Hi Jim
I have 2 Quad 909 power amps. I used Quad 99 pre-amp, at first, with them and was fairly happy. They seem to be made for each other and for the price 99 is a great deal. My speakers are Neat Motive 1, and I am bi-amping them with 2 Quad 909s. My source is Quad CDP-2 CD player (CD and DAC) and Mac Mini with 500 GB hard disks and tons of WAV (uncompressed) ripped songs - Mac goes through CDP-2's DAC.
In the meantime I have replaced my Quad 99 (couple years back) with an oldie but goodie Krell KRC-3 pre-amp (used bought for 1200$ CAD on Audiogon). Quad 909s and the whole system sounds even better.
So I believe that Quad 99 is an obvious choice, if you are on a tighter budget. But you may get better sound out of Quad 909 with somewhat more transparent and more expensive second hand pre-amp (Krell KRC-3 I can recommend, but any of Herron pre-amp would work good as well).
BTW I still own and use Quad 99 pre in my TV set up, driving (what else ? :-) Quad 306 power amp (50w / ch but basically the same current dumping design as 909) and pair of Monitor Audio Radius 90 bookshelf speakers - fantastic for TV setup.
Hope this helps.
I have 2 Quad 909 power amps. I used Quad 99 pre-amp, at first, with them and was fairly happy. They seem to be made for each other and for the price 99 is a great deal. My speakers are Neat Motive 1, and I am bi-amping them with 2 Quad 909s. My source is Quad CDP-2 CD player (CD and DAC) and Mac Mini with 500 GB hard disks and tons of WAV (uncompressed) ripped songs - Mac goes through CDP-2's DAC.
In the meantime I have replaced my Quad 99 (couple years back) with an oldie but goodie Krell KRC-3 pre-amp (used bought for 1200$ CAD on Audiogon). Quad 909s and the whole system sounds even better.
So I believe that Quad 99 is an obvious choice, if you are on a tighter budget. But you may get better sound out of Quad 909 with somewhat more transparent and more expensive second hand pre-amp (Krell KRC-3 I can recommend, but any of Herron pre-amp would work good as well).
BTW I still own and use Quad 99 pre in my TV set up, driving (what else ? :-) Quad 306 power amp (50w / ch but basically the same current dumping design as 909) and pair of Monitor Audio Radius 90 bookshelf speakers - fantastic for TV setup.
Hope this helps.