening to them this morning the sound compared to the cyrus is unreal its truely stunning. i will keep a look out for a teak cab for them i just love the retro look of my system.

By upping the voltage on my '33' PSU board brought imporovements for me.The sleeves go for around £80.00, be nice to get yourself an 'FM3' for the set, they go for peanutz aswell.

Trouble with most blokes these days, they read to much crap into the hobby getting totally blinded with things along the way,buying old gear like this is just not done in their eyes..More fool them i say...I bet i could name at least six blokes on here with '33'/'303's

[Pete The Cat]

The 33 is still the best value for money preamp around. Gets you started for £40-ish, eminently mod-able and will still be working decades after all the Cyrus stuff that people seem to go for now. I keep one spare and for fun.

Pete

[DSJR]

As the Chrismas tree will be going up this weekend if sonny-jim gets his way, the Quad II's have been rested for a few months. I bought my modded 303 down and although different, I love the sound.

My Dada updated 33 is in daily use and I love it to bits. Upping the supply voltage and re-capping the power supply (the phono board has had its voltage reduced back down for noise reasons) has transformed it and with the low filter tamed with the "Bryce mod," I think the 33 takes on a different and far more transparent quality. I use the tape playback as an input feed.

One day, people will re-discover the joys of the 33 (they already have with the 303 I think) and these will start to climb further in value. £150 for a mint pair is a darned good price I think, a hundred quid more being the norm these days and yes, I have an FM3 as well (anyone interested in a mint FM2 with manual and a Quad box?)

[Vinyleyes]

Forgive my ignorance Dave ..:mental: but what is the FM2 .. I'm still looking for an integrated with phono stage for around 100 - 150 notes .... and vintage would be nice.

[Rare Bird]

Quad made the 'FM2' is a case with the same syling to the 3 series, although the display was a more pale Orange & had side entry connection that may be a problem with the wooden sleeve. & of course there's the older Quad 'FM2'

[DSJR]

As Andre says, the FM2 was, I think, the valve/ss stereo tuner that went with the old valve Quads. This was refreshed for the 33/303 era in a similarly styled case with the ss decoder mounted inside, rather than in a separate box mounted on the rear. The FM2 sounds lush into most systems, although a high input impedance of 100K (what Quad recommended at the time) seems to balance it out well. The FM3 still needs 50K on the preamp though, but suitably serviced, it sounds very good indeed, if a bit straight laced to the Accuphase brigade.

One of my favourite all-time amps for around a ton is the A&R A60 in its various forms. Pricing killed it off at the end as the Creeks were almost as good and two thirds the price (but not as well made and not always as reliable). The A60 is musical, with a good balance of detail and forgiveness of less than top grade sources, very important in domestic audio at this level I think. Most surviving A60's will need a supply re-cap by now and getting at the circuit board underside is a royal PITA, but it's well worth the hassle IMO.

Other good budget amps were the top Rotel slimline integrateds (971/972?) and hifi dave and I have a very soft spot for some of the HK amps (5500 integrated I think it was).

The problem with practically ALL vintage gear (anything pre 1995 IMO), is that some service work will almost certainly be required on the stuff, from cleaning pots and switches to part or full re-capping and re-setup of bias currents etc. If you buy a classic amp and have this done, you'll probably have a better sound than when new. Certainly, a restored and updated Quad 33/303 or 44/405-2 will be clearly better than when new as better components at low cost are readily avaliable now - just goes to show that the old Quad stuffed shirts did actually know what they were doing, whereas the equally but opposite-viewpoint stuffed shirts that replaced them just used the same old wine in new bottles decade after decade and are still doing so.....

[Rare Bird]

Hi Dave
It's 'FM2SD' (Stereo Decoder) You can fit a One Thing 'MPX-1' decoder in the FM2 to replace the original if you want. & of course there is the 'AM3' tuner.

[Beechwoods]

The AM3 is quite a rarity.

[quadsugdenman]

More fool them i say...I bet i could name at least six blokes on here with '33'/'303's

There aint anything that comes close in terms of sound quality and value for money, especially with EL 57s. They are still the 'Best of British' and properly serviced will go on forever. ;)