Active or passive pre with Quad II's?

Hi,

Anyone have strong feelings about whether an active pre is better than a passive pre with Quad II valve amps? I bought a pair of II's and am using an Axiom passive pre with them - it sounds pretty damn good actually - but vaguely recall reading somewhere a while ago that Quad II's work better with an active pre......

......any thoughts?

 

I think I read something similar......the signal needs a bit of oumph behind it. have you tried the 99cdp to the II, via the variable outputs ? Just shows how much the average amp degrades the audio signal. That said mine runs through the 707 rather than my II's as my speakers need more power than the 12 watts of the II's.

 

I've used both active and passive pre's with mine,and a good quality passive can be much better than a similarly priced active,so assuming the signal you're running in(like CD) needs attenuating,then either should work,providing the output stage of the CD player isn't troubled by the input impedance seen by it.

 

Well I don't know anything about input/output impedances to be honest, but it does sound excellent so I guess I should sit back and enjoy the music and stop fretting about whether I can get it to sound better! Well, I say that, but I'm addicted to change so no doubt I'll start fiddling around sooner or later..... My CD player is an Arcam alpha 6 and my speakers Tannoy Cheviots (v. efficient & easy to drive).

The axiom pre is really cheap compared to other alternatives I looked at, and in fact I bought it for my Leak stereo 20 which is currently knackered, but I'm amazed at how nice it sounds and looking at reviews on the web I'm not the only one.