Quad Product 1984 Catalog

Page 2

Quad products are
designed and manufactured by
a team of about 140 people in a
factory in Huntingdon, a small
town in Cambridgeshire. Each
Quad product incorporates the

benefits of nearly half a century

of experience in the design and
manufacture of sound
reproduction equipment.

The story of Quad started
in 1936 when Peter Walker
decided to set up his own
business manufacturing
amplifiers under the name of
The Acoustical Manufacturing
Company.

Early days, as in so many
small companies, were
composed of enthusiasm, hard
work and very little reward.
However, the experience was
invaluable and when in the late

forties people started to take an
interest in improving the quality
of domestic music reproduction,
Acoustical was already
producing high quality
amplifiers and loudspeakers.
The Corner Ribbon
loudspeaker with a horn loaded
ribbon tweeter reproduced an
octave or so which other
loudspeakers did not reach and
was followed a couple of years
later, in 1951, by the Acoustical
Q.U.A.D. amplifier, successor to
the QAP/IZ, which although
designed for public address use
(Quality Amplifier Professional
12 watts) was already finding
favour amongst early audio
enthusiasts. It did not take
music listeners long to realise
the virtues of Acousticals
products and to appreciate that

the acronym Quad, derived
from Quality Unit Amplifier
Domestic, was much easier to
pronounce and remember than
Acoustical. The Acoustical
Q.U.A.D. amplifier established
the format for domestic high
fidelity equipment consisting of
a pre-amplifter with the
controls necessary for the
selection of programme and
separate power amplifier. The
Quad II which followed added
two important features, pickup
input matching and filters.

The reputation of Quad is
founded on the Quad II
amplifier and Quad electrostatic
loudspeaker introduced in the
fifties. As well as establishing
the fame and fortune of Quad,
these products also had a
profound effect upon the