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Originally Posted by Craig Sawyers
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Kendall
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Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler
There was the famous comparison Peter Walker did between the different generations of amplifier technology. Quad are in print about the lack of perceived differences between valves and transistors of their different generations.
Also they demonstrated gear at various hifi shows (along with the famous lawnmower flex)
So they did listen to their own products.
David
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To say nothing of the first demonstrations of the ESL63 - cancelling a squarewave in air between two speakers. |
But neither of those has anything to do with listening, in the sense of having a bespoke room. Such as Wharfedale had. Quad did not have a listening room, period. Just a pent roof shop floor.
The particular Quad test was done in 1978 (attached), and was based on a Quad assertion that all adequately designed amplifiers should sound indistinguishable. They proved that, using an impressive listening panel, that the 303, 405 and Quad II were statistically indistinguishable. What is interesting is that they did not use a Quad E/S speaker, but the Yamaha NS1000M. They did this essentially PR exercise to demonstrate that the emerging review methods in the audio press were fundamentally flawed (and usually slammed Quad gear).
Then there was the famous Carver challenge with Stereophile. He asserted he could make his cheapest semiconductor amp sound indistinguishable to a state of the art valved amp https://www.stereophile.com/content/carver-challenge . He also used an acoustic null test technique.
Craig |
All adequately designed amplifiers do not sound the same though! Even Quads II, 303 and 405 sound quite different from one another. I'm very familiar with the above articles and other similar ones BTW.