Martin Colloms

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A Future Without Feedback?
Reference
Martin Colloms  |  Jan 03, 1998  |  0 comments
Over the years as a reviewer, I have tracked the swings of opinion and popularity of various audio ideas and technologies. Amid a sea of advanced designs that achieve powerful technical performance and laudable specifications, I'm reminded of a major blind listening test of 18 power amplifiers that I set up for the long-since-defunct UK magazine Hi-Fi for Pleasure back in 1975. We had "advanced technology" then: the transistor amplifier had matured and was well accepted by audiophiles. Prices of the review samples ranged from $300 to $3000 (equivalent to $1000-$10,000 in today's dollars). The auditioning sessions were graced by the presence of many industry leaders, among them the late Spencer Hughes of Spendor, Julian Vereker of Naim, Philip Swift then of Audiolab, Alan Harris then of retailer Audio T., Bob Stuart of Meridian, and John Wright of IMF (now TDL in the UK).
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Audio Research LS8 line preamplifier
Tube Preamp Reviews
Martin Colloms  |  Jan 02, 2011  |  First Published: Mar 02, 1999  |  0 comments
While high-priced equipment can easily acquire stature on grounds of outright performance and physical appearance, we critics have more admiration for genuine achievement at lower price levels. One such product was the all-triode SP8 preamplifier from Audio Research, launched back in 1982 and priced at $1400. This classically tasteful preamplifier came equipped with a medium-sensitivity phono equalizer and the usual tape and line inputs.
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Audio Research M300 monoblock power amplifier
Tube Power Amp ReviewsJ. Gordon Holt
Martin Colloms, J. Gordon Holt  |  Dec 26, 1995  |  First Published: Dec 26, 1987  |  0 comments
JGH opens
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Avantgarde Acoustic Duo loudspeaker
Floor Loudspeaker Reviews
Martin Colloms  |  Nov 06, 2020  |  First Published: Jun 01, 1998  |  21 comments
Few designers are drawn to create horn loudspeakers. Most people's experience of horns is based on the resonating, overdriven, often overloaded PA installations heard at rock concerts and similar events. These commonly heard unmusical noises and colorations are ever-present in designers' minds. But good-sounding horns do exist; over the years, some noteworthy commercial examples have appeared, though few have been full-range.
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Balance: Benefit or Bluff?
ReferenceFeatures
Martin Colloms  |  Nov 15, 1994  |  0 comments
If you read much promotional literature for recently introduced high-quality equipment, you'll notice a common theme emerging: balanced connection. Balanced inputs and outputs are becoming a must for any audio equipment that has any claim to quality. The word itself has promotional value, suggesting moral superiority over the long-established "unbalanced" connection (for the purpose of this discussion, I will call this "normal"). What's my problem with this? Simply this: The High End could be paying dangerous, costly lip service to the received wisdom that balanced operation is the goal for an audio system.
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Basso Profundo
Reference
Martin Colloms  |  Dec 29, 1991  |  0 comments
Bass constitutes one of the least understood aspects of sound reproduction. Opinions vary greatly on matters of bass quality, quantity, and perceived frequency range or response. Moreover, the bass region is subject to the most unwanted variation in practical situations due to the great influence listening-room acoustics have on loudspeaker performance. Every room has its different bass characteristic, and changes in the position of speakers or listener also constitute major variables at low frequencies.
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Bel Canto SET 80 monoblock power amplifier
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Martin Colloms  |  Dec 04, 2005  |  First Published: May 04, 1998  |  0 comments
Although I retain a firm hold on the established audio world, and recognize and value all that it has achieved, I feel inexorably driven to make some space in my life for single-ended amplifiers—more especially, those that eschew negative feedback (footnote 1). A classic if costly example of the art is the Cary CAD-805C, which, to my ears, has earned the right to teach audiophiles what negative feedback really sounds like, and what damage it can do to the musical message when poorly handled. This shouldn't be taken as an out-of-hand dismissal of those many great pieces of electronics and amplification that use negative feedback—it is simply an acknowledgment, or even an assertion that negative feedback generates a sound of its own.
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Book Review: "The Complete Guide to High-End Audio"
Reference
Martin Colloms, Kristen Weitz  |  Mar 28, 1995  |  0 comments
The Complete Guide to High-End Audio
by Robert Harley
450+xxiv pp., $29.95 softcover, $39.95 signed hardcover. Published by Acapella Publishing, P.O. Box 80805, Albuquerque, NM 87198-0805. Credit-card orders: (800) 848-5099.
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Cambridge Audio CD1 CD player
Audacious AudioCD Player/Transport Reviews
Martin Colloms  |  Jun 18, 2014  |  First Published: Apr 01, 1987  |  0 comments
Four years after its launch, the CD medium would appear to have come of age, at least in production terms. Annual player manufacture is now big business, and there is hardly a major audio brand without a CD machine to its name—even such analog stalwarts as Audio-Technica and Shure have succumbed.
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Cary Audio Design CAD-300SE LX20 monoblock power amplifier
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Martin Colloms  |  Mar 05, 2005  |  First Published: Aug 05, 1999  |  0 comments
Many tube aficionados hold that amplifiers built with the venerable 300B tube hold the aces when it comes to sonic purity and beauty of harmonic line. Cary Audio Design's Dennis Had succeeded in producing what many believe is the definitive moderately sized single-ended triode (SET) amplifier: the CAD 300SE. This monoblock, powered by classic 300B Western Electric or derivative tubes, could provide 8–10Wpc, requiring the adoption of relatively moderate volume settings and/or sensitive, easy-to-drive loudspeakers. Cary also produced a lower-priced "integrated" stereo chassis, the CAD 300SEI.
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