The room at AXPONA was simply magnificent. A modern salon feel at the top of the world. Mid-April snow slowly fell outside the 15th story suite, but none of the inhabits took any mind. Their focus was on all the top shelf gear Woo and others had lovingly prepared for attendees to drift off to their own sonic wonderland.
Woo Audio’s leading man Jack Wu was attentive and informative as usual, his newest creation taking a stab at the high end once again – this time with the growing electrostatic market. With even more headphone manufacturers entering the Stax-saturated market, opportunities for amplifiers appear ready for expansion in turn.
The 3ES ($9k) is the new flagship for the brand, just above Woo’s last WES model (now $4.5k). The WES will remain in the line, but the 3ES incorporates much of the updated features that can be found in other recent releases. From the Woo site:
“With over 10 years of experience in electrostatic amplifier designs. The all-new 3ES is our flagship electrostatic headphone amplifier and preamplifier. It shares the same architecture as our flagship WA33 dynamic headphone amplifier in a two-unit design where the top unit is an amplifier docking on the power supply using our internal coupling architecture (ICA) technology. The 3ES employs two 6SN7 driver tubes pushing four 300B power tubes as the output stage and one rectifier tube in the center of the amp. The new 3ES achieves the most ambition dream in the audio world. “
Yep, the new guy has 300Bs, as well as two 6SN7s for the driver stage. The DC power cord is internalize between the two stacked units and the amp is fully balanced from end-to-end. Jack says the 3ES will work with HiFiMAN’s new electrostatic in addition to the VOCE by MrSpeakers. Not quite sexy enough for you? There will also be a elite edition available for $16k with even more premium internal parts.
Woo is taking preorders now on the site with an approximate shipping date of two months.
The room was also shared with both MrSpeakers and Sennheiser, who was showing off the flagship HE1 system ($55k) in a dedicated listening room. There was even a cash bar relaxing at the end of the suite for those who just wanted to hang out and listen to tunes on some of the most premium rigs available to personal audio.
