I asked Woo Audio founder Jack Wu how he came up with this design. He told me, "My brother, Zhidong Wu, designed it. He…
search
Woo Audio's 20th Anniversary WA24 headphone amplifier comes in a distinctive, low-slung chassis that welcomes the eye with gentle angular volumes and bright, frosty-surfaced, copper-toned controls. In the always-crowded Woo–JPS Labs–Stax room at CanJam 2025, Woo's new $12,999 flagship caught everybody's eye, sitting on a table next to its similar-looking stablemate, the $8999 WA23 LUNA, a tube-rectified single-ended amplifier that, unlike the new WA24, uses 2A3 tubes.
While driving the Vérité with the Woo amp, I became bored of streaming and got revved to play an exotic LP with the Lyra Delos on the Dr. Feickert Blackbird: American violinist Michael Rabin playing Ravel's Tzigane with Sir Adrian Boult conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra on a pressed-in-England Columbia violet-label LP (33CX 1597). Whenever I switch from streaming to black discs, I instantly notice how much more bite analog transients have and how much more raw drive and intensity LPs pump out.
This was an important spin-my-head moment. With this high-purity analog source—the…
Photos by M. van Dorp.
Does anyone use the term "record man" these days? In an earlier era, it would have been used in the same way the term "ad man" was used, as a particularly American job description. People who spend their careers in and around the music business. Some of these record men are known by the public—some of it anyway—whereas others may be familiar only to colleagues.
I met Steve Berkowitz under the best of circumstances: sitting in a basement listening room hearing beautiful recordings made in 1958 that I'd never heard before, by the Miles Davis Quintet. It was…
Matson: The Beatles in Mono LP box set?
Berkowitz: I grew up in Boston, and I knew a guy in Boston, Jeff Jones. Jeff and I worked together at Columbia Records as marketing directors; Jeff was the first head of Legacy. Jeff and I had 10 years of making records together. After a number of years, he left and became the head of Apple Records. In 2009, he sent me the stereo Beatles LP box. When I received them, I wanted to hear the second side of Abbey Road. First, I took out my original 1969 UK copy. It has ticks and pops, and I'm thinking, God this sounds great! Then I put on the…
Sidebar: "T. Blade's Hot Seven"
Some Favorites from the Berkowitz Discography
Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings–The Centennial Collection (CD/LP/cassette, Legacy 88697 85907 2). 1990/2011. A&R supervision/project coordination/marketing.
Jeff Buckley: Grace (LP/CD, Legacy 57528). 1994. Executive Producer.
Louis Armstrong: The Complete Hot Five & Hot Seven Recordings (CD, Legacy C4K 63527). 2000. Grammy Award for Best Historical Album. Coproducer.
The Beatles: The Beatles in Mono (CD/LP, Apple Records…
Just when I thought my equipment reviewing schedule was locked in for many months, an unavoidable last-minute cancellation sent me scrambling for an alternative.
Jim Austin to the rescue. To his query, "How would you like to review a tube preamp from Canor, of Slovakia?" I answered with an enthusiastic "yes!"
In addition to the exciting prospect of reviewing the first tubed preamplifier to come my way in a long time, hearing the Canor Hyperion P1 preamplifier ($12,500) in my system would enable me to get a handle on the sound of gear I'd only encountered once, at High End Munich…
The Hyperion P1 arrived with its four 6922 tubes already in place. To prepare it for use, I employed a special tool (included in the box) to remove the 10 screws that fasten its top to the rest of its chassis. After carefully removing the top, I inserted the two 6H30PI tubes into their prescribed sockets. To ensure correct positioning, Bierfeldt had labeled both the tube sockets and the protective bubble wrap surrounding those tubes "1" and "2."
To replace the cover, I had to surmount two minor challenges: setting it in place without pinching fingers and lining up the screw holes…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Class-A vacuum tube preamplifier with zero global feedback and balanced attenuator. Tube complement: four 6922, two 6H30PI. Inputs: four XLR (balanced), five RCA (single-ended; one pair can be set to fixed output). Outputs: two XLR (balanced); one RCA (single-ended). Gain (XLR output): 11dB. Input impedance: 30k ohms. Output impedance: <150 ohms. Frequency response: 10Hz–80kHz, ±0.1dB. THD (XLR output): <0.005% at 1kHz, 2V RMS, XLR; <0.3% at 1kHz, 49V RMS. Channel separation: >110dB. S/N ratio (20Hz–80kHz): >115dB. Power: 115V, 50–60Hz…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Varèse five-piece music system, EMM Labs DV2i DAC, Meitner MA3 Integrated DAC; Innuos Statement Next-Gen Music Server and PhoenixNET network switch; Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModule Deluxe (2); Broadcom/Avago AFBR-5718PZ 1GB SX SFP, Gen 5 fiberoptic modules(2); Nordost QNet switch and QSource linear power supply (2); Sonore Audiophile Linear Power Supply; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS with Ferrum Hypsos linear/switching hybrid power supply; Linksys MR9000 mesh router and Arris modem; Apple 2023 iPad Pro and 2017 MacBook Pro laptop…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
When I unboxed the Canor Hyperion P1 preamplifier, the four 6922 tubes, two for each channel, were installed, but the 6H30PI dual-triode tubes, labeled "1" and "2," were packed separately. I carefully installed these tubes in the sockets that corresponded to their numbers and checked that the 6922 tubes were correctly seated. I performed a complete set of tests with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system then repeated some of the testing with the magazine's APx500 analyzer.
I immediately encountered a problem in that there was no output from the right channel,…