| Hi Simon!
I can only really speak for the the Quad:
The Power amp is VERY stable and has a warmish sound with slightly soft
bass. Overall, a poorman's arcwelder for driving difficult speakers.
The preamp is adequate but lacks detail in the upper mids and high end.
Both for the price leave most things for dead.
My experience with the Mission is that it has loads more detail,
doesn't image as well as the Quads, is a 'harder' sounding combination
but won't drive difficult loads very hard for very long.
One further thing, a good friend of mine has recently bought
Magnaplanars (1.5) and the Mission Cyrus II he had was really running out
of steam, a Quad 44/405 improved thing dramatically but he finally gave
in and bought the new Quad preamp (BIG improvement in the mid to hi end
freqs.) and the new power amp - Quad 606.........he says the bass
controll is infinitely better now.
If you want both detail as well as strength, the new Quads are the way
to go.
Hope it helps
cheers fjeff
|
| The tone controls on the QUAD preamps are definitely good. I know tone
controls are out, but on the QUAD (and I think also the Audiolab amps)
they provide a gentle high end slope, which is nice if you listen to a
lot of early digital recordings or badly re-mastered ones)
|