When He Says "Hand-Made," He Means It
This is not the fastest way to heatshrink trannie leads, but this guy obviously takes his job seriously.
China 2006
York Du
This is York Du of Original, which makes "CD players and only CD players."
Design Is Key
Original employs four full-time design engineers.
The Battleground
Du calls this conference room, "the battleground, because we argue about designs all the time. It gets pretty heated."
Listening Lab
Original's listening room is extraordinary. The reference system when I was there was Thiel CS 2.2s, a pair of Mark Levinson No. 29s, an XLH preamp, and an Original A9.2 CD player.
Original's Assembly Line
"Essentially, we build everything by hand. Some Chinese companies think almost think this approach is primitive, but it gives us a lot of quality control."
Board Stuffing
'Nuff said.
Burn-In Bench
Everything gets cooked before packing, as a final quality assurance measure.
The Usual Suspects
Some tools are universal.
M-2000 Amplifier
XLH's M-2000 monoblock power amplifier $25,000/pair).