I had always been intrigued by Quads but bringing a pair down here was very expensive. Until I found a pair local that works perfectly. I tried lots of amps without success. At some point I decided to just use them for the mids a la Levinson with his Quad Hartley Decca system. This was another lucky thing since the idea put some Ionovacs in my hands which are now in the horns system and are the best tweeters ever! At some point I was about to give up but they did some things so nicely that I kept trying. So I said, SETs don't work with Quads but I really don't like push pull amps (no flames please, it's just my liking!). How about a pp amp that is as close as possible to SETs? A triode, pp, class A and without feedback. So another quest started 'till I got an EAR 861 that has such characteristics. And the magic started. The combination is spectacular. No, they don't do the big things that my tetra amped horns system do but the sound is magical. A friend brought one day his Tonshwnend supertweeters and they do nice things with the Quads. The plasticky highs get better and the bass (yes, the bass) gets tighter and cleaner.
Now I need a second room for the Quads/EAR system. I've been tempted to bring them to the office but haven't got the guts to do so. Maybe a bedroom system. Design extraordinaire Paul Joppa on one room and Tim de Paravicini on the other. I already have a TdP Technics so....