Quad QSP Absolute Rubbish

[Quantum88]

I wanted to warn anyone considering purchasing the Quad QSP amps about my recent nightmare of an experience with this model. Firstly i would like to say i've owned a 909 since 2007, and it's always worked perfectly and never had any problems. However when i decided to purchase three Quad QSP amps (i wanted to tri-amp my speakers), i discovered this new QSP model (the 909's official replacement) is completely inferior to the 909 in every single way. I was eagerly awaiting my amps for some months, and then finally when they arrived, the horror began. All three of the QSP amps produced SEVERE distortion whilst attempting to play music. This distortion was highly evident to me, my wife and also the salesman in the hi-fi shop when i took them back. I even left the third amp sealed in its packaging so when the storeman opened it up to play the thing, he would know i had not in any way tampered with it. Suffice it to say the third amp performed exactly like the others. It's very interesting that i read someone elses review of a Quad QSP on Amazon.uk (around the time when the amp was first released), and the poor guy had gone through some similar issues to what i have now experienced (and his review is still there on Amazon.uk if anyone wishes to check that out). It would seem these Quad amps have been plagued with issues from the beginning! Some months later, my three replacement QSP amps finally arrived, and although these replacement amps were not defective, the sound they produced was not half as good as the classic 909 amp! It's also interesting that that QSP weighs about one third less than the original 909. Makes you wonder what has been replaced? And with what quality of components? But i diverse. To get back to how these 'functioning' QSP amps sounded (compared to the 909), i was say the QSP amps sounded far less crisp, less trebble and significantly LESS BASS. this was contrary to everything the reviews were saying. I was genuinely shocked at how bad these QSP amps sound. They are really that terrible. Knowhere near in the same league as the classic 909 amp (and even that was replaced with cheaped caps during the last few years of it's producing so i'm told, but at least it still sounded quite good). I wanted to put this hear as a warning to anyone considering purchasing the Quad QSP. DON'T! Or if you can't help yourself, please give it a very thorough audition before purchasing. Better still, do a side by side with the 909. It would indeed seem to be the case that since Quad has gone into the hands of Chinese owners, the brand is continuously going further and further down the toilet.

 

[MickyBlue]

I wanted to warn anyone considering purchasing the Quad QSP amps about my recent nightmare of an experience with this model. Firstly i would like to say i've owned a classic 909 since 2007, and it's always played music perfectly and never had any problems whatsoever. However when i decided to purchase three Quad QSP amps (i wanted to tri-amp my speakers), i discovered this current QSP model is completely inferior in every single way. I was eagerly awaiting my amps for some months, and then finally when arrived, the horror began. All three of the QSP amps produced SEVERE distortion whilst attempting to play music. This distortion was highly evident to me, my wife and also the salesman in the hi-fi shop when i took them back. I even left the third amp sealed in its packaging so when the storeman opened it up to play the thing, he would know i had not in any way tampered with it. Suffice it to say the third amp performed exactly like the others. It's very interesting that i read someone elses review of a Quad QSP on Amazon.uk (around the time when the amp was first released), and the poor guy had gone through very similar issues to what i have now experienced (and his review is still there on Amazon.uk if anyone wishes to check that out). Whenever he turned his QSP amp on or off, he experienced MASSIVE pop noises. This was different to what i experienced, as the distorition my QSP amps produced was constant during music play and clearly audible. It would seem these Quad amps have been plagued with issues from the beginning! Some months later, my three replacement QSP amps finally arrived, and although these replacement amps were not defective, the sound they produced was not half as good as the classic 909 amp! It's also interesting that that QSP weighs about one third less than the original 909. Makes you wonder what has been replaced? And with what quality of components? But i diverse. To get back to how these 'functioning' QSP amps sounded (compared to the 909), i was say the QSP amps sounded far less crisp, less trebble and significantly LESS BASS. this was contrary to everything the reviews were saying. Well my ears are in great condition, and i was genuinely shocked at how bad these QSP amps sound. They are really that terrible. Knowhere near in the same league as the classic 909 amp (and even that was replaced with cheaped caps during the last few years of it's producing so i'm told, but at least it sounded quite good). I wanted to put this hear as a warning to anyone considering purchasing the Quad QSP. DON'T! It would indeed seem to be the case that since Quad has gone into the hands of Chinese owners, the brand is continuously going further and further down the toilet. This negative experience tarnished 6 months of my life, and i don't want to see other people go through the same experience. I have now also discoved that 909's are hardly ever listed on ebay, and i now know that is no accident, people are catching on that the new stuff is RUBBISH! If anyone triues to dispute the things i have said, they are obviously a salesman who has a vested interest. This article is indented to help people, not rob them.

