Considering an FM3 advertised locally, can anyone advise re what to look out for or anything in particular I should know about? Cheers
I bought one pre-owned in the early 00s and had it for about 8 years before moving it on. No issues and I can’t think of anything to look out for. Perhaps make sure the bulbs are not burned out.
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My cousin owned one many years ago, and I thought it sounded great, but there’s not much more I can tell you about it than that. @davidhendon might have something to say.
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Have one of these in its box, unused since I moved from Manchester in 1999 to Ireland and lost my FM aerial.
Would I sell, not yet!
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Indeed I do! Bought it for £50 many moons ago to ‘tweak’ for fun. They respond well to a simple service (recapping) but only if the alignment hasn’t slipped out of whack. Re-alignment of a tuner is a specialist job, but Quad UK used to offer very reasonable fixed price servicing so worth checking out. That and a decent aerial should give you a very nice sounding tuner indeed.
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I knew the FM3 well. It sounded OK, although nothing special to be honest, but it’s R.F. performance was terrible. It was Quad’s first go at a transistorised FM tuner and they had a lot to learn still. It’s pretty enough though.
The FM4 is a whole different proposition and worth using now. Indeed I do currently use an FM4 myself and I don’t think it sounds much different to my NAT 05 XS. But I wouldn’t buy an FM3 again except for curiosity value. It might be worth £40-£50 perhaps (which is about what it cost new, back in the day!).
Best
David
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I had a Quad FM3 which I bought secondhand in 1988 as part of a system which included the 33 Control Unit, 303 Power Amp with a pair of the original ESL speakers. The FM3 worked well, but needed a good signal to give its best. Not much to add other than it did its job. Quad has great customer support so it can be services easily. Upgraded to 34, FM4 and 306 in 1992 and then to Naim NAC202 & NAP200 this year and now use a streamer for radio.
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