£600 speakers are £600 speakers, and as they go, from all the information I've gathered, the Quads are pretty sweet. I've never heard any indication that they are lacking in any way. More so have heard they are better than the competition in their price range.
Quad 22L2 - Google Search
Next, speakers need time to get broke in. If you can't return them to the dealer as new for a refund or exchange, then give them a month. I took my speakers about 200 hours to finally settle in.
I have heard spectacular speakers. The Focal 800 series are very impressive, and the 836V are particularly stunning.
Focal 836 - Google Search
But as you can see, they are three times your budget.
The Mordaunt Short Performance 6 were also a stunning speaker, that absolutely filled the room with deep rich sound, but at the same time were very well balanced -
Google-UK - Shopping Search - Mordaunt Short Performance 6
And only 8 times your budget.
My point is, your expectations need to be realistic. You should get good quality performance from the Quads, but you can't expect £6000 performance on a £600 budget.
Now perhaps, the Quads just aren't to your taste, that happens. A given piece of audio equipment will loved and hated by audiophiles alike. But based on reputation, I have to believe the Quad's are a pretty sweet speaker. Perhaps not to your liking, but still a well regarded speaker.
From the brief description, your acoustics don't sound too bad. But there are so many factors that we can't know, that could have serious impact on the sound -
- Room acoustic
- Speaker placement
- How many hours are on the speakers
- The tonal nature and power of the Amp *
- The quality of the source material **
- The quality of the source playback device
- and many others
* The tonal nature and power of the amp -
Amps have a
voice for lack of a better way to say it. They sound unique but in subtle ways. In consumer amps, I typically recommend more power. Though I confess I had a Pioneer TA-7500-II (45w/ch) that I love better than any amp I've ever heard (for the money). But more power has value up to a point. I currently have a 100w consumer amp (Yamaha).
It is possible that the
voice of the NAD simply doesn't appeal to you. But, as with speakers, if you want a truly stunning amp, you have to pay for it. Recently I heard a couple amps that were truly stunning, but of course they should sound that way, they cost about £5000.
As to NAD in general, while they are not perfect, they are highly rated and highly reviewed amps in their price range. And in consumer amps, they tend to be ranked on the high side.
Finally, though already mentioned, make absolutely positively beyond any shadow of a doubt sure that the speaker are wired correctly. That in every case the Amp(+) goes to the Speaker(+). It is easy to assume this is correctly only to find on closer inspection that you made a mistake. I've done it many times myself.
A phase error in the speaker wiring will suck the life out of the midrange.
We has someone recently whose speakers suddenly changed, and he couldn't figure out why. We suggested he check the wire, but he was sure it was OK. After a bit of discussion, he check and one of the speakers was wire backward. The kids had messed with it, or the wife had pulled the plugs out while vacuuming, or for whatever reason, someone changed it.
You never really know until you check.
** The quality of the source material -
This is also a complex issue. MP3's even at the best, are just OK. They work fine. But did you put £1000 into audio equipment so it could sound
fine?
The next issue is compression, or force loudness into the music. This can make the best music a total disaster, and there is nothing you can do about it. A CD can be as pristine as can be, but if the music has been overly compressed, then it is going to be dull, lifeless, and tiring. I hope to live to see an end to the senseless over-compression of modern music. It really destroys the dynamics that give music its life.
So, you need to find some music that is not overly compressed. Then you need to save it to your computer in WAV or FLAC format. The transfer it to your player, and play it back on your stereo.
Even then, you are at the mercy of your playback device. What does a Sony MP3 player cost?
Sony NWZ-E454 - Google Search
About £60. Keep in mind a good CD player can cost £500. A good DAC, which is what an MP3 player is in essence, can cost £150 to £1500. My point? You can't be sure that a £65 MP3 player is really doing justice to the music when playing through a £1000 stereo.
So, there are so many factor that we, not being there, just can't account for.
Steve/bluewizard