Last night I had to catch up on all the message posts in the last 3 weeks since I've been away on business travel. As you may have read, I didn't think there was much difference between SQ and QS until I posted my “Okay Convince Me…” message in the Matrix LP section of this site. But after reading this thread, I got very intrigued about QS that I revisited and read VERY CAREFULLY 8o Tab’s and Quad Bob’s discussions and anything else I could find on QRX 7001, 8001 and 9001 and the Vario-Matrix decoder.
I think Tab has one of these and either Quad Bob or somebody else has at least 20 of them. That person said that in his opinion these models were the best quad receivers, bar none. They were built like a tank. Okay, on expert advice, I HAD TO HAVE ONE!
Afterwards I was focused and determined, as many of you guys have been, to find that yet another elusive quad component, in this case a QRX 7001, 8001 or 9001, not caring which one I found since I just wanted it for its Vario-Matrix decoder.
When I finished work this afternoon, I decided to make some rounds of local thrift stores, pawn shops and a nearby record store (where I found Jim Croce’s Greatest Hits CD-4 album for $8 in darn good condition) to scope for anything “Quad”.
The second pawn shop I entered had all your prerequisite used cheapo TVs, DVD and CD players and other crap-o-la stuff. This store was a mess. Well after looking around I started to go out the door and the sales guy asked me what I was looking for and I said without expecting him to understand what it was “Oh just some 70s quad stuff”. “Oh,” he said “did you see this thing over here?” Then he moved this thrashed tall planar speaker aside and after he did I recognized a Sansui-looking receiver sitting behind it. After approaching it I noticed it was a QXR-7001. OH HAPPY DAY! They wanted $100 for it. YES!
It was very dusty, but nothing soap and water couldn’t clean up. No noticeable scratches, just lightly worn silver paint around the faceplate. What was good was that all the lights and knobs were in tact and worked. Then the salesman looked for two unmatched cheapo speakers because he said I just had to hear the bass output of this thing. He connected the speakers to the speaker terminals and another couple of speaker wires to the FM posts in the back to simulate an FM antenna and turned it back on. NO SOUND. We clicked and turned all the knobs and buttons and still no sound. Then I asked if we could connect a CD player to it or something to see if that worked. But he insisted that I wouldn’t be interested if the FM or AM radio didn’t work. Disappointed I asked how much they wanted for a non-working unit knowing that I may have to send it to a repairman with mega bucks. They said that I could have it for $50 so I took it.
I took it home. This thing weighs more than my car! It cleaned up pretty nice. I connected a couple of speakers and a CD player with a SQ-encoded CD in it. VIOLA, this wonderful sound came out! I connected a real FM antenna, and VIOLA, FM stations. So what is that horizontal pole in the back for?? If it isn’t a FM antenna, what is it?
I haven’t really done real testing but QS, SQ seem to work (and wasn't surprised that its SQ didn't work quite as nice as my Tate II). All four channels worked perfectly too. I haven’t connected a turntable to test CD-4 yet, but I think I may like my Marantz 400B better. This weekend I plan to give it a workout.
I think I had a pretty good day.:rollin: