Amplifiers

A passive preamplifier is simple to construct; I’ve built several. Purchase a 50k ohm potentiometer from RS Components or a similar company, connect it to four phono connectors, and, if you’re feeling brave, mount it in a box with a knob! You can get great results for cheap, which makes you question why some people […]

Few would deny that a well-built valve amplifier can produce excellent sound, but the problem is that they aren’t as user-friendly as solid-state devices – at least not to the uninitiated. While you can buy any sensible transistor integrated, plug it in, and expect a reasonable sound regardless of your system, thermionic valves aren’t exactly

Sugden has no introduction; everyone with even a passing interest in audiophilia is familiar with the A21 series of English amplifiers, which began with an 11 watt solid-state bipolar integrated amplifier in the mid-1960s. The A21a became a nineties benchmark; a specialist product that promised clarity at the expense of all else… It was produced

It all began in a Cambridge bedroom – Audiolab’s bedroom, to be precise. Philip Swift, along with Derek Scotland, left his “day job” as a director of Lentek Audio to found a company that would have a big impact on the hi-fi sector for the next fifteen years. In the autumn of 1982, while Duran

Let’s be honest: Bang & Olufsen’s philosophy isn’t ‘sound first, everything else second.’ However, if we’re being honest, it’s difficult to say the same about the majority of so-called “true hi-fi” makers, to whom we serious audiophiles happily grant house room. Can you honestly state that the ordinary Arcam is solely concerned with sound, ignoring

Do you recall the decade of the 1980s? The only substantial amplification at the start of the decade came in two boxes. You’d have to buy two, one marked ‘pre’ and the other marked ‘power’, whether it was Naim, Meridian, Exposure, or Quad. Then, in 1984, Naim Audio shocked the hi-fi world with the introduction

One of the most iconic names in British hi-fi, Harold Joseph Leak founded this now-defunct company in London in 1934, later selling it to the Rank Organisation in January 1969, when its fortunes began to falter. Between these times, and particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, the brand was known for high-quality amplifiers, radio tuners,

It’s not just about listening to music when it comes to hi-fi. Of course, its primary role is to sound good, but it also serves an aesthetic purpose. There’s no shortage of gear that excels at one of these functions, but it’s unusual to find something that excels at both, such as Lecson’s famed AC1/AP3

Most amplifiers from the 1980s weren’t anything to write home about, especially the gadget-laden behemoths. But Marantz’s flagship was unique – a hefty 25kg integrated that cost £1,000 and featured the company’s odd ‘Quarter-A’ technology, which handled lower-level signals up to a quarter of the maximum power output in pure Class A. However, when the

Passive preamps have one advantage: Their short signal lines and lack of circuit complexity result in a clear, detailed sound. They aren’t, however, a cure-all for the problem of controlling your source. They have traditionally depended on resistive networks selected via a switch or rotary variable resistors, which can result in significant impedance mismatches at