New amplifier, new colors. In an unusual (and one-time) award, I hearby dub the Wyred 4 Sound room at Newport the best color coordinated room in all the land.
But seriously, even though the KEF Reference 3 Foundry Edition speakers ($13k/pair) are a step down in the product line from the Blade (and 2’s) we are used to seeing at shows, you wouldn’t have missed them at all in the 2nd floor room at the Hotel Irvine. The copper colored Uni-Q driver finish matched perfectly with the new upcoming Statement Amplifier (~$5k) for a presentation that looked almost as good as it sounded.
Considering the retro orange carpet and blackout curtains provided an even more coordinated supplement to the look, I would say that the entire experience looked as cohesive as a Adidas jogging suit on a Sunday afternoon stroll. The Statement amp made its debut at RMAF last year and features 750 watts of Class D output and a full-color touchscreen. The Class D here is Wyred’s custom design and employs no off-the-shelf third party modules in its implementation. Providing volume control was a SST Thoebe II preamplifier ($4.3k).
When asked what I wanted to hear as a demonstration, I let Wyred 4 Sounds’s Marketing Director Tony Holt take a swing at it. He nailed it out of the park with a quick drop of Fiona Apple’s Shadowboxer from her debut album. The sultry, slow tune turned ears with its liquid mids and tonally accessible piano licks filling in the center of the mix, but what’s really showy about the track is the low end. The bass pumps and thumps along in the song, the Statement and Reference 3’s delivered a beautiful but never overbearing rendition of the nuanced information. Along with solid dynamics and pretty highs, the entire collection felt a few steps closer to real than most of what I had already heard from the show. It was an impressive showing for the price (albeit approaching hifi-ish levels on the front end), sporting some of the same cost/performance value that we saw with our review of their [mAMP monos] a few years ago at a lower price bracket.
Huddled back in the corner was a headphone amplifier prototype that was still work in progress. The top panel features touch sensitive controls and the front panel offers up dual headphone jacks in both single ended varieties. Price, release date and title are still TBD, but given how Wyred 4 Sound operates within its price category consumers can feel confident with big expectations for any personal audio extension from the brand.
More information: https://www.wyred4sound.com