i was tempted by these amps, unfortunatly the salesman was pushing them too much and i got the feeling there was a reason.... seems this was it!

 

[Jota180]

I can't find a review on Amazon UK. Can you post a link please?

 

[Vladimir]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R250PAOFKRSSU1

Sorry to hear about your experience with new Quads. Thanks for giving us a heads up.

BTW which speakers were you planing to triamp?

 

[Jota180]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R250PAOFKRSSU1

Sorry to hear about your experience with new Quads. Thanks for giving us a heads up.

BTW which speakers were you planing to triamp?

There's something familar in the writing style of the OP and the guy in the review.

 

[Electro]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R250PAOFKRSSU1

Sorry to hear about your experience with new Quads. Thanks for giving us a heads up.

BTW which speakers were you planing to triamp?

There's something familar in the writing style of the OP and the guy in the review.

The Amazon review by the guy called Disbeliever is very familiar to me he has posted similar things about other amps from different manufacturers .

I believe his name is Gerald and he did a similar campaign of bad comments and reviews on an amplifier brand that is close to my heart , he posted bad comments on every forum he could find .

A couple of examples .

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/shady/messages/6154.html

http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=157076&page=2

He might be genuine but he seems to have more that his fair share of problems with audio equipment .*crazy*

 

[Vladimir]

A serial critic!

 

[jonathanRD]

So - being completely neutral in this - Quantam88 please respond! If you can write such a long post I see no reasonable reason why you cannot reply. (and is your name Gerald?)

 

[wilro15]

I am called Gerald.

And so is my wife.

 

[Vladimir]

A Guy Called Gerald

 

[Jota180]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R250PAOFKRSSU1

Sorry to hear about your experience with new Quads. Thanks for giving us a heads up.

BTW which speakers were you planing to triamp?

There's something familar in the writing style of the OP and the guy in the review.

The Amazon review by the guy called Disbeliever is very familiar to me he has posted similar things about other amps from different manufacturers .

I believe his name is Gerald and he did a similar campaign of bad comments and reviews on an amplifier brand that is close to my heart , he posted bad comments on every forum he could find .

A couple of examples .

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/shady/messages/6154.html

http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=157076&page=2

He might be genuine but he seems to have more that his fair share of problems with audio equipment .*crazy*

Looking at the name of the guy in the Amazon UK review - disbeliever - then doing a search I found him on several HIFI and audio forums trotting out the same stuff. OK, if you have a bad experience it's not unusual to mention it on a forum but to post it repeatedly on all sorts of forums smacks of a campaign against the manufacturer. It can also make the person look more than a little unhinged.

No manufacturer outputs 100% perfection, it will never happen, but the most important thing is how they deal with any issues.

 

[Quantum88]

Hi people, sorry for the late reply. Firstly I am not gerald lol. My name is Chris and I live in Melbourne Australia. I believe Gerald is an English guy because his comments were on the uk website. I am quite genuine and made this post with the best of intentions because I don't want people to go through what I experienced. My experience was considerably worse than geralds because the audible distortion I was hearing was constant, whereas the distortion Gerald experienced was only occurring when powering up and down. Eventually when I finally received functioning replacements, they had no faults, but they sounded terrible and the audio quality was far from what was achieved with the 909. I still have my 909 and it still sounds great. I have many speakers, but the ones I was planning to tri amp were my epos m22s. Now I'll have to consider other brands. If some of you don't believe me that's fine, all I can say is please make sure you audition the QSP very carefully if it's on your list. For the people who doubt and are still interested in the QSP, maybe send quad an email, tell them you've heard there have been some issues and see what they say. The 909 is a great amp, and it's rare to see one second hand online these days. I think people are cottoning on that the new stuff is rubbish. Is it really that surprising? The whole production factory is set up in china now (Shen zhen I believe). Everyone knows how unreliable Chinese stuff is. All I can say is buyer beware!

 

[Quantum88]

Hey jota180, I don't expect 100% perfection from anything, but I expect that when I purchase hifi gear that it functions, and all three of my QSP amps were faulty and broken straight out of the box. How would you feel? All three produced audible distortion that was analogous to clipping, except this distortion was constant regardles of volume level. I had paid in full for these amps and had to wait around 3 months for them to arrive. During that time I was anticipating they would sound great, maybe even better than the 909. When they finally arrived I was devastated that they were majorly faulty straight out of the box. All three! In 20 years of being in this hobby I have never experienced anything like this. It is simply not acceptable. I felt angry then and I feel angry now. I don't want people to go through the same experience. When the replacements arrived another 2-3 months later, those ones did function normally, but they sounded nowhere near as good as the 909. In addition to having poor sound quality, the new replacements didn't appear to be brand new which was what I had paid for. Seriously what the heck is going on? Don't take my word for it, just go and listen to the QSP and do a side by side with a 909.

 

[Jota180]

Hey jota180, I don't expect 100% perfection from anything, but I expect that when I purchase hifi gear that it functions, and all three of my QSP amps were faulty and broken straight out of the box. How would you feel? All three produced audible distortion that was analogous to clipping, except this distortion was constant regardles of volume level. I had paid in full for these amps and had to wait around 3 months for them to arrive. During that time I was anticipating they would sound great, maybe even better than the 909. When they finally arrived I was devastated that they were majorly faulty straight out of the box. All three! In 20 years of being in this hobby I have never experienced anything like this. It is simply not acceptable. I felt angry then and I feel angry now. I don't want people to go through the same experience. When the replacements arrived another 2-3 months later, those ones did function normally, but they sounded nowhere near as good as the 909. In addition to having poor sound quality, the new replacements didn't appear to be brand new which was what I had paid for. Seriously what the heck is going on? Don't take my word for it, just go and listen to the QSP and do a side by side with a 909.

Things can arrive faulty. Been there, done that but the important thing is how the dealer/manufacturer responds.

You say you found the sound of the replacement/working amps terrible. Are you saying you bought three amplifiers without auditioning them first? The lesson there is audition before you hand over your money and that will save you and the manufacturer/dealer time and expense. You wasted 6 months by not following this most fundamental rule.

The measurements of hifi electronic equipment is objective but the sound you prefer is subjective and you could have saved yourself a lot of time by either auditioning or restricting your purchases to the brands you can audition. So although you say you don't like the sound of the functioning QSP, that means nothing to anybody else on planet earth because they may well like what you don't like. If there's some objective measurments out there that shows the QSP is miles away from true hifi then of course I'd like to see it.

 

[Vladimir]

Well that shut us up pretty good Chris.

Sorry for your negative endeavour and thanks for sharing the heads up. I hope Quad company owners read this and improve their build and quality control.

Show must go on.

 

[Quantum88]

Part of me was waiting for something like that. This particular dealer did not not have the QSP available for demo. He said if I here willing to pay in full for the amp, and if I didn't like the way it sounded, I could have a full refund, which he did honor. So actually this was never going to be an issue (no 'lesson' required). The real issue was with my expectations, and for a number of reasons already outlined they were not met. Further to that faulty goods is not something anyone can ever predict. From a well established brand such as quad, the whole thing is really off (three faulty amps straight out of the box, plus how they dealt with it). But let's be honest, this is not the same quad anymore. I'm not surprised to hear you mention the argument that subjective opinion determines if a product is considered 'good' or not, however in the case of the QSP, it really sounded that terrible that I think this goes beyond subjective opinion. It is just simply 'bad'. This is particularly evident if you do a side by side with a 909. It is quite simply not in the same league of audio quality. In addition, the QSP weighs considerably less than the original 909. Oh yeah jota180, you say it's how the company responds that's important, we'll they responded by giving me 3 replacement amps that looked slightly beat up and second hand, and they took their sweet time in doing so. At least they worked, but did I get what I had paid for? No way, but at least the dealer gave me all my money back.

 

[Quantum88]

Vladimir, Thankyou for believing in me. If any of you guys doubt me, go have a listen to the QSP and tell me what you think. Also one other thing, on an australian hifi website, they are clearing out QSP amps at approx one third of the australian retail price, wonder why?

 

[Jota180]

The reviews for this amplifier were all positive, including this particular websites review. Either they're lying and you're telling the truth or more likely, you all hear things differently and have different sonic preferences.

And, ALL the online shops I've looked at, the Quad QSP is still the same price it's always been. Wonder why?

 

[jonathanRD]

So - being completely neutral in this - Quantam88 please respond! If you can write such a long post I see no reasonable reason why you cannot reply. (and is your name Gerald?)

Cheers Chris *smile*

 

[Quantum88]

Your welcome Jonathan! Jota I can understand where your coming from, but if we put aside the sonic signature of the amp, the fact remains that all of my amps were faulty/broken straight out of the box. All three produced anomalous distortion noises and this was clearly audible to all who had a listen (me, wife, dad and salesman). It sounded somewhat like constant clipping, even at low volume levels. The replacement amps didn't have this problem however. Also the other guy I've mentioned previously also had issues with his QSP amps not functioning correctly (and his experience was a couple of years ago and mine just recently), something is seriously wrong at quad. As for the reviews, I don't believe they are always honest, and that sometimes they may even receive kickbacks for recommending certain products. Do you always believe everything you read? One of the best hifi shops in Victoria said to me that sometimes free plane tickets and other perks are offered. On the other hand, maybe Quad sends out tweaked/superior QSP amps which are better than the ones the customer receives. I wouldn't have thought so but I guess anything is possible. Anyhow Jota, it would be nice if you could at least acknowledge the objective part of my problem, which is that my amps were all producing distortion noises, fresh out of the box, and that is nothing to do with sonic preferences.

 

[spiny norman]

As for the reviews, I don't believe they are always honest, and that sometimes they may even receive kickbacks for recommending certain products. Do you always believe everything you read? One of the best hifi shops in Victoria said to me that sometimes free plane tickets and other perks are offered.

Yes folks, welcome to another hilarious episode of Dealers Say The Darndest Things

 

[Quantum88]

So you always believe 100% everything you read? I suppose if you read an article saying man never went to the moon you would believe that too right?

 

[spiny norman]

So you always believe 100% everything you read? I suppose if you read an article saying man never went to the moon you would believe that too right?

So you always believe 100% what stealers tell you? IME retailers and sales reps of all kinds will say almost anything, however scurrilous it may be, in order to make a sale.

Of course, we only have the word of the reviewers and magazines that they're not corrupt, but having worked in various fields in the past I can tell you that the kind of incentives you mention are much more prevalent at the retail level: after all manufacturers/distributors and retailers are all about shifting boxes/metal/whatever.

 

[spiny norman]

and clearly due this stupid dual-posting forum software I'm supposed to say it again! ;-)

 

[Quantum88]

Perhaps your better informed on that than I am then, but my gut tells me to take what the reviewers say with a pinch of salt. I think most of us have read average or even bad reviews about a product we thought was great (and vise versa). I recall a time when Oppo DVD and blu ray players weren't even reviewed at all, even though they were and still are great in my opinion.