Majority Quadriga

Time to fess up before getting into the review – until recently, I’d never heard of the Majority audio brand, something of an oversight on my part. Compared to some of the brands  we review, Majority is a relative newcomer -starting out in 2012 in Cambridge, it now has over 50 audio products in its portfolio. Amazon has always been a major sales outlet for the company, but lately Majority has spread its wings into more traditional hi-fi outlets – co-founder Eddie Latham tells us Richer Sounds is going great guns with the brand.

The Majority Quadriga music system offers an awful lot of features for under £250. This is an extraordinary price for a complete, 'plug in and off you go' music system given that some of our readers don't shy away from spending a similar amount on a length of speaker cable. It has become one of the star turns in the Majority catalogue, which is why I'm giving it a whirl.

And ‘whole system’ isn’t an exaggeration. What you get in just one box is a stereo 2.1 speaker system (left and right channels, plus a bass unit to add in some welly when required), with a plethora of audio sources included: three radio tuners (FM, DAB+ and internet), a separate setting for podcasts, music streaming with Spotify Connect, a CD drive, Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and a USB socket on the rear panel so you can access your own playlists (via a stick or cable to your laptop, for example). 

Other features include a 3.5mm headphone socket and an auxiliary input for other sources such as a turntable. If you want to go down this route, your turntable will need to have a built-in phono stage - another option is to invest in a Bluetooth model (Majority has some, of course) so there is no need for cables. As is common with systems such as this, there's a useful alarm to get you out of bed and on the move.

Sound quality

The sound quality from the Quadriga is as good as you’re going to get at this price. In fact, I’d go as far as to say  it is considerably better than you might expect from something of this price. The stereo separation is evident (while, of course, nothing compared to a full on hi-fi set up with separate speakers) - I have a stereo wireless speaker in the house costing twice as much as the Quadriga and I'd say that it certainly doesn’t sound any better. 

Crank up the volume and the sound remains steady, integrated and undistorted. The bass can get a little excited at times and tends to dominate - but that is the exception rather than the rule, and seems more evident when internet radio is the source.

I listen to wide range of material, solo artists tinkering away on guitars, speech via podcasts (Football Ruined My Life is one example), full orchestras, lively rock and so on. I’d be hard pushed to say the Quadriga sounded better on any particular genre or source - although perhaps DAB+ edges it for the choice of a radio source.

And while streaming and internet radio are likely to be the primary sources of listening, let’s not overlook physical media. The CD drive makes a great addition to the completeness of the system, and let’s face it: however digital we are these days, there’s probably a stash of CDs tucked away somewhere in the house that could do with an airing. The CD mechanism operates confidently and quietly, and it delivers a crisp, clear output with excellent balance in bass, midrange and top registers.

If for whatever reason you don’t like the balance being served up by any of the sources, EQ adjustment allows you to fiddle around to alter bass, treble or the midrange. Once you’ve done that, those settings are applied across the board for the different channels - but if you are listening to Spotify, for example, you can alter the settings for that session. For me, though, setting the EQ to 'Normal' and leaving it well alone is the best option.

As for the standard 3.5mm headphone socket on the front panel, it's more than the 'added extra' I'm expecting. Admittedly I test it  with headphones that cost at least twice the price of the Quadriga but the result is excellent, perfect for a bit of late-night listening while the rest of the household is tucked up.

Living with

This is not a dinky unit that can be tucked away in a corner, it has some presence - its 430mm width is the standard size for hi-fi separates. Much of reason for the heft is the pair of decently sized stereo drivers sitting one on each side of the display and control panel.

The layout of buttons and controls is simple and easy to use - everything is accessed from the front panel, except for the USB socket on the rear. And besides the Quadriga being straightforward to use, the range of features it includes is enough to keep most people more than content. As a one-box unit it packs in a huge amount.

Is there anything missing? Not really. I ask about an HDMI socket - could be useful - and Majority’s reply is pragmatically sensible: “the certification process for HDMI is long, complicated, and unreasonably expensive so we only include this on products that are primarily used with TVs or PCs.”
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Everything about the controls is easily understood. The colour menu screen is a lovely addition -it’s not huge but, depending on the source, it can display a surprising amount of information. Using Spotify, for example, gets you artwork, artist and and track name - and you can also scroll through the menu to find bit rate and sampling rate if you are interested.

There is also an app available to control everything the Quadriga does, including finding stations or sources and adding them to the preset menus. Like the unit itself, it is straightforward without any unnecessary elements, and all the better for it. It's a generic app called Undok, which is also used to control the Robert Revival that I tested recently.

So you can do everything via the unit, the remote or the app - and the last two are particularly useful if, for example, you can’t be bothered getting out of bed to turn on Cerys Matthews on BBC Radio 6 on Sunday mornings. Each of the sources can be accessed from the three interfaces, although I find easier on the remote or the app to save channels to the presets than the unit itself. But it is just a matter of familiarity: push one button for a few seconds, then another - and your source is saved.

I find the position of the unit is an important factor in getting optimum performance. In a relatively small four-sided shelf unit, bass is overstated and boomy. Move the Quadriga onto an open shelf, with more space to breath so to speak, performance is much better balanced and more enjoyable.

Conclusion

The Quadriga is a terrific example of exceptional value for money. It may not be to everyone's taste, for non-hi-fi fans it is an excellent, straightforward, compact source of music and the spoken word. We’re talking about a complete music system for under £250, one that delivers a huge amount - and  more than merely competently. What’s the alternative, a nondescript wireless speaker and streaming from your phone? Do me a favour!

Listening notes

Star Feminine Band Jusqu'au Bout du Monde (Spotify) 
From the second album by the band comprising eight female musicians from Benin born between 2003 and 2010. An infectious, fun, lively sound with great call-and-response harmonies, awesome drumming and a smile-inducing sound - although the subjects of the songs are often far from a joke.

Professor Longhair House Party New Orleans Style (CD)
The long-gone pianist has a style that combines rumba, mambo and calypso - in other words, New Orleans. His singing isn’t great, but the joyous rolling and rollocking piano sounds fantastic, a style emulated by loads of others but none quite as good as the original.

WWOZ New Orleans Community Radio (internet radio)
The essence of why internet radio is so good. Direct “from the banks of the Mississippi river” comes a good-quality (where both signal and content are concerned) community radio station playing an excellent mix of blues and jazz, broadcasting at 128 kbps and sounding perfectly acceptable on the Quadriga. And all this, at any time of day or night, for free. 

You want something that is simple to operate, delivers the audio goods, doesn’t look like a something designed by a robot, features a mass of sources, and doesn’t require  thinking about taking out a second mortgage to buy