Fi: The Magazine of Music and Sound is a component that should be added to every sound system. Featuring the world's best writing on audio and music, Fi brings readers more of what really matters. For subscription information call (800) 779-HIFI (4434) or write to:   Fi: The Magazine of Music and Sound P.O. Box 16747 North Hollywood, CA 91615-97644

As seen in the November 1997 issue of Fi Magazine of Music & Sound

All You Need: 8 Watts and a Simple Speaker

By Joe Roberts

One of the fundamental laws of audio system-building is that given enough space and money, a real audio nut could use up all the space and all the money, then take out a loan to get more space and money and use all that, too.

However, anybody who has heard a few mega-systems or built any himself learns that the challenges of music reproduction cannot be solved simply by throwing cubic meters of fancy equipment in the general direction of the problem. The concept of "less is more" is most significant for those who have tried their luck up at the "more" end of the continuum.

The healthy trend toward minimal tube amplifier circuits and simple speakers among enthusiasts who've been around the track a few times suggests that relevant lessons are being learned. However, the idea of physically small as a positive value remains a somewhat novel concept in the tube gear market. There may be some simple low-power stuff out there now, but most of it is still as big or bigger than the boss-hog pseudo-rack-mount tube amps of the 1980s.

From the tubehead perspective, low profile as cool was always meant for an entirely different segment of the specialist audio market, like the British silicon-state integrated blokes. Tube gear usually seems intentionally geared to attract the

"Hi Honey, look what followed me home" crowd.

Wavelength Audio's Gordon Rankin, purveyor of rather excessive monoblock single-ended triode amplifiers, deserves to shoulder some blame for encouraging system-builders to think large, with predictably tragic results.

Take Fi's poor Editor Jon Valin for exampleone week he was blissfully listening to a pair of Wavelength Napoleons with those XXL tuba-looking Avantgarde horns in his living room and the next week he's renting a separate place down the street for his listening pad. Right on, Kathy! [My long-suffering wife-JV.] Stand up for domestic tranquillity. Kick the tube-crazy bum out!

From what I hear, Rankin is pretty nuts with the gear accumulation, too. Hey Gordon, send me some of that excess equipment on long-term loan or I'll slide Kelly [Gordon's long-suffering wife-JV] Mrs. Valin's phone number!! Heh, heh, heh.

On the other hand, I can relate to Jon's fetishistic mania for this stuff. It's taken me at least ten or twelve years to begin to process the obvious fact that it is easier to downsize the system than upsize the room-and, yes, I went to college and I own a tape measure. In fact, I used it to make sure the door on my new house was wide enough to let my refrigerator-sized 15" Altec bass cabinets pass through before I signed the mortgage note.

The latest entry from Wavelength is a $2k petite integrated amplifier called the Junior. Amazingly, the whole thing is stuffed into a two-inch-high brushed-stainless chassis that measures a mere 14" W and 10" D. Puny almost. Smaller than my Rega Planet CD player and a fraction of the size of my 1950's REL FM tuner. Most powerline conditioners are bigger than this minuscule speck of an amp.

Gordon claims that the proverbial target buyer for the Junior is sick and tired of looking at racks of accumulated audio junk and fields of glowing monoblocks-a man ready to come to his senses and downsize. He says that the Junior has been selling well to apartment-dwellers, second-system builders, and fed-up tube-o-holics in a spring cleaning mode. One downsizer just cleared out a mountain of Jadis gear, bought a Junior, and he's happy now with just a CD player and the amp. A small, high-quality tube amp serves many lifestyle goals, and I think it was smart marketing to go that way.

Since most music listeners are listening to line level sources these days, why bother with a separate preamp? An amp with a volume control and a selector switch at the input is really all you need. Where's the sense in investing in elegant minimalist amp circuits then tripling the system parts count with a preamp?

By the time you add a few extra boxes and several sets of interconnects to the input chain, the purist goal of minimal violence to the signal is out of radio range. Even ultra-simple passive line stages introduce a lot of self-defeating hookup complexity. With the Junior you have two active stages between your CD and your speakers. It don't get no simpler than that.

The manufacturer's scheme here seems to be to keep the quality high and the profile low. As if to emphasize the compact packaging, the Junior strikes the eye as a no-nonsense functional sort of device that uses all the space it occupies. That stainless chassis is a classy touch, much cooler than the usual generic black powder-coat finish-more timeless, anyway. Circles of ventilation holes around the tubes, two ribbed metal knobs, and an old fashioned analog bias meter on the front panel give Junior a classic apparatus look, calculated to drive the hardware geeks wild with understatement.

The only external features that give away that this is 1997 and not 1957 are the three different color LEDs used to indicate channel selection. The sculpted exotic wood side cheeks were a tasteful home decor touch that did a lot to make the amp look expensive; but in keeping with the practical theme, I'd say save a tree and saw $100 bucks off the MSRP.

The unpretentious and purposeful appearance of the Junior reflects the overall design concept that led to the device being the minimalist cutie that it is. Two channels of audio circuitry only take three tubes-one 6BQ5 miniature pentode and half of a 12AY7/6072A dual triode per side. In accordance with received minimalist design practice, the power supply gets the extra attention and the audio path is kept as straightforward as possible-two tubes per channel, essentially.

A lot of people-and I'm one of 'em- will tell you that a tube rectifier is a must if you want the ease and sense of flow that tubes are famous for. I was happy to see that Junior not only used tube rectifiers, Gordon splurged on a pair of 6X4s!

Using two rectifiers in parallel to lower supply impedance and insure 50% derated operation for longevity is a rather extravagant feature when most amps take the much cheaper silicon-diode route. Some may prefer the crisp, detailed sound that solid-state diodes put forth, but if you are looking for the ultimate tube liquidity, you know what to look for.

Good sign: there's a choke in the power supply when 99% of amp shoppers wouldn't have known the difference if Gordon had just used a 59¢ sand resistor, instead. Chokes aren't free and that cash could have gone into the Wavelength new car account instead of the chassis. So, although the amp is from the minimalist camp, there is nothing scrimped-down about it that I can detect.

Few buyers value these kinds of obscure technical niceties but they are precisely the behind-the-scenes things that make a big difference to your ears. For a committed audio nerd like "Mr. Pocket Protector" Rankin, this kind of stuff is a life and death matter, not to be trifled with.

As a stereo Class A amplifier with two steaming tube rectifiers, the Junior has the thermal presence of a good tube amp. The screen regulator and DC filaments (12AY7/6072A) supply inside the box throw off a few BTUs of their own, but the Junior still doesn't compete with transmitting tubes or PP-parallel 6550s for weenie roasting or spectacular light show action. With five mini-tubes total, I'd say it is just hot enough to get the point across that it is a genuine tube amp without overplaying the issue.

Yes, the Junior is a single-ended amp. So what? The term is so inclusive that it is virtually meaningless in sonic terms. All that single-ended means is that you use only one output device per side, unless you want to use more, and that definition covers a vast, as-yet-largely-uncharted territory of possible designs and sonic results.

In the case of the Junior, an amp that uses pentodes with a dash of global feedback instead of zero feedback power triodes, the buzzword is particularly unjust. The Junior is what it is. It's its own thing. Comparing it to something like an SE triode amp is like comparing apples and oranges.

Indeed, the damn SE triode amps themselves are so different sounding that it is useless to try to generalize about them. They run the metaphorical gamut from sludge to razor blades and everything in-between.

While Wavelength's other amps are of the famous no-feedback directly-heated-triode variety that are all the rage, the Junior incorporates a few design features that virulent triode snobs may sniff at, such as that minimal 3 dB of dreaded negative feedback I just mentioned. Has Rankin lost his mind?

Who's to say? All I know is that this amp is dead quiet, even with my ear pressed up against a 97-dB-efficient Lowther cone. And it sure seems to have the full-range control which feedback is said to assist. And it's not totally bleached of harmonic content as the NFB-phobics might suspect. C'mon fellas, we're talking only 3 dB of feedback here. If there is any such thing as a rational amount of NFB, this is it.

And the tubes6BQ5s were the mainstay of CBs, table radios, and cheap guitar amps, unbefitting a set of refined ears used to the dulcet tones of WWII surplus triodes with 1945 date-stamps, initially destined for aircraft transmitters.

Well, given that Gordon knows the difference and chose to pursue the Chanel #4 route instead of his signature boutique scheme, I say let's hear him out.

First off, if you're looking for the special midrange color and silvery highs of a 300B amp, get a 300B amp. The flavor of this particular feedback SE pentode amp is slanted toward the light, airy, high-definition end of the continuum rather than the delicious, dramatic, larger-than-life scenery projected by the famous high-dollar directly heated triodes.

Now, I appreciate the dense feminine magic of a good SE triode amp, but the lively bite and snap and sense of control that the Junior maintains throughout the audible range has a listening appeal of equal magnitude. In fact, the sense of purity and realism this amp delivers was a total shocker for me.

I have heard quite a few SE amps that sounded gorgeous-and I'd put the Wavelength Cardinal 300B in that desirable category-but it's much harder to find an amp that sounds as fresh, unprocessed, and unconstrained as the Junior does. And although realistic to the max, it avoids the boring, washed-out effect that many so-called "neutral" amps pawn off as "accuracy." That is a rare and desirable achievement in my book.

The Junior definitely has a dash of tube flavor, but as a pentode amp with regulated screen supplies and around 3 dB of negative feedback, it's a different flavor than one could expect to enjoy from SE NFB triode amps. There's a bit of tube midrange enhancement but just a bit, enough to bring out the vivid and colorful aspects of music without sounding noticeably colored in any way-a sophisticated, subtle, and intriguing presentation that kept me listening with my jaw partially agape. Like a good jazz solo, the Junior sounded both comfortably familiar and shockingly new at the same time.

Yeah, I'm the guy who reads the vapid overused buzzword "accurate" as "etched and malnourished," but I'm sure that a lot of listeners would prefer the Junior's brand of crisp and vivid realism to the romantic excesses of some of the average quality $2K SE triode amps out there.

While doing your calculations, keep in mind that you could retube the Junior fifteen times for the price tag of a single matched pair of fancy uptown power triodes. There are plenty of premium 6BQ5 variants around for relative peanuts, including NOS European EL84s and USA-made 7189s that were manufactured by the millions in the old days. Every modern tube-producing country makes some variation of 6BQ5 and they are all affordably priced. That takes the sting out of any perceived esoterica deficit. You'll never wind up in a bidding war with a Japanese audio cartel over a pair of 6BQ5s when you need to retube.

Aside from the economy power tubes, the Junior is actually quite an esoteric little beast. Transformers are top-dollar hand-wound M6-core jobs from MagneQuest. The 