"...Refreshingly, both Quad and Liederman eschew braggadocio by not representing the Level-1 QC 24 as a giant-killer (Quad even states as much in their manual). Rather, its raison d'être is to make things just slightly uncomfortable for more expensive products...
Simply put, the Level-1 QC 24 impressed me as a strong performer that only the most demanding listener -- who had better be ready to shell out the long green in said pursuit -- will find fault with. Its greatest strength is its linearity. From top to bottom, the Twenty Four Level-1 Mod is remarkably colorless and transparent. Dynamic and fundamentally honest, it gives you the lion's share of the unadorned truth. It just won't gussy it up in quite the highly polished manner that more accomplished (read expensive) preamplifiers may. For the listener on a budget looking for musical truth, the Level-1 QC 24 is a great place to start the hunt. I'll bet that plenty of listeners will end it there too..."