Anyone who has never used a scope for Quad and/or FM may regard it is a frivilous toy. Many audiophiles who I sold hi-fi alongside laughed. As someone who has owned two scopes and used them as demonstration tools, I can tell you they aren't. I'd agree that they are not the most essential item in any system. Would you rather own a scope, a tape deck or a Blu-Ray player? Scopes are extremely useful, if you understand how to use one to tweak your system.
Multipath distortion on FM is a gremlin that isn't perceptible by ear at every moment. Multipath occurs when the unwanted, reflected signal is as strong, sometimes stronger than the desirable, direct signal from the transmitter. I'm not sure how I know about this, or why I care, since I NEVER listen to radio. There are 1000's of CD's & LP's in this house that take precedent over FM. LOL!! Multipath is an a huge problem in the high-rise caverns of Manahattan or Downtown Chicago. Before Marantz 4400, we had a Marantz 120 tuner w/scope in our main demo island in our store. We sold several tuners by demonstrating how multipath could be eliminated, or at least minimized, with the aid of the scope. If you listen to a lot of FM, the 4400 will sound markedly better than the 4300, because you can tune better with the scope. I have a Technics SH-3433 scope which also has a multipath mode.
Signal strength and center of channel meters can be deceiving in trying to eliminate multipath. The highest signal strength and/or the center of the FM channel can often yield the most multipath distortion. There are multipath meters. They're uncommon and I prefer using a scope. I had a Philips tuner which had a switch to allow one of the meters to read multipath. I found the scope far easier to use.
When we sold the Marantz 120 tuner off display, we mounted a Pioneer SD-1100 scope in it's place. The Pioneer's test tone generator proved that I really did hear the highs better than the guys did! There was a JVC 4DD-5 there, as well. Imagine demoing Quad through 4 Altec Voice-of-the-Theaters. Intergalactic Trot by Robert Mason's Stardrive in CD-4 was our preferred demo disc. "Let me take you down, 'cause I'm goin' to Strawberry Fields" on a synthesizer in Quad! The next Stardrive album was on Columbia. They didn't even bother with SQ. OK, enough nostalgia.
After owning Marantz gear with round buttons and selling tons of them, I could never get used to those square buttons on the 4400. They look like crooked teeth, as shown in the photos. The square buttons distinguish the 4400 from the rest of the Marantz line. Still, I would love to own a 4400 again. At my advanced age, the scope might seem overly small across the room. My beautiful blue eyes don't work like they did when I was in my '20's.
Watching an individual channel's waveform is a great light show on my SH-3433! Too bad it's not dual or quad trace!
Balancing Quad seems easier to me with a scope than with 4 VU meters. You only need to look in one spot, not four. The scope is more reliable. Meters can be damaged by "burying" them. In that case, they may show similar levels, when, in fact, the levels are vastly different, or vice versa. Due to psychoacoustics, the ears can sometimes be deceived. Switching between channels for waveforms is a better way of comparing levels than comparing VU meters. The scope display will look far different on synthesized Quad and matrix than on discrete Quad. The blank spaces are clearly visable. Your ears can fool you, the scope display won't.
Yes, scopes are expensive toys. Ask a service tech how invaluable a toy can be.
Linda
Scope Silly
Now, back to the Cub game. Hey, anyone can have a bad century!
They're sure pretty and I sure would like to pick one up. Probably would require an extensive restoration given their age. Is the extra power and scope of the 4400 really worth it over the 4300? It seems separate vu meters give you the story on the 4 channels.
Happy 4th!