Makes the Ongaku look reasonably priced...

I thought I'd posted about that one before...seems not. Anyway, completely ridiculous IMO but I guess there will be enough knobs with $350K to burn who will buy one :rolleyes:

Michael.
 
wow, what an amp.

150w SET - sounds like my ideal amp if I had woefully inefficient speakers.

You've got to be impressed that they send out the designer!! when there is a warranty fault.. as in fly the guy out from Japan!!

Despite the custom parts the price is... well... retail price as a % over production cost it probably rivals top cable manufacturers..
 
If the $ keeps on going down, I might thinking of getting a pair to put on a shelf. No sorry, I meant, in my safe deposit (I would then need to save on the insurance).
Has anybody over here have one and could report about the sound?
:D
 
I heard some at the Tokyo show (which has terrible acoustics). Pretty hohum IMO (but then I'm not a valvehead). Very pretty, though.
You could buy one of those Chinese valve amps and put a WAVAC sticker on the front. It would probably sound the same.
 
bottleneck said:
wow, what an amp.

150w SET - sounds like my ideal amp if I had woefully inefficient speakers.
Click to expand...

You might want to check out the measurement section in the Stereophile article. Be ready for a surprise.


Regards,


L.
 
Just looked at that.

Hmmm... That's seriously poor measurement... The IMD product at around -50dB could be a serious issue.
 
You also want to check out the power consumption. That really is taking the p*ss IMHO.
 
$350k for a single ended triode.... :ffrc: :ffrc: Even if I had the money to spare I wouldn't go anywhere near this atrocity. This kind of 'statement' is still something of a joke which the hifi industry doesn't seem to get.
 
Leporello said:
You might want to check out the measurement section in the Stereophile article. Be ready for a surprise.


Regards,


L.
Click to expand...

Do you mean the distortion figures, shown as 10% THD?

If so, it says this is mainly second-harmonic. Like most valve amplifiers and wouldnt worry me at all (not that I could ever afford these!)

quote..

second-harmonic distortion, being musically consonant and close enough in frequency terms to the fundamental that there will be plenty of masking, is both relatively benign and can often be preferred to an undistorted signal, in that it sounds "fatter" and "warmer."
 
bottleneck said:
Do you mean the distortion figures, shown as 10% THD?
Click to expand...

Well, as John Atkinson writes about this supposedly "150W" amplifier:

At our usual definition of clipping—1% THD+noise—the Wavac gives out just 2W or less into loads ranging from twice the nominal tap impedance to one quarter that nominal value.
Click to expand...

Also, the frequency response curves look interesting, to say the least. Do not know exactly why, but after reading the whole article (Fremer's high praise included) I felt quite sickened about the absurdity the high-end audio industry.


Regards,


L.
 

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