Williamson by QUAD?
 

In article .com,
Andre Jute scribeth thus

The exact name hardly matters: the two important points are that the
QUAD brought BBC *quality* into the *domestic* setting.

Those were the days when quality meant something.. not anymore;(...
--
Tony Sayer

Williamson by QUAD?
 

tony sayer wrote:

In article .com,
Andre Jute scribeth thus

The exact name hardly matters: the two important points are that the
QUAD brought BBC *quality* into the *domestic* setting.

Those were the days when quality meant something.. not anymore;(...
--
Tony Sayer

Wait a minute, at the time of Quad II, rich Australian graziers
were making fortunes in beef and wheat and wool sales before the prices
slumped,
and they spent huge outrageous sums of money on Quad and Leak
on sale at emporiums of distinction. The the rest of us poor battlers
could only dream, and perhaps build our own amps using 807 sold in
wartime surplus stores, and buy awful OPT from Fergesson in Chatswood,
NSW.
And instead of the Jaguars these few rich folks had, we had to buy
Morris Minors and Oxfords
and all manner of crap.
We were lumbered with the perfect crumminess of Bwitish Engweeneerwing.

The Bwitish cars rusted while you watched them, but then nearly all cars
did, because they never bothered to
paint the metal on the inside of doors and body work.

Workmanship was plain SHODDY, and it applied to nearly everything you
bought.

Designs like Quad22 and Leak all were watered down to a lowest common
denominator.

We can build far better amps right now, except due to Chinese
competition, the trend
for famous brandnames is now toward international crappiness......

I do not value Quad-II amps very highly because I know just what they
are, old junk,
and nice old junk, but still junk, like an old Morris Major.

Still, the Willys Jeep Stationwagon my dad had was a strange wonder from
the USA; maybe a lot of WW2 jeep
parts lurked under the snazzy body work.... and finally
mum got a VW beetle in '63, the Germams were pardonned. It was far more
reliable than the Morris Oxford we had.
We sure never had a German Radio, or hi-fi set, until we got a made in
Oz Kreisler stereo gram with two 5 watt
channels, and bloody awful, but then it was at least 20dB cheaper than
anything by Quad
costing a fortune.

Patrick Turner.

Williamson by QUAD?
 

In article , Patrick Turner
scribeth thus


tony sayer wrote:

In article .com,
Andre Jute scribeth thus

The exact name hardly matters: the two important points are that the
QUAD brought BBC *quality* into the *domestic* setting.

Those were the days when quality meant something.. not anymore;(...
--
Tony Sayer
for famous brandnames is now toward international crappiness......

I do not value Quad-II amps very highly because I know just what they
are, old junk,
and nice old junk, but still junk, like an old Morris Major.

Still, the Willys Jeep Stationwagon my dad had was a strange wonder from
the USA; maybe a lot of WW2 jeep
parts lurked under the snazzy body work.... and finally
mum got a VW beetle in '63, the Germams were pardonned. It was far more
reliable than the Morris Oxford we had.
We sure never had a German Radio, or hi-fi set, until we got a made in
Oz Kreisler stereo gram with two 5 watt
channels, and bloody awful, but then it was at least 20dB cheaper than
anything by Quad
costing a fortune.

Patrick Turner.


Actually the comments were about the BBC where the accountants and bean
counters are running the place, with the usual results:(.

Quite right about some of the above it did take the UK a long while to
find out how to make cars as they ought, but then again some of the QUAD
gear is still around and in active service, where a lot of other stuff
has long been junked.....
--
Tony Sayer

Williamson by QUAD?
 

"Andre Jute"
Phil Allison

Acoustical in Huntingdon. (Acoustical was Peter Walker's company; it
was not called QUAD then; QUAD was the Quality Unit Audio, not a
suitable company name!).

** I read " QUAD " was short for " QUality Amplifier Domestic " ?

I was looking for the words from which the acronym was formed in my
archive of QUAD materials. I now wonder if they ever announced what it
stands for. The word "unit" is repeatedly used in the literature,
admittedly more often in the combination "control unit". I have seen
"Quality Unit Amplifier Domestic" but cannot now remember where.
"Unit" in this use may be what modern manufacturers more pompously
call "modular"; the QUAD was from the beginning intended to be part of
a *system*.


** Another explanation I read ( in an interview with Peter Walker,
IIRC ) was that Acoustical dubbed their
first hi-fi amplifier the " QADU " for " Quality Amplifier Domestic Unit
".

When genteel folk rang Acoustical wishing to order one of same, they
regularly failed to get the awkward acronym right - instead coming out
with all manner of weird variations. One such folk ( possibly a tad
dyslexic) explained that he wished to purchase a " Quad " amplifier.

When told the correct acronym, he was clear the letters spelled QUAD.

That neat variation was seen buy management to have merit, was adopted as
the product name and later the trademark of Acoustical.



** AID = " Acoustical In-house Design " - surely ?

Are you pulling my leg, Phil?


** How about: " Acoustical Internal Design ".

BTW

Read your own words:

" ... AID department .. "

Indicates the " D" does not stand for " department" .



......... Phil

Williamson by QUAD?
 

On Sep 4, 7:01 pm, "Phil Allison" wrote:
"Andre Jute"
Phil Allison



Acoustical in Huntingdon. (Acoustical was Peter Walker's company; it
was not called QUAD then; QUAD was the Quality Unit Audio, not a
suitable company name!).

** I read " QUAD " was short for " QUality Amplifier Domestic " ?

I was looking for the words from which the acronym was formed in my
archive of QUAD materials. I now wonder if they ever announced what it
stands for. The word "unit" is repeatedly used in the literature,
admittedly more often in the combination "control unit". I have seen
"Quality Unit Amplifier Domestic" but cannot now remember where.
"Unit" in this use may be what modern manufacturers more pompously
call "modular"; the QUAD was from the beginning intended to be part of
a *system*.

** Another explanation I read ( in an interview with Peter Walker,
IIRC ) was that Acoustical dubbed their
first hi-fi amplifier the " QADU " for " Quality Amplifier Domestic Unit
".

When genteel folk rang Acoustical wishing to order one of same, they
regularly failed to get the awkward acronym right - instead coming out
with all manner of weird variations. One such folk ( possibly a tad
dyslexic) explained that he wished to purchase a " Quad " amplifier.

When told the correct acronym, he was clear the letters spelled QUAD.

That neat variation was seen buy management to have merit, was adopted as
the product name and later the trademark of Acoustical.

Now this has the bizarre, somewhat edgy sound of truth!

Andre Jute

Williamson by QUAD?
 

"Andre Jute"
Phil Allison

** Another explanation I read (in an interview with Peter Walker,
IIRC ) was that Acoustical dubbed their first hi-fi amplifier the
" QADU " for " Quality Amplifier Domestic Unit ".


When genteel folk rang Acoustical wishing to order one of same, they
regularly failed to get the awkward acronym right - instead coming out
with all manner of weird variations. One such folk ( possibly a tad
dyslexic) explained that he wished to purchase a " Quad " amplifier.

When told the correct acronym, he was clear the letters spelled QUAD.

That neat variation was seen buy management to have merit, was adopted
as
the product name and later the trademark of Acoustical.


Now this has the bizarre, somewhat edgy sound of truth!


** Alas and as usual, the truth is almost invariably less palatable and to
most folk far less plausible than conveniently manufactured fictions.

A truism, universally relied upon by all liars.





........ Phil

Williamson by QUAD?
 

Phil Allison wrote:

"Andre Jute"
Phil Allison

** Another explanation I read (in an interview with Peter Walker,
IIRC ) was that Acoustical dubbed their first hi-fi amplifier the
" QADU " for " Quality Amplifier Domestic Unit ".


When genteel folk rang Acoustical wishing to order one of same, they
regularly failed to get the awkward acronym right - instead coming out
with all manner of weird variations. One such folk ( possibly a tad
dyslexic) explained that he wished to purchase a " Quad " amplifier.

When told the correct acronym, he was clear the letters spelled QUAD.

That neat variation was seen buy management to have merit, was adopted
as
the product name and later the trademark of Acoustical.


Now this has the bizarre, somewhat edgy sound of truth!

** Alas and as usual, the truth is almost invariably less palatable and to
most folk far less plausible than conveniently manufactured fictions.

A truism, universally relied upon by all liars.

....... Phil

Mining operations for truth are always difficult in the swamp
full of BS.....



Patrick Turner.

Williamson by QUAD?
 

In the QUAD (that is, first series, after the QUAD.12 and before the
QUAD II) promo/operating booklet, it is categorically stated that
Acoustical did "all metal work, finishing" etc in-house under the
supervision of the AID department (whatever that may be). In Britain
at this time, and well beyond the Quad II period, any manufacturer who
didn't want to lose his reputation took very great care of metal
preparation. (For instance, one of the bugbears of Rolls-Royce and
Bentley of this period is mu-metal pitting on door handles and other
brightwork one handles, ugly --and rough on fine pigskin gloves -- and
not capable of refinishing to the standard required for successful
rechroming.)



If one can afford to restore a Rolls to RR standards one can afford
to restore it better-which means having those parts filled and molds
made to make steel investment castings of them. In fact I think there
is a place selling a kit of them already done fairly reasonably.

Another substantial upgrade is the use of Oldsmobile valves in the RR
V8 engine.

Williamson by QUAD?
 

Mechanically the Jaguar, Rolls and Aston were good, but they used the
Lucas garbage electrics. Aston was David Brown and had a good
transmission: Jaguar used a US Borg Warner slushbox (mediocre) or the
horrid Moss POS manual. Rollers had US GM transmissions, the best.

If only Jaguar had used a better transmission, better rustproofing,
and better electrics. Actually what would have been even more useful
is had they offered the Gardner 4LK engine as an alternative as Mr.
Gardner tried to tell them.

The Jaguar engine is stout but heavy. With three Webers and an
American distributor or a Scintilla Vertex mag they are pretty
reliable.

Williamson by QUAD?
 

In article .com, Bret
Ludwig scribeth thus
Mechanically the Jaguar, Rolls and Aston were good, but they used the
Lucas garbage electrics.

Joe Lucas!.. I was once rather worried to hear their junk was used in
aircraft;!..

Aston was David Brown and had a good
transmission: Jaguar used a US Borg Warner slushbox (mediocre) or the
horrid Moss POS manual. Rollers had US GM transmissions, the best.

If only Jaguar had used a better transmission, better rustproofing,
and better electrics. Actually what would have been even more useful
is had they offered the Gardner 4LK engine as an alternative as Mr.
Gardner tried to tell them.

The Jaguar engine is stout but heavy. With three Webers and an
American distributor or a Scintilla Vertex mag they are pretty
reliable.


Wot about the dreaded "Tin Worm" that used to infest British cars for
too long!...
--
Tony Sayer