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RE: Quads and Cat




Thanks Satie and it was just a guess with the Quads and CAT gear. But I knew there was something missing or something more that was not coming through with the Maggies. For the first several months as I tweaked the subs and speaker set up tiny fractions, the Maggies got better. I even remember vividly, one glorious moment when I was brought to tears by of all things; Dave Mason's guitar solo on "Look at you Look at me" from his incredible album "Alone Together". His guitar was hanging in space, wailing away as if it was alive....... everything slowed down as I waited almost breathless for the next note to pierce the background. But with the Maggies that kind of experience was more of a teaser. The system was gloating at me as if to say, "see how amazing this can be, but no you can't have that all the time. Only on rare and unexpected occasions."

Then there was the volume problem with the Maggies. Yes the CATs and Maggies played plenty loud enough. I like loud, but mostly because up to a point it seems like louder brings out more detail. But there is a price to pay with the Maggies at loud volume. Right where the volume was loud enough to bring out more detail, the sound would also become a little thick and bloated. It was as if the whole system was trying too hard to make good music. At lower volume, there was just a lack of information coming through. Turn it up and there would be more detail. But then, a sort of subtle bloating and smearing would happen, and I'd want to turn it down..... and then I'd lose the detail. But none of this was terribly bad and in fact overall the Maggie/CAT set up was still one of the best I have ever heard. After a while however (at least a year), and it may take a truly obsessive and crazy audiophile to understand this, this whole process just sort of wore me out and I had to change something. So in came the Quads.

PK did an amazing job building the Customs and they perform at a much higher level than stock Quads. I'm confident in saying that because I currently have a pristine pair of 63's, a pair of 2905's (bad panel), and recently had a pair of 989's that PK took in on trade for partial payment for the Customs. So I'm very familiar with almost all of the previous generations of Quads, with lots of different electronics. These Customs do everything good a Quad can do, but without the shortcomings. First, they play loud. And compared to the Maggies there is no smearing or bloating at all at higher volume levels. If anything, there is plenty of detail at loud levels. I've turned it up to the point where I've sat cringing in my seat, waiting for the snap, crackle, and pop sounds of a clipping Quad as it's met its limit. So far, that hasn't happened even at super loud rock and roll levels like 103 to 105 db.

Other virtues of the Quads compared to the 3.7i's include natural and real tonality, more air and space than the Maggies, a more coherent and dense soundstage in that it is continuous and does not appear like cut out images pasted on poster board, the decay of notes seems to last longer, and all against a dead quiet background. (credits to the CAT preamp and phono section for this one!!!) Overall, the Quads just sound like real music effortlessly pouring out of the speakers.

Effortless may be the key word among all of these. It seems like the CATS are such a good match for the Quads that the system just goes away leaving only the music in all its glory and raw emotion to enjoy. At low levels, all the lip smacking, deep breathing, chair moving, and even the key pads on a clarinet or sax, all come through. Then at louder levels, the dynamics chime in and pow....... kick drums, organ, bass guitar, etc. all sound splendid but again totally natural..... especially with the RELs crossed over at 42hz. At that setting there is a seamless integration in this system that really fills out the frequency spectrum while capturing lots of subtle overtones further up the scale.

With all that said, I'll have to let these impressions settle in a bit more. But overall, I'm really happy about switching back to the Quads and of course still wonder what a pair of Maggie 20 somethings would do. Then, and here's where Planar fans need to hold their ears, I've ordered a pair of Vivid Giya G1's for another system I'll be working on in 2017. Apparently the Giya's have a reputation of being one of the most planar sounding dynamic speakers out there. Well, please give me about 6 to 9 months and I'll let you know my humble opinion about that!


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