Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/quad-platina-integrated-amplifier

This superb performance continued with two of Van Halen’s finest cover versions, ‘Where Have All The Good Times Gone’ and ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’. Here the Quad amp showed breathtaking speed on Eddie’s guitar leads while reproducing all the nuances of David Lee Roth’s vocals. You could almost see him smirk. As with The Heavy Heavy and Led Zeppelin tracks, the percussion was massive, powerful and – had I removed the grilles to see it – pumping a lot of air.

But on to subtlety. Linda Ronstadt’s Prisoner In Disguise [Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-608] is a go-to album for vocals. What I wasn’t expecting, though, was the same powerhouse drumming, even on tracks like ‘Love Is A Rose’ which is inherently gentle. Ronstadt’s voice was sibilance-free, detectably warm and even reminiscent of Quad valves. Whoever engineered this clearly had Quad Classic valve equipment to hand, also emulating their three-dimensionality. I had to keep reminding myself there wasn’t a tube in the audio chain.