Thanks very much for the link. I appreciate the info and "leg-work" : ) For those interested in such things, here's a "clickable link" for your convenience : ) Sean >Quad 405 upgrades / mods |
One major difference which I happen to know that exists between the two is that the earlier model was not capable of handling the 4 Ohm speakers but the newer 405II was improved in a way that it was able to handle 4 Ohm speakers as well. I remember having read a very interesting article long time back in which the Quad 405 was compared with a Naim amp. Two speakers were used one having 4 Ohm impedence and the other with 8 Ohm impedence. The Naim sounded terrific with the 4 Ohm speaker but Quad was not sounding good. After this test the speakers were switched and the result was otherwise. Quad with the 8 Ohm speker sounded terrific but not the Naim. Those who had conducted this test were very surprised at the results as no one was expecting it would turn out that way. I had a 405II and 34 in pristine condition which I sold to a good friend who is now driving the Rogers LS3/5a's and is very happy. The Rogers as you know are 11 Ohm speakers and they are a piece of cake for the Quad 405II in terms of handling. |
I have a review of the original 405 in a 1979 "Audio" magazine. While the amp was rated rather strangely in terms of many of the spec's, it went measurably down in power output going from an 8 ohm to a 4 ohm load. From what i can remember, we are talking about a 25% reduction in power output whereas in theory, it should have been a 100% increase. I wonder how the 405 II stacks up in comparison ??? Funny thing is, i was just communicating with someone that is using a 405 to drive a large set of E-stat's that drop down to about 1 ohm or so. They told me that the 405 was doing a better job / would play louder with the E-stat's than their multi-thousand dollar mono-blocks that are rated for over three times the power. All i can say to that one is "go figure"..... : ) Sean > |
