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 […]
People / Colin Wonfor
Found 76 results
The image above is one of just six gold plated issues. Note: This was originally published here in April 2015 Neil McCauley (HFA editor in chief) writes an introduction: Colin was and remains one of the UK audio industry’s gentlemen. No one in our office has heard a negative comment about him nor a negative […]
Neil McCauley / editor in chief There’s an old saying that you can judge a person by the company they keep. It’s a truism and a cliché but that doesn’t mean it’s incorrect. Applied to the hi-fi industry, you can make a reasonable stab at the true nature (behind the carefully crafted façade) of the […]
Hello Colin and may I congratulate you on your resurrection. My question is this. As it is generally agreed that as a consequence of the variation of the mains waveform systems sound different at different times of any twenty four hours, do you do your fine-tuning at a similar time each day for continuity? Or […]
Colin writes ….. The Inductance in Common Mode is 20uH/M Capacitance is 100pF Leakage inductance is less than 1uH/M at rated at 10A RMS with insulation voltage of over 3500VAC. Normal mains cable in Common Mode is less than 1uH and a capacitance of less than 20pF but can be a high of 1nF/M and […]
Dear Colin, Generally speaking, what is it that causes output transistors to blow? Do they tend to die a natural death? Bad drivers? Emitters? Problems with the rectifier circuit? Assuming there wasn’t shorted speaker wires or excessive moisture. The amp bias and the +/-77 voltage was fine before they blew. It happened on power up. […]
Dear Colin, An audiophile friend made the following argument to me: “Stop looking for a new CD player. With a very good to excellent high-end interconnect you will not only improve the performance of the CD, but other downstream components.” I had to disagree with my friend claiming a $400 or $500 IC is not […]
Dear Colin, Zero autoformers; how to measure impedance please? I got a pair of Speltz zero autoformers recently but when I measure the total impedance, my multimeter sees only 0.4-0.6 ohm no matter what I do. It seems the multimeter could only read the DC resistance from the autoformer itself but not the total impedance […]
Hi Colin. Fashions, come fashions go and from time to time the market has been presented with battery powered devices from preamps, phono stages and power amps. As far as I’m aware you’ve never thought of anything battery driven. Is any particular reason for this? I’m wondering if you think the claimed sonic benefits are […]
Hello Colin. I seem to have read somewhere that you feel that external power supplies for audiophile equipment Is really an irrelevance if the original power supply design has been correctly implemented. Have I got that right? If not, can you put your views to us? Thanks in advance, Nigel Okay, I did say that […]
Hi Colin. Have you ever considered getting involved in active speaker design? From what I can gather, this is quite a complex task to get it right which is why, apparently so few companies get involved. I’m wondering if perhaps at some point in the future you might consider taking a good quality passive speaker […]
Colin – can we get meaningful measurements of power line noise? Is the noise too low-level to measure without exorbitantly expensive equipment? What equipment is required? Outside of laboratories, who has it? We buy all sorts of devices to clean up power. So why can’t we measure the noise that’s there and target it? Wayne […]
Dear Colin, audiophile grade sub panel and breakers? Do you know of a high quality “audiophile” grade sub panel? I read an article from someone in the audio industry where he mentioned having used a GE industrial grade 225 amp panel with a super duty silver plated copper bus bar and bolt on low noise […]
Gentlemen – what is this ‘thing’ called bi-wiring and will Elsdon Wonfor Audio be making speaker cables that use this tecnique? Thanks. Ron McQueen. {Colin} Dear Ron, bi-wiring is used to stop the reflection signal of one or more transducers affecting the movement or control of another. This can happen and it is caused by […]
Hello Colin. Great series so far. Thank you. A little background info: I own a Monitor Audio GXC350 centre speaker and have discovered the midrange driver produces no sound. Swapping the driver over with one from a GX200 confirms it’s ok. A volt meter shows there’s no output to the midrange driver which points to […]
Here’s one for you electric wizards to kick around. Whilst attending a recent hifi exhibition I was doing some power cord shopping. At one particular display I was being told by a very well known cable company representative, I’ll not mention the name so it doesn’t influence any responses, that the rule of thumb is […]
Mr. Wonfor / Mr. Elsdon. Am I correct in thinking that correct time coherence of all frequencies is inherent in music? If I have understood this them I guess it means that the sound of a human voice, for example, is time-coherent in all frequencies in a waveform that in itself is a specific time […]
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 […]
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 […]
It is amusing watching forum members casually slagging off such things, but Colin Wonfor is certainly no ‘subjectivist quack’, and it is very interesting indeed how well his cables are received and positively regarded. Dip in and out HERE EDITORIAL NOTE: The opinions expressed in the above post do not necessarily reflect those of our […]
Hi guys. Is there or will there be an ‘official’ Elsdon Wonfor Audio policy on this. Here’s my view. I’m an adherent to the psychological theory of so-called break-in; it’s simply one’s brain adjusting to a new piece of audio equipment. I also like to compare it to the ancient therapy of acupuncture; break-in apparently […]
Dear Colin. I’m being a bit greedy here but two questions if I may In your opinion, what makes an Audiophile a true Audiophile? In your opinion, what do fake Audiophiles do that makes them fake? I know these two questions open the door to all kinds of jokes but I’m looking for more thought […]
EDITORIAL NOTE: The opinions expressed in the above post do not necessarily reflect those of our editorial team – just in case you wondered. Neil McCauley
Hello Howard. Can you ask Colin please what is star earthing and does he / will he using it in his new designs? Ta muchly J.N Peterson {Colin} Dear J.N.Peterson star earthing should be used in all analog designs, that is a single zero or earth for every component on the circuit board and normally […]