Quad Help!

So, to help rule out other possibilities I have a cable on order so that I can connect my denon amp to the 405. That'll take a couple of days to arrive. Ah well. Bit bummed I can't get them to work properly.

Simples (I like that advert on TV).

Forget 33 for now, just test out 405 with another input, say straight from CD

"they had a tt and cdp going into a mixer into the 33 (I think)."

So the mixer fed the 33! Those 5 pin Din to phono may be suspect.

Hmm, I was wondering if that might be a clue.
I suppose buying new cables will be cheaper than taking it to a repairman of some sort.

Absolutely!

But you should be able to open up the Din plugs to check if correct pins are connected.

Yes - ok. I shall look into that. My own lack of confidence comes into play here as I'm not sure I would know what I was looking at. However, I haven't really done any research to change that yet. I shall ponder that one tonight.

well, there are five pins, centre one is earth so that is probably right. that leaves just four pins. two will not be connected, those may be the ones you need to connect to.

OK, well that makes sense. I'll open one up tonight and have a look.
I can see a new soldering iron on the horizon!

The Quad 33 instructions should give pin numbers for inputs/ outputs.

If you do not have it, it should be easy to download somewhere. Any problem, I will find one.

Yes, I have it. I was planning to look in there for the answer. Mind you, it's not the most well written instruction book ever!

if you carefully open up a 5 pin DIN plug wired for playback, you'll see the earthing screen connected to the top cantre pin. The left and right signal wires should be connected to the two pins to the RIGHT of this as you look from the rear (pins 3 and 5).

If you pop into your local TV shop and buy a "Bandridge" style DIN-4 phono lead, the yellow should be "left play" and blue is "right play," White or black is "left record" and red is "right record."

I hope this helps you get sound anyway!

Once you have sound, the next thing to make sure of is that the 33 is usually overloaded by a CD player. Decent attenuated leads are available from Chord Co and, I think, Flashbacksales, or you could buy some Rothwell attenuators. A good working 33 is worth this effort and can delight with an expansive midrange, if a little "curtailed" by modern standards. 33's can also be modified to different degrees.

Try here for an easy way to allow the disc adaptor to accept CD on it's spare position -

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTri.../quad33cd.html


[edit]

Is a 33/405 worth persevering with?

My answer is yes, as I was a '60's kid and the 33/303 were something I drooled over. The basic performance can be excellent as long as the caps aren't knackered and the thing isn't being overloaded... There are numerous companies about who can do wondrous things by way of tweaks, although the power supply and level matching ones on the 33 should be looked at carefully before proceeding. The 405 needs to loose most of its over-protection and there are numerous articles about component layout affecting distortion on those pre mk2 amp boards. If you're unable to mess about with a soldering iron, then DADA now make 405-2 boards and can supply modern, dual reservior supplies which improve the performance further. You'd have to spend a thousand or two to get something genuinely better than a properly fettled Quad IMO...