It’s been a long time coming but Woo Audio’s WA8 trans/portable tube amplifier, recently subtitled ‘Eclipse’, is now in production and was shown off by the New York manufacturer at CanJam SoCal 2016. We first saw the WA8 way back in September 2014 when Jack Wu showed off a 3D-printed prototype at the New York […] More
Being a New York local Jack Wu has brought everything – including the kitchen sink – across the East River and into Brooklyn. His room is a U-bend of benched headphone gear with at least five or six listening stations. I try to ignore the $16k flagship monoblocks and make a beeline for one of my favourite […] More
The awkwardly named Woo Audio WA7 ‘Fireflies’ looks like it has dropped into Australia earlier than expected. There aren’t too many DAC/head-amp combos that really tickle my fancy but Jack Wu’s (picture above, right) latest is surely one of them. A matched pair of Sovtek 6C45, Class A, single-ended headphone stage married to a 32/192 asynchronous […] More
Over a pork knuckle in January, I enthused to a friend about DJ Hell’s collaborative work with P. Diddy (“The DJ”) and Bryan Ferry (“U Can Dance”) – two standout tracks from the veteran German producer’s 2009 album, Teufelswerk. English translation: Devil’s work. Eight years on, the remainder of that 2CD set still whiffs of […] More
What defines our taste/s in hifi gear? Those of a more platitudinous nature would claim that it’s all about the music. But that implies that we’d be just as content with a $50 Bluetooth speaker as a US$500k system. Being an audiophile is about the being into the gear. No shame in that. With the equipment itself […] More
Enjoying its first public showing at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2017 this weekend will be PS Audio’s PureStream Power Plant P20: not a power filter but a power regenerator: “Power Plants take your incoming AC power and regenerates new sine-wave-perfect, regulated high current AC power. In the process of regeneration any problems on your power […] More
May 2017. Introduced by Dynaudio to celebrate forty years in the loudspeaker business, the Special Forty caught my eye at the Danish company’s Munich High-End exhibit. Not the grey birch but the red. That spark of initial physical attraction – a red veneer married to a high gloss finish – pulled me closer. The Special […] More
Bluetooth loudspeakers aren’t generally poorer sounding than two loudspeakers and an amplifier because of their lossy transmission protocol. Their weakness is in their deployment: singularly with right and left channels spilling from the same point in the room. DSP is often used to improve the sense of channel separation. However, two loudspeakers offering proper s t e r e […] More
Far easier for the Victor Meldrews of the audiophile world to dismiss the manufacturer aiming beyond the audiophile echo chamber as pandering to hipsters than it is to admit a new product worthy of (their) closer scrutiny. Doubly so when a product dares to challenge established thinking. Offering an alternative to passive loudspeakers powered by […] More
Kicking the habit. From the high fructose corn syrup used by cookie companies as a sweetener to the MSG used by fast food joints to boost their dishes’ flavour, the flavour enhancements are artificial. Prolonged exposure to artificial sweeteners makes adapting to a new, more healthy ways of eating exponentially more challenging. How does this […] More
Schiit Audio. Sounds like a bad Dad joke doesn’t it – but not quite. Schiit launched with a nod and a wink in 2010 and in only six years co-founders Jason Stoddard and Mike Moffat have expanded their operation from a single car garage to a 12,000+ square foot workshop in Valencia, California. The secret to this improbably […] More
AiOS – all-in-one-system – is a US$2995 super integrated from North Carolina’s Cary Audio. A 75wpc Class A/B loudspeaker amplifier with in-built DAC and network streamer. Just add loudspeakers. Looking more closely at the AiOS’ back panel we note coaxial and TOSLINK inputs for feeding the AiOS’ digitally via a third party disc spinner or streamer. Also present are coaxial […] More
John H. Darko
