Sam Tellig

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Infinity Composition Prelude P-FR loudspeaker
Floor Loudspeaker Reviews
Robert Harley, Sam Tellig  |  Sep 19, 2012  |  First Published: Sep 01, 1995  |  0 comments
I can't think of two products at further ends of the audio spectrum than a single-ended triode tubed amplifier and a mass-market Home Theater loudspeaker. Single-ended tubed amplifiers are about reproducing subtlety, delicacy, nuance, and communicating the music's inner essence. Conversely, a Home Theater loudspeaker system—particularly one made by a mass-market manufacturer—would appear to put the emphasis on booming bass and reproducing shotgun blasts, with little regard for musical refinement.

What a bizarre marriage it was, then, to pair the new Infinity Composition Prelude P-FR loudspeakers with the Cary Audio Design CAD-300SEI 11W single-ended triode amplifier (reviewed elsewhere in this issue). This combination didn't happen by accident; as you'll see, these apparently disparate products are a match made in heaven.

I discovered the Infinity Preludes while surveying Home Theater loudspeaker systems for the upcoming second issue of the Stereophile Guide to Home Theater. In addition to evaluating the loudspeaker systems under review with video soundtracks, I assessed their musical qualities—or lack thereof. The Preludes were such a musical standout that I rescued them from the Home Theater room (where they had been powered by mass-market receivers and fed with a laserdisc source) and gave them a new lease on life in the larger music room, with reference-quality source and amplification components. The Preludes' extraordinary musical performance and unique design compelled me to tell you about how they performed in an audiophile-quality two-channel playback system.

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Jadis Defy 7, Quicksilver KT88, VAC PA90 tubed power amplifiers
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Sam Tellig  |  Oct 13, 2022  |  First Published: Sep 01, 1991  |  11 comments
"It's the difference between a stuffed dog and the real thing," said Gunter (George) Bischoff, of Melos Audio, on the difference between solid-state gear and tubes. "The real dog may piss on the rug, needs visits to the vet, gets fleas, has to be walked, but it's a living thing—a real dog. The stuffed dog requires no care, needs no maintenance, but has no life."
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Jadis SE300B monoblock amplifier
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Jonathan Scull, Sam Tellig  |  Aug 20, 2012  |  First Published: Mar 01, 1996  |  2 comments
I've never written a love story before, but then, there's always a first time. This romance concerns the stunningly anthropomorhic Jadis Eurythmie II (mostly) horn speakers and the petite, jewel-like and vivacious Jadis SE300B amps—a 10W single-ended triode design with paralleled output tubes.

Kathleen and I, having flung ourselves into single-ended's embrace, have become, to some fashion, quite experienced. I've described the purity of presentation available with the Wavelength Audio Cardinal XS monoblocks when coupled with the Swiss-made Reference 3A Royal Master Controls in these pages (January '96). Using the Eurythmie speakers, which supplanted the 3As in our system, we've listened to Gordon Rankin's Wavelength Cardinal XS monos, the Kondo-san Audio Note Kasai parallel 300B stereo amplifier (next SE review to come), the ebullient and eager-to-please Cary 301SE 300B stereo unit, and the Jadis single-ended triodes, as well as our reference Jadis JA200s (yes, Jadis also does push-pull).

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Lars Fredell, "the world's greatest audiophile," dead at 58
News
Sam Tellig  |  Jun 30, 2002  |  1 comments
Lars is dead.
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Manley Labs SE/PP 300B Monoblock power amplifier
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Sam Tellig  |  Oct 22, 2012  |  First Published: Jan 01, 1996  |  0 comments
This should have been a recipe for disaster.

It's no secret. David Manley has not been big on single-ended amplifiers. Not enough muscle. You're better off with push-pull. Still, with a growing market for single-ended stuff, I'm sure Manley saw a need to do something. Of all tube designers, Manley has always been among the most prolific.

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Marantz CD-94 CD player
CD Player/Transport Reviews
Thomas J. Norton, Sam Tellig  |  Nov 12, 2015  |  First Published: Oct 01, 1988  |  0 comments
Let's go back a few years. Well, more than a few, actually. The electronics end of high-end audio consisted of two companies—Marantz and McIntosh. If you were not up to shopping at their stratospheric price level—even though the industry hadn't yet invented components priced to compete with automobiles—you could always fall back on Dynaco, the poor man's high end in kit form. You hooked all this together with two-dollar connecting cables and 16-gauge zip cord purchased from the local electrical supply house, or—if you felt particularly flush—you'd spend a few (very few) bucks more at Fred's Stereo for the cables with the fancy molded plugs. Hoses were used for watering the lawns.
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McIntosh C2200 preamplifier
Tube Preamp Reviews
Sam Tellig  |  May 12, 2002  |  0 comments
"It took long enough," as I said to Larry Fish and Roger Stockholm.
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McIntosh Laboratories MC275 power amplifier
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Sam Tellig  |  Aug 13, 2012  |  First Published: Apr 01, 1993  |  1 comments
Tubes, tubes, tubes.

The amps (and preamps) keep coming.

McIntosh Laboratories is back in the act with a limited-edition revival of the MC275 tube amplifier, the original of which was produced from May 1961 through July 1973—one of the longest model runs in hi-fi history.

New companies devoted to tube gear keep cropping up—in recent years, America's VAC and Cary and Canada's Sonic Frontiers. The same thing appears to be going on in the UK. The pages of British magazines are filled with new tube gear.

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McIntosh MC 275 Commemorative power amplifier
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Sam Tellig  |  Jan 14, 2007  |  First Published: Jul 14, 2004  |  0 comments
The McIntosh MC 275 power amplifier has been born yet again. It's the Count Dracula of power amps. It refuses to stay dead. Introduced in 1961, the Mac 275, in its original hardwired edition, was produced until 1970. This was the amp I desired while in college but couldn't afford. I remember the Mac 275 fondly—rather like girlfriends from my college years.
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McIntosh MC2102 power amplifier
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Sam Tellig  |  May 14, 2001  |  0 comments
"Larry—if I'd told you 10 years ago that McIntosh would be heavily into tubes in the 21st century, what would you have said?"
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