Retro Hi End Trivia Question

Wow - having started this thread over 5 years ago, I have only just recently taken delivery of what appears to be a perfectly preserved Quatre Gain Cell from an Audiogon seller.

Cosmetically, it is exactly as I remember it - compact, but heavy, with a single LED along the the bottom of the faceplate with the power switch in the back.

I have not yet had time to listen to it properly, but switching it on to make sure it worked, it seemed to sound surprisingly good.

Now I will have to find a mint condition Apt Holman pre amp and a pair of Dahlquist DQ 10s to complete this vintage system.

When I worked at Quatre, we would often receive the better gear of the day for comparison.

I remember the Rappaport preamp was the best thing out there. (I strongly disagree with an early post). The Rappaport wasn't built that well, but if it didn't shock you, it worked and worked great. I remember someone brough in a gorgeous, state of the FET preamp from Infinity. It sounded so bad we wondered if it there was something wrong with it. We also tried the Apt Holman, which I don't remember being terribly impressed with. People would rave about the (Holman designed) preamp section of the Advent 300 receiver (I loved the look - very military), but didn't think the preamp was at all impressive.

The Denons were good MC cartridges, but I remember the hot setup was the Supex. But they kinda varied from unit to unit. When you got a good one - wow - was it ever good. The "bad" ones were not bad, but a good one was simply awesome.

I remember someone bringing in a pair (this was mid-to late 70's) of speakers from a very new company called Vandersteen. They were the 2s - which sounded very good indeed. One of our dealers brought in another new-ish speaker at the time - the Rogers BBC LS35a's. Very impressive little speaker. They still sound pretty good.

And we were awed by an old pait of AR3a's with the DG250 - man did that amp have good bass - it just transformed the AR's bottom end which tended to be on the tubby side.

Launer

Excellent memory and thanks for more high end nostalgia.

I now recall that I borrowed the legendary Rappaport for one weekend from the dealer where I worked during high school.

I remember wondering if it was really any better than my Hafler DH101, and also thinking that I could scramble eggs on top of it if the kitchen stove didnt work.

The Advent receiver - yes I remember that one, too and the cult following for using it as a preamp.

Most people seemed to like the Apt preamp, so I would say you have a contrarian view there.

I have a Quatra DG250. Does anyone have any schematics? One of the channels is dead. Its a black anodized box with led meter on front.

Here is a high end trivia question for the analogue experts:

Circa 1980, there were some Absolute Sound recommended tweaks including:

"Platter Matter" a blue, sticky, sorbothaney platter pad...some other sticky stuff which could be applied in between the headshell and the cartridge, the underside of the platter, or heck - just about anywhere...

...and various after market record clamps including a beautifully machined, black metal clamp with a big silver, spring loaded button in the middle of the clamp.

The silver button expanded and contracted the hole in the clamp to grip the spindle of the turntable.

Could anyone recall what kind of record clamp this was?

Would love to find another one for my vintage collection.

Thank you,