|
|
Reviewer's Bio
A. Colin Flood
Bang For The Buck
A South Florida technical writer by trade, with champagne tastes on a beer budget, A. Colin Flood is a seeker of value disheartened at chintzy offerings of local retail chains. He looks for the most "bang" for his meager bucks. Colin is not associated or affiliated, in any form or fashion, with any firm of any kind, in the home theater or high fidelity industry, except Enjoy the Music.com®.
The
home movie and music reproduction system crowded into his small living room is a
two-channel set-up, with a 36" Sony CRT TV as the center channel for
movies. An aging Rotel CD player, with Behringer’s
digital EQ, feeds a Series II revision of Dynaco's classic PAS-3 tube
pre-amplifier. His front-end equipment floats on a cloud of green Gingko
Audio balls. A pair of custom Bottlehead
Paramour monoblock 2A3 amplifiers, rated at a mere 3.5 watts, drives the mid
and high-range horns of his classic loudspeakers.
Digital
Class T
A 48-pound Pioneer, 60-watt monster (think '70s vintage mini-Krell, with 33,000 uF capacitors) powers the bass bins of his big ole horns with passive bi-amplification. For solid-state reference, Colin alternates between Sonic Impact’s palm-size digital "class T" amplifier, Harmon/Kardon’s '70s vintage 330B receiver and Red Wine's Clari T battery-powered amplifier.
Classic
Horns
Colin
is one of the few reviewers to consistently use big ole horns and low-powered
tube amplifiers as his reference system. His four feet high, 167 lbs. (75.8kg),
1989 Klipsch corner horns are some of the largest loudspeakers available. The
“Khorn” is a three-way, fully horn loaded, diamond-shaped loudspeaker, which
fits snugly into room corners. A 15" woofer in the folded triangular bass
bin below wraps bass around, rolls it off the walls and creates smooth sound
down to 25Hz.
Khorns are fantastically efficient at 104dB/W/m, making them incredibly easy-to-drive and very dynamic (see Stereos, As They Relate to Indoor Sport)! Khorn nominal impedance of 8 ranges from 4 to 30-ohms. Despite their gargantuan size, the spousal/wife acceptance factor (WAF) of smooth Khorn response, sensitivity, out-the-way footprint and dynamics is very high. The big ole horn and tasty tube amplifier combination remains one of the best sounding and most practical combinations available today; especially when backed by solid-state muscle. Colin’s office speakers are refurbished Altec-Lansing Model One speakers.
Subwoofers
Colin reviewed the ACI Titan and loved it. His bass cables are thick gray Coincident Technologies' CST-1 rattlesnakes, while generic copper serves the top-end. Interconnects are Monster Silver and Radio Shack optical. His small living room has dry walls, with wood floors on concrete; dampened with a half-dozen Realtraps panels.
Discs
While
Colin dances to classic rock when out on the town, he is a smooth jazz lover at
home. His reviews include Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Norah Jones and Jack Johnson.
Find for these and his music/test
samplers from Digital Music Products and Reference Recordings by searching
for "By A. Colin Flood" at the EnjoyTheMusic.com home page.|
|
