Next door to the main Woo Audio room was another setup, this time featuring the big WA-234 mono blocks configured for stereo speakers and driving a pair of Minis from Oswald Mills Audio.
OWA has been famous for doing horns a bit differently, but the styling of the Mini ($25k/pair) probably clued you in to that pretty much immediately. Conical horns are praised and derided — and it seems to be an either/or kind of thing. Whatever. The horns, here in iPod white, were matched to what looked like reflex-loaded bamboo cubes, sporting the single black mid/woofer driver, and sat astride a three-legged tripod in matching white. 95dB and 8Ω means “tubes” to me, and that’s precisely what was driving them, so all was right with the world.
I thought the sound was dynamic in just the way that only horns seem to manage, but while the tube-tone came singing through, the room had enough challenges that made any kind of evaluation problematic. C’est la vie.
Definitely one of the most eye-catching rooms at the show, though.
Just so long as looks never take precedence over the sound…
I’m torn about this.
The “purist” in me says that everything is subservient to sound quality.
The realist in me says that this is bollux, and that looks matter. Especially when we’re talking these prices.