Recently I purged all of my separates in search for a path with less variables and increased simplicity. As some of you may know, my only stereo is the one I use in the office since my home stereo had been dismantled years ago due to kids and space concerns. Just as I sold my gear I saw a listing here from a fellow member who goes by the name of @ColinWonfor I took Colin up on one of his demo units as I had read nothing but great things about his products for the many years he's been designing. His shipping was fast and the integrated amp arrived safely and well packaged. Colin has requested that I write as honest and open about this amp as I can. So here goes, warts and all.
Truth be told I've been quite reluctant to write this "review" mainly because it's not actually a review that I like to read in the magazine and online publications. It won't be dotted with a thousand adjectives the describe the sound I'm hearing or overly gushy. I'm writing what I've experienced with Colin, the amp, and the sound I'm hearing. That's all.
To start things off, Colin was fast to reply to my emails and overall assured me that the amp I was getting had less than 20hrs of use on it and was built to such high standards that it should be reliable for many many years to come. This was music to my ears as I like to hear any burn/break-in of gear and my focus when selling the separates was to find something with massively high reliability so I just don't have to worry about things. I've got enough on my plate with newborn twins at the house, home remodeling and a 3yr old. So I took the bait and paid the guy. I think with Colin having to order the proper transformer and shipping I received the amp in about 2 weeks.
Upon receiving the package I opened it up and found that Colin had shipped the amp wrapped in bubble wrap and other filler. It arrived safely but I was disappointed I didn't get any sort of official retail box or any documentation. (told you I was going to be honest). It would have been a nice touch to get it in the original box with packing material and paperwork, but I know it's a demo and original packaging isn't always included. There's now a document uploaded to the ElsdonWonforAudio.com page that has the specifications of the amp listed.
At first blush I was pretty floored with the sound. As it warmed up it really opened up nicely and gave me the impressions that this amp was just ready to have fun. It's character in stock form (more on this in a minute) was playful, fast, energetic and a bit light footed. Almost TOO ready to jump. It's hard to describe but the sound is very similar to the Stephen Sank modified Nakamichi TA-3A I had for a while. Both of these amps seem to have the ability to really startle you with FAST transients. I recall the Nak settled down after a couple hundred hours of break in due to the new caps. However the Claymore kept that playful character until I decided to do some tinkering. Before I opened up the hood I had put probably 100hrs on it or so. So while if Colin was truthful about having such low hours, I'm probably still within the break in period as of this writing assuming 250-500hrs which I've found to be optimal.
So there I was, enjoying a perfectly good amp when the urge came over me to take a peek inside. The amp is pretty easy to open up, just a couple screws and the entire chassis just falls apart. It's an interesting construction the way these parts fit together but probably not the way I would have done it. However, I know Colin was trying to stay truthful to the footprint and style of the original Claymore so I'm sure that was a consideration when producing these. So which a couple turns of a #2 Phillips head screwdriver the faceplate and rear plate come right off, the side panels come apart and the top plate comes right out. It's a bit tricky to get these all lined up and reassembled, so if any of you try this, it takes a little bit of effort.
It seems the MOSFETs are mounted to the bottom plate, which is a little concerning as the plate is maybe 1/8" thick and doesn't directly connect to the side plates of the chassis. I'm not sure if heat dissipation will ever be an issue with this amp as it's rated quite heftily at 70WPC @ 8ohm and 140wpc @ 4ohm. Colin knows his stuff, has vast experience and if he designed it this way, then I'm sure he's taken heat dissipation into consideration and aside from my own concerns I'm pretty sure there's nothing to worry about.
Truth be told I've been quite reluctant to write this "review" mainly because it's not actually a review that I like to read in the magazine and online publications. It won't be dotted with a thousand adjectives the describe the sound I'm hearing or overly gushy. I'm writing what I've experienced with Colin, the amp, and the sound I'm hearing. That's all.
To start things off, Colin was fast to reply to my emails and overall assured me that the amp I was getting had less than 20hrs of use on it and was built to such high standards that it should be reliable for many many years to come. This was music to my ears as I like to hear any burn/break-in of gear and my focus when selling the separates was to find something with massively high reliability so I just don't have to worry about things. I've got enough on my plate with newborn twins at the house, home remodeling and a 3yr old. So I took the bait and paid the guy. I think with Colin having to order the proper transformer and shipping I received the amp in about 2 weeks.
Upon receiving the package I opened it up and found that Colin had shipped the amp wrapped in bubble wrap and other filler. It arrived safely but I was disappointed I didn't get any sort of official retail box or any documentation. (told you I was going to be honest). It would have been a nice touch to get it in the original box with packing material and paperwork, but I know it's a demo and original packaging isn't always included. There's now a document uploaded to the ElsdonWonforAudio.com page that has the specifications of the amp listed.
At first blush I was pretty floored with the sound. As it warmed up it really opened up nicely and gave me the impressions that this amp was just ready to have fun. It's character in stock form (more on this in a minute) was playful, fast, energetic and a bit light footed. Almost TOO ready to jump. It's hard to describe but the sound is very similar to the Stephen Sank modified Nakamichi TA-3A I had for a while. Both of these amps seem to have the ability to really startle you with FAST transients. I recall the Nak settled down after a couple hundred hours of break in due to the new caps. However the Claymore kept that playful character until I decided to do some tinkering. Before I opened up the hood I had put probably 100hrs on it or so. So while if Colin was truthful about having such low hours, I'm probably still within the break in period as of this writing assuming 250-500hrs which I've found to be optimal.
So there I was, enjoying a perfectly good amp when the urge came over me to take a peek inside. The amp is pretty easy to open up, just a couple screws and the entire chassis just falls apart. It's an interesting construction the way these parts fit together but probably not the way I would have done it. However, I know Colin was trying to stay truthful to the footprint and style of the original Claymore so I'm sure that was a consideration when producing these. So which a couple turns of a #2 Phillips head screwdriver the faceplate and rear plate come right off, the side panels come apart and the top plate comes right out. It's a bit tricky to get these all lined up and reassembled, so if any of you try this, it takes a little bit of effort.
It seems the MOSFETs are mounted to the bottom plate, which is a little concerning as the plate is maybe 1/8" thick and doesn't directly connect to the side plates of the chassis. I'm not sure if heat dissipation will ever be an issue with this amp as it's rated quite heftily at 70WPC @ 8ohm and 140wpc @ 4ohm. Colin knows his stuff, has vast experience and if he designed it this way, then I'm sure he's taken heat dissipation into consideration and aside from my own concerns I'm pretty sure there's nothing to worry about.