quickie sound

[aragorn723]

Can anyone comment on the Quickie sound in stock form?  How are the highs, mids, lows, is it very transparent, how much potential does it have?? Thanks!

[earwaxxer]

I can quickly summarize my experience between the 'stock' and 'modded' Quickie as that between a very good non-boutique brand of kit (say NAD), compared to an expensive 'mature' high end brand (say Bryston). The subtleties of high end components is cumulative, and commensurately more expensive. You do get what you pay for. I would be willing to bet that in a double blind, you could not accurately pick the differences of a tricked out Quickie and a boutique tube pre for many times the asking price. I have never done that, but that is my opinion.

[Zimmer64]

I have retired my $5000 Preamp / PSU and use my modded Quickie instead. Need I say more?

Best Michael

[Paul Birkeland]

If you do a search for "directly heated triode preamp", you'll get some idea about the general price range and complexity of these designs, and the true value that is the Quickie. 

[underdawg]

I agree, my cary slp308 is for sale,nuff said

[aragorn723]

would you put it up against a mcintosh preamp?

[4krow]

I might have to ask, WHICH Mac model are you referring to? Like any company, Mac has made many designs, some tube, some SS, and have done so for many years.
 In my experience, I have rarely heard the honesty that the Q is capable of. Any upgrade will change that basic quality, for the better or not. In it's stock form, I have no apologies to make for it, regardless of price. Having said this, I prefer my own flavor in sound, and certain changes lead me there. After 40+ years of experience, I have rarely been so satisfied with a product, let alone so surprised.

[aragorn723]

I might have to ask, WHICH Mac model are you referring to? Like any company, Mac has made many designs, some tube, some SS, and have done so for many years.
 In my experience, I have rarely heard the honesty that the Q is capable of. Any upgrade will change that basic quality, for the better or not. In it's stock form, I have no apologies to make for it, regardless of price. Having said this, I prefer my own flavor in sound, and certain changes lead me there. After 40+ years of experience, I have rarely been so satisfied with a product, let alone so surprised.

my buddy's dad has a C28, which is a solid-state design from the 1970's i think..  It is paired with Pioneer spec 4 amps, NHT 2.9 4 way towers, 2 18" JBL professional series subs (each fed with 1000 + watts)..  In short, the system is beautiful sounding and powerful (it has knocked pots off the stove upstairs!).  I'm not a big solid state fan, especially for the preamp, but this was very natural and satisfying..  The preamp voltage is very similar to the quickie at around 2 volts too.. 

[4krow]

   A friend of mine owned the C22. As much as I liked it, I didn't care for the many knobs on the front controlling stereo/mono/stereo reverse/L+R to L/L+R to R and so on. The signal passed through many connections in it's path. The sound however, was at the top of SS, that's for sure.
   As far as voltages being similar, 2V output is not as significant as the gain of a pre-amp. The Q is about 7db gain if I remember correctly, and the Mac is more like 18db or more. 
   It starts to become apples/oranges being that the function of each unit has a different goal. The Mac is versatile, there is no doubt about that, and the Q is more about preserving the purity of the signal by keeping things as simple as possible. Take the lid off each one, and then you would a big difference.

[Wanderer]

   A friend of mine owned the C22....... The sound however, was at the top of SS, that's for sure.
   ........

In a former life I was a McIntosh salesman.

A McIntosh C22 is a tube unit. Orignal ran on 6 12AX7 with the circuit arrangment very much the same as a Marantz 7C and/or an ARC SP6.   The recent reissue had 4 12AX7 and 3 12AT7 and I have no idea of the circuit layout.


To trot out the tired automobile analogy: Comparing a McIntosh to a Qucikie is like comparing a Bentley Continental with a Caterham (Lotus) Super Seven, both aimed at perfomance but one includes every possible feature and one as minimalist as possible. 

[4krow]

OOps, it's been longer than I thought.  My friend also owned SS Mac power amp, but I forget which model. Since  the C22 is tubed, at least we are kinda in the same ballpark, but still two different ideas, as stated by the auto analogy.

[Grainger49]

I had a C22, I think that was the number, maybe a C24, but it was all tubed full function McIntosh preamp. My Foreplay 2 shot it down.

[aragorn723]

   A friend of mine owned the C22. As much as I liked it, I didn't care for the many knobs on the front controlling stereo/mono/stereo reverse/L+R to L/L+R to R and so on. The signal passed through many connections in it's path. The sound however, was at the top of SS, that's for sure.
   As far as voltages being similar, 2V output is not as significant as the gain of a pre-amp. The Q is about 7db gain if I remember correctly, and the Mac is more like 18db or more. 
   It starts to become apples/oranges being that the function of each unit has a different goal. The Mac is versatile, there is no doubt about that, and the Q is more about preserving the purity of the signal by keeping things as simple as possible. Take the lid off each one, and then you would a big difference.

So it sounds like the gain is more important?  Interesting how that doesn't show up in preamp specs often?

As far as all the switches on the mac, can't think of a reason for those but i definitely like the idea of processing (i.e. tone controls, dsp, etc.)..  Part of me is skeptical about it beating a few thousand dollar preamp, but the other parts just build the darn thing already lol.

[Doc B.]

The last couple of posts are interesting to me. Gain should probably be included in preamp specs. But the gain of the amp that the preamp is connected to is just as important, and probably more variable than preamps. SS amps in particular sometimes have way high gain. All that does is amplify the low level warts that might be present in the preamp, and maybe the source too, to some extent. 18 dB is pretty high gain for a preamp. Foreplay III had a gain of 10dB because people complained that the original Foreplay had too much gain at, what was it, 17dB with the Anticipation upgrade?

The unofficial sweet spot for preamp gain is about 10dB and that's why we chose it for FPIII (which could be configured for almost 20dB and down to close to unity). Our current preamps are a bit shy of that at 7 or 8. And of course the highly coveted volume control in a box, oops, I mean Passive Preamp, has a gain of diddly -  and an output impedance high enough to remind us that the pot should probably just have been put in the amp box...

As for "Quickie vs. high buck preamp", we don't make any claims. If our customers make the comparison based upon their own experience, well, that's their opinion and we aren't going to argue with it be it positive or negative.

[underdawg]

very nice neutral response, I agree with you.I agree its safer to stay neutral as audiophiles cant get hurt feelings. In my 30 years in the hobby, business, and everything else I have found its better to let the masses speak rather than respond unfortunately. I listen to maunfacturers though more ofter than not, after all they have an insite we hobbyists dont.