John Darko
Xuanqian Wang. AURALIC’s CEO. At least, he was until the beginning of 2025. Wang has stepped down to work on other ventures and race sports cars whilst still maintaining his ownership stake in the company. Before he falls into the background, I wanted to talk to Wang about his final product for AURALIC: the Aquila X3.
In its base configuration, the X3 is a high-end CD and streaming transport with an outboard power supply. Get ready to say farewell to US$15,999. Add an internal SSD plus Fusion DAC and pre-amplifier/phono modules according to taste – and budget. Fully loaded, we’re kissing off US$25,999. The LEO clock comes for free. But wait: the X3 and PSU’s top panels, side panels, trims and CD ‘lid’ are user-customisable for hundreds of visual permutations.
Ten years ago, I asked Xuanqian Wang if AURALIC would ever make a CD player. He shot me down with three words: “no moving parts”. Fair enough. But as Wang admits in our podcast conversation, times have changed.
Listen now on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn or use the embedded player below:
Further information: Auralic
