Sounds like a nice project

Huurraaahh!

I’ll give an update asap. The pre/power has been in the works for sometime; Colin had been unwell but is better now and has been chasing his chassis supplier who have finally come up with them. It should be week or so when the amps are shipped. Much anticipation!

I'm no longer expectant, the new babies arrived a few days ago.  The Elsdon Wonfor Audio (EWA) M40P preamp arrived first so I was able to get to hear this as a single change in my system.  A week later the M40A power amp arrived - that's just 2 days ago.  I'm over the moon with the sound, it's everything I'd hoped for and more.  I should correct what I typed originally about power - the M40A delivers 40W into 15R, 80W into 8R and 155W into 4R - both channels driven.  Tyhe amps are Class A/B with a decent about of Class A sliding bias so a few watts are in Class A, with my 16R 100db open baffles I doubt I hit A/B at all.

The photos below include the preamp board under test in Colin's workshop.  All the other photos are ones I took soon after delivery.  

Colin has delivered his usual magic.  The preamp running into my Quad 306 more than hinted at what was to come when the full EWA pre/power pairing would be running.  I'm still very munch in the honeymoon period so I'll try not go too OTT but...characteristics that stand out so far are:
- Control: my twin 12" OB drivers whilst sensitive need controlling and the M40A really control the drivers well
- Bass: with my OBs running down to 100Hz before the bass sub-system takes over, you'd think bass quality could change much, but it does.  So power, tight and tuneful
- Imaging: organised, expansive, well separated
- Resolution: excellent, yet natural, not drawing undue attention to detail in a false or tiring manner
- Phono:  The MM and MC stages are really good too, for now I'm weaned off my digital phono stage currently I have my Ortofon 2M SE Mono and Transfiguration Spirit III setup
- Line: my wonderful Gustard R26 DAC sounds magnificent 

Looking good, Clive. Tell us how they sound when you're ready.

Looking good Clive!

Must be a very potent combo with the R26 ...

I notice that Magnum, Inca, TQ and EWA are all mentioned on the circuit board. Is that because of patent ownerships?

It’s something like that.  There are two additional factors:

1) I had micro suction on a blocked ear yesterday and now I’ve a high frequency tizz when sounds are a little loud.  It’s improved by 50% overnight so hopefully I’ll be back normal soon

2) Even with my reviewing hat on I’m struggling to come up with much more than I said in my post on 20th March.  I’ll try to add a little more colour…

With my OBs the pre/power delivers exactly what I wanted and more.  I wanted great imaging, bass, mid to die for, treble….well I’m 66 so less critical than I used to be.  I certainly wanted a natural sound with meat on the bones….by this I mean not a hyper-clinical sound, which dare I suggest that some class d amps have been guilty of in the early days.

As the preamp arrived first I could assess this in isolation.  My setup involves driving powerful class d amps with dsp for bass below 100Hz. Input impedance for the each bridged amp is 10k.  The M40A handles this superbly, much better than amps I’ve previously run.  The preamp overall brought a significant lift in SQ, indeed I felt…do I need the M40A when the sound with the Quad 306 is this good?  Then the M40A arrived.

The power amp brought a much more effortless nature.  Stunning bass - clearly quality above 100Hz matters a lot.  Imaging improved further.  I’d need a musician to meaningfully comment on timbre.  For me the sound is just wonderful.  Next I’ll hook up some more traditional speakers - MarkaudioSota Viotti One…It’ll be interesting to hear how these work out, my expectation is that they will grow in stature.

Well….I’ve just tried some small speakers, markaudio-sota.myshopify.com/products/viotti-one

They sound MASSIVE with the EWA amp. They almost have the scale of my crazily-sized OBs. I’m happy with the bass too, without my bass subsystem. If I didn’t already have my OBs I’d struggle to justify buying them though the OBs are better.  Other amps haven’t been anywhere near as expansive with the Viottis. Interesting.