HP: Gentlemen, you’ve been designing amps and preamps for over 30 years. Is it still a challenge and ….. are you having fun? A: Colin has been designing electronic professionally for over 40yrs. He has done this for a living. His many designs include power control and power supplies Linear, Resonate, Switch Mode and even […]
People / Colin Wonfor
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Dear Colin, I need some theories and hopefully answers please. This is a situation, neither I, not anyone who I asked, have encountered before. It is very simple and puzzling at the same time. Here it is: There is a faint buzz coming from the amplifiers, NOT the speakers, barely audible from a few feet […]
Colin wonfor has just sent us this review. Mike Tierny (Proclaim Audio) writes: Colin and Alan, thank you for the opportunity to audition Elsdon Wonfor Audio’s LS-XXV speaker cables for review. I must tell you, as a “certified cable nut”, I am mightily impressed. I have run the gamut of speaker cables over the past […]
Neil McCauley / editor in chief Why no images? Because the test review that follows here are of a pre-production pair in casework that doesn’t properly represent the finished product which, so we are told, should be available in early March 2017. Priced, including VAT @ £4.6k per pair. A bit of history Please note […]
Alan Brown writes: Since when will an amplifier sound better the louder it plays? Sure, louder can be more exciting, more visceral, but usually there’s a point where things get ‘ragged’. This can manifest as harshness, sibilance, collapse of soundstage or loudness. Yes, I said loudness, which seems to me to be an artifact […]
Hello Colin. I’m sure you’re aware of passive preamps such as Music First. I don’t think you’ll sort person to comment negatively on a particular brand but I do wonder what your views are on such devices? Not wishing to anticipate your answer, I’ve listened to the MF device and been very impressed by the […]
Alan Brown writes ….. Obscenity My problem with high-end cables is that it’s possible to spend truly obscene amounts on them. Obscene, because it seems to me many offerings to the audiophile market are overpriced hype with no real merit. Well it does seem like that doesn’t it? I mean ….. that’s the easy stance; […]
Hi Colin. Is it true you were involved with Trilogy audio? I have not had any significant input into Trilogy. Nic and I are old friends. We’ve known each other for 30+ years from when he first started. He and I bat ideas of each other and have worked together on other projects, including airfield […]
Mr. Wonfor. Do you have any particular priorities, other than the obvious one of sound quality and safety when you approach the design of audiophile amps? To be honest, and this is going to sound/read odd. I normally wake from sleep with ideas, then try them out. For example it a new style of amp, […]
Hello experts. I have used audiophile fuses for years in various equipment without problem, generally appreciative of sound quality improvement. Recently, I’ve encountered problems with audiophile fuses blowing in my Coincident Turbo 845SE amplifier. At this point I’ve had two failures of Synergistic Red Quantum 6.3a 250v sloblo fuses in this amp. Recently I discovered […]
Hi Colin. Who if any are your audio designers heroes and why? Thanks. Nigel Beethoven (no jokes please) Hello Nigel. Heroes is a bad thing to have as it puts normal humans on a dais and yet they are human. But the gents and ladies in this complex industry that I put up with; the […]
Hello Colin. From reading your very cogent and helpful answers to those questions here I appreciate that you take the design of power supplies very seriously. I’m writing here out of ignorance of the design process and indeed materials used but I wonder if it’s coming to the point where the next set of advances […]
Dear Colin, If audiophile grade feet, power cords, and fuses can really improve sound quality, why don’t high end designers/manufacturers just incorporate these audiophile grade components at the time of build? Why sell an under-optimized item that can be easily improved upon by the owner or a modder? I guess you don’t do that at […]
Dear Colin, XLR attenuator values. There is to much gain in my system; DAC outputs 4vrms and amps output full power at 1.6v. What are the correct value attenuators please? Cheers Chris Hi Chris, 1)what impedance are we driving into? 2)what output can the DAC be loaded into? I am going to assume 600 Ohms. […]
Colin – I’m curious about the gestation process you go through designing a new product. How do you normally operate from, say, a clean sheet of paper? Nice question Yes and No is the answer. I love the question. The answer is ‘yes’ for totally new concepts for me. Getting the prototypes right means confronting […]
Neil McCauley writes: First, here’s how the makers describe their units: Q-20-P The Q-20-P complements the Q-20 power amplifier, it features MC, MM and one line input, a line-level output and a headphone output. The Q20P is designed to be as simple as possible in order to maintain signal integrity. It is ideal for the […]
I recently sourced my friend his fab MP/MF330 pre power pair. I was listening to them through his ES14s and could hear a hiss on both channels (slightly more on the right). You need to stick your ear to the speaker, and turning the un-fed pre volume right up didn’t change it too much. This […]
Dear Colin, a question which has been nagging away for a few days now: why were capacitor value ‘standards’ changed around early 70s, and why such seemingly arbitrary numbers? In my Quad 33/303 there’s several electrolytic caps featuring values such as 2uF, 12uF, 25uF, 50uF, 100uF….. When (and why) were values changed to 10uF, 22uF, […]
Dear Colin, I have just fitted stock 2R7 Panasonic 0.1% metal film resistors to replace the “green” 2R2 wirewounds in series with the Millennium tweeters in my WD25Tex speakers. I expected a change ( a bit warmer) but was not prepared for such a drastic change – is this due to the 0,5R increase or […]
Dear Colin. My meter isn’t going to zero any more on ohm ratings, and it apparently can’t be calibrated. It’s a fairly low-end Radio Shack autoranging model. I saw that the “what do you need for repairing equipment” on a US thread suggested a Fluke 114 or 115. Is that still the best, or do […]
Hi Colin. To what extent – if any – does marketing influence your designs? It has ….. for a few things. I’ve not really taken much notice of marketing and to be honest, if an audio business is run by money grabbing twits like those I’ve met in the past then … no thanks. I […]
Dear Colin, The Art of Electronics (Horowitz & Hill) 3rd ed… … as DIYers probably already know is now out, only 25 years after the 2nd ed. My copy arrived today. I’m not trained in electronics and make no claim to more than a passing knowledge, but have enjoyed these authors’ style of presentation since […]
Dear Colin, I’d buy from you but as far as I can see one4audio. don’t make one – or do you or will you? Anyway, I’m planning on building a JLH class A headphone amplifier but am a bit confused regarding the transformer wiring/connection. The pcb requires 15v-0-15v AC power input. I plan on using […]