Quad
Company Profile
The Acoustical Manufacturing Company was founded in 1936 by Peter Walker. Walker worked for General Electric and EMI while studying at the Polytechnic University in London. Some of his pre-war models were tube amplifiers that ran on AC or DC power. For example the 25 Watt C-25, which worked with 12V operating voltage.
During the war, the Acoustical Manufacturing Company was forced to manufacture accessories for military equipment. In addition, the workshop was destroyed in a bombing raid. Therefore the company moved to Huntingdon, which is still the headquarters of QUAD today. Immediately after the war the first devices were introduced, which were then produced in larger numbers such as the amplifier QA12/P (1949) and the loudspeaker Corner Ribbon. These products were very successful, so that the company, which until then had consisted mainly of Peter Walker and his wife, expanded.
1951 saw the introduction of the first separate pre-power amplifier combination, the forerunner of the Quad tube system, which is still very well known and sought after as a classic today. The device was called "Quality Unit Amplifier Domestic". The abbreviation led to the later company name QUAD.
In 1953 the pre/power amplifier combination Quad II/22, initially designed in mono, followed. 90,000 of these were produced in various versions and sold worldwide. In 1955 the first electrostatic loudspeaker was introduced. This went into series production in 1957 and was produced for almost 25 years without major changes under the designations ESL 55 and ESL 57.
The first completely transistorized stereo system was introduced in 1967 under the designation preamplifier 33, tuner FM3 and power amplifier 303 (prices 1978: 700 DM each). In contrast to conventional stereo systems on the market, these units had an olive-colored, rather military-looking design. The unmistakable industrial design of this system was already awarded by the "Council of industrial Design" at that time.
This was followed in 1975 by the Current Dumping Power Amplifier 405, a joint development by Walker and Mike Albinson. The revolutionary circuit design of the power amplifier was already honored with high awards at that time and also caused a great stir internationally.
In 1981 the production of the ESL-63 electrostatic loudspeaker began. Peter Walker had worked for almost 18 years on the development of this loudspeaker, which was intended to retain the strengths of the ESL 55, but some weaknesses such as the strong bunching effect in the midrange had been successfully eliminated with the ESL 63. This loudspeaker had a higher power handling and was much easier to produce in an industrial series. The predecessor model was manufactured with a lot of manual work. In the following years, the preamplifiers 44 and 34 were introduced to match the power amplifier 405; the tuner FM 4 completed the system.
The first CD player was presented in 1989. The completely remote-controlled stereo system of the 66 series went into production from then on. The power amplifiers of this series - the legendary 606, as well as the smaller 306, also worked on the principle of current dumping. The components of this system were produced in different versions until 1996.
At the beginning of the 1990s, founder Peter Walker withdrew from the company and his son Ross Walker took over the management. In 1995, QUAD, which had been a traditional family business until then, was then sold to the Verity Group Plc. At that time, the hi-fi company Mission also belonged to this bank holding.
After initial teething troubles, the complete system "Quad 77" was launched in 1996. This modern system broke (consciously ?) with the previous traditions, which many Quad lovers and hi-fi enthusiasts saw very critically. Over the years, integrated amplifiers, CD, tuners, preamplifiers as well as various power amplifiers appeared. In the course of restructuring and modernization of the company, some divisions were closed and their activities were outsourced.
In 1997 the Verity Group Plc. sold Quad to the International Audio Group (IAG). The previous managing director Ross Walker left the company. The then IAG managing director Stan Curtis was well known in the British audio industry, as he had previously worked as a developer at Cambridge and Moth, among others. The previous factory building in Huntingdon was sold and the production partly outsourced to Bradford. Only the administration and service departments remained in Huntingdon. The previous sales structures were completely reorganised and the development team used the time to revise the complete product range. The then current "Quad 77" system was improved in many respects and is now on the market under the name "Quad 99". The electrostatic loudspeaker ESL-63 was revised and on this basis two much acclaimed new electrostatic models appeared, among others the highly praised ESL 989 for 7800 Euro.
For the tradition-conscious QUAD fan community, a new tube preamp / power amp combination ("Two-Fourty") was introduced in 2001, strongly based on the legendary QUAD II/22. This unit was received with great enthusiasm and received outstanding reviews in many renowned trade magazines.
Products
Web links
- Quad HiFi private website: [1]