Wonderful separation of individual voices and instruments, most notably in multi-track recordings. It does feel so good to use the unit after a abattage arbre job at work.

At the price? None

These pre-amps still work well today. My current source is from a FLAC player with very high quality DAC. Other sources are Thorens TD125 with SME 3 arm (not used much these days but superior to many modern decks and surpassing such classics as the Linn LP2), Nakamichi three head cassette deck (BX300E) and a Nakamichi FM tuner.

custom stickers | print stickers | business printing | printing company

I bought my 44 som years ago together with tuner 4 and 306 amp. I absolutely love the sound from this unit

Might be the balance slider seems to break and give some strange sounds.

I have actually two 44's based setups.

1) Original 44 with Quad 405-2 driving B&W CM2 speakers.
2) Later 44 (grey) with Quad 606 driving Quad ELSs (mid 90's vintage).

I have mixed and matched setups at different times.

Earlier 44 has softer sound but very nice if you like retro-sound. Clean and smooth.

The later 44 is much more refined with very detailed and clean sound.

These pre-amps still work well today. My current source is from a FLAC player with very high quality DAC. Other sources are Thorens TD125 with SME 3 arm (not used much these days but superior to many modern decks and surpassing such classics as the Linn LP2),
Nakamichi three head cassette deck (BX300E) and a Nakamichi FM tuner.

I bought my newer 44 new in 1987!. The other 44 I bought for $100 on EBay a few years ago. The 606, I've also had since new in 1987. The 405-2 I bought on EBay for about £100 a few years ago. I think you'll find the prices for Quad stuff is going up :-).

To summarize, get a late grey 44 if you can. Pairing with a 606 gives a big clean sound, not very retro, that will stand up with many modern systems and will surpass many modern systems in the bass reproduction/control department.

A great sounding preamp which will entertain like nothing else around the £400 price tag, timing, control, seperation and instruments (Good overall control) is where this amp shines, you will need good interconnections, and source to get the best out of her, been using her for about a year or 2 now. Also used Rotel rc1080 pre which had greater punch in the bass, but not half as musical in the rest of the spectrum. A classic.

Can any please inform me on how to connect a Quad 44 pre amp to my old Quad 303 power amp??
Also is it possible to connect my 44 to a Quad 99 power amp?
Many thanks.

Completely unfatiguing, neutral, sound.

After hearing what Audio Reseach had to offer, absolutely none!

I've been using the Quad 44/405-II combo for over 6 years, in addition to the years that my dad's been using it. Recently I found a shop selling an Audio Research LS2, LS3B, LS7, and LS9, each going for $700+ dollars. Given that my dad's present system uses an AR SP-5, I thought that it was time to upgrade my system. I did a lot of research on the internet, and was convinced that any of the AR preamps would completely outdo my Quad 44. The audio shop with the ARs hooked each of the preamps to an Aragon 4004 and QEF speakers. My dad and I were not impressed with the sound produced by any of the setups. For comparison, I hooked up my old Quad 44, and to my immense surprise, the music came alive! Both my dad and the salesman agreed that Quad 44 sounded a LOT better than all the venerable Audio Research preamplifiers (It's also a whole lot cheaper). We ended up purchasing the Aragon 4004. The 405-II is a great power-amp, but realistically, the Aragon 4004 is just in a completely different league.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Audio Research, Denon amplifiers/pre-amplifiers

Fantastic built, like it would withstand a direct hit from a Minute Man Missile! Fabulous tone controls (very useful for playing 78s and badly recorded anything else, too.)

DIP switches eventually disintegrate with age and need replacing. The DIN plugs are a bit of a bind! Phono section lets down this otherwise great little pre-amp. It's the poor phono section thatm for me, drags this product down to a 3 star overall.

Originally, I bought this unit as part of a package, which included a Quad 405 power amp - it was supposed to be an upgrade over a large Rotel integrated amp. I was well pleased ... this combination gave me a fuller sound than I had experienced before. Seemingly more not so much more transparent but greater tonal accuracy, and certianly much less fatiguing (read "irritating"!) when listening to more shrill sounds, such as flute, piano or female voice, which seemed much more natural with this combination. I later upgraded to a second 405 and had Quad do all the necessary work for me - the 44 with a mono pair of 405s. Wow! Big upgrade in sound. Fuller sound, more 3-D and better dynamics. However, while the 44 was away being worked on I fixed up the old Rotel integrated's pre-amp section to the Quad 405s ... I was in for a big surprise. Not much difference when I played tape or CD but records ... The Rotel phono section was much the superior to the Quad 44, such that I could now hear a SIGNIFICANT bettering of sound quality with vinyl over CD. I subsequently bought an Eico ST70 integrated tune amp, a much older beastie than the Quad ... have to say its phono section bettered the Quad 44, too.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel integrated ??? Trevor Lees TL1 tube pre-amp, Eico ST70 tube pre-amp.

Soundstage! Way enough detail for me. Fabulous on a wide array of music. Classy looks. A must buy at current prices & holds value

None yet

I've read tons of criticalmaterial about this pre. The only thing that the critics made me want to do is to try it out. I have used a Quad 33 pre for about 20 years. I have listend to many kits set up by friends but just about always want to get home to my own kit. Last night i took posesion of a Quad 44 pre. Hooked it up and let me tell you - i thought that there was something wrong with my speakers. My first impression was, where are all of those instruments coming from in what I thought was a familiar piece of Latin music? Wow, let me tell you. I've got the 44 hooked to two 303s which in turn are driving two Kef65.2s. Now I know what soundstage really means!! True, as others say, the Quad pre is not as detailed as some preamps but I'd have to spend ten times the money I paid for the Quad to get more detail. I find that the bass is greta for me, a classical, blues & jazz lover. There is more than enough bass for the Stone's Stripped album and for the Greatful Workingman's Dead & Bob Marley & The Wailers. Sure, what passes for "bass" & "treble" controls on the 44 are going to take some getting used to but in my view, thy seem to work better than traditional controls. I agree with the previous reviwer who said that this pre is neutral. My living room sounds like a damn good concert hall not like the sound room in my local hi-fi shop. I just love it that I can have such sound at the same price point at which many people buy absolute garbage.

Similar Products Used:

Quad 33

- soft, neutral, totally without listening fatigue. - extremely well built modular design, reputation of excellent reliability. - unique, clever tone controls can come in handy from time to time.

- not the most transparant preamp on the market - wayward design not for everybody - as always with quad: unassuming looks will not impress the friends!

This is an interesting and very original preamp. It is totally modular, with the possibility of finetuning the phono input quite well to your cartridge, and very, very well built, so it was an interesting choice for sound professionals. The look of the device may surprise you, it is actually quite small (Quad never made big boxes), and depending on the year finished in beige or or military kind of grey. It also has a very original tone control, which works totally unlike classic tone controls. It is a combination of a "tilt" circuit and filters. Now, for 95% of the time I play "flat" but for some bad sounding CD''s this tone control actually brings more music, and it works a lot better than classic bass and treble. I have this 2nd hand pream since something like 5 years, and I am still very happy with it. It is connected to a Quad 405-II amp and JBL speakers. As all quad electronics, the sound is soft and neutral, but not extremely detailed. I can believe that there are more transparant amps on the market (for example: changing CD players barely influences output sound), but you won''t mind; the thing just keeps on reproducing music in an unfatigueing way. The kind of device that made me lose interest in hi-end audio. I would have to pay a LOT to get a serious improvement in sound quality.

Similar Products Used:

I had a Harman Kardon integrated amp. Nice, but the quad combination is definitely softer sounding.