Anyone listened to a Wavac?

I heard the Wavac monoblocks and pre driving Talon Firebirds at CES and to my ears they had one of the best soounds at the show.

I heard their stuff at the shows. I think they had the 805 amps running, which was nice. The new anniversary Sh-833's were also running, those were way over the top. Not sure on price but the better part of $100k I bet. Sounded great, nice build quality as expected. Huge chassis (4 pcs per side). THe one amp of theirs I wanted to hear but wasn't on display was the 4304 amp (834-based) which looked quite cool. Unfortunately all their stuff is quite pricey....I suspect it could be had for about 1/2 the US retail price by shopping for it in Japan. (like most japanese audio products). The sounds overall are quite good, though for the money of the US prices, I think you could have something even more exotic that would sound as good or better. (custom built).

-Ed

The Wavac SH833s with three power supplies per side were incredibly good. They cost $350K!!! I decided to biamp with them. Just kidding!

Thanks guys for the nice comments of our 2 CES WAVAC rooms. We introduced many new models including the new T1 transformer-coupled linestage that is the best I have ever heard.....but as the US importer,I certainly have a bias on this topic. :-)

Yes, many Wavacs are very high priced; however, we offer models starting at $5k (MD-811) providing 15w/ch.

As an aside, the HE-4304 uses the 4304 triode tube.

If any of you have questions, please contact me directly.

Jim Ricketts
jim@tmhaudio.com

Jim, 4304 = 834 - just different basing between them, if anything. it's a cylindrical plate triode that had grid and plate pins, right? Well designed for A2 operation (as is the norm with the IIT/shishido set up of most Wavac stuff I think.) Wish I could afford it. ;-)

-Ed