On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 14:41:01 +0100
"Keith G" wrote:


Incidentally, IF you think Im after the 'best' amp please tell me
why I am bothering to restore my Quad405, rather than buying a newer
better amp ?


Well, I guess the answer to that has to be - No idea, what do you
regard would be a 'better' amp?

OK, I have to say I don't really see the point your are making. You
seem to be well aware that 'best' or 'better' doesn't necessarily mean
'new' or 'expensive' or even necessarily the most linear?? (Am I
right? - I wouldn't want to presume.... ;-)

Please do take time before replying - your last post was actually
reasonable for the most part.

In reply to your questions:

I missed quote marks around better above. I regard a poor quality amp as
one which is not linear, and a high quality amp as one which is
supremely linear.

I certainly can appreciate the qualities in the sound of a badly
designed amp, and can often find them pleasant, however I would prefer
that the amp *I* use did not colour the signal in this way - I would
prefer the colouration to be either in the recording (ie. 'as the mix
engineer intended') or provided *optionally* by me, by the use of eq /
tone control / DSP.

Basically I want total control over the sound, which means my equipment
must be capable of (as close as reasonably possible) totally linear
reproduction (Im aware my speakers will be the weakest part of the
system in any case).

So, why bother with the Quad405? well, with the mods Im adding (some
405mkII mods, some component changes to eliminate some decoupling made
un-necessary by more modern transistors a-la 606, and a drop in gain by
a factor of two, along with a higher quality metal film resistor on the
input signal path) the amp ought to be sonically transparent, at least
beyond my ability to tell the difference without ABXing in ideal
conditions (ie. not my house). Since the amp is effectively perfect
sonically, to my ears, I select it on the grounds that I think its (electronic)
design is clever. I also happen to think they look rather cool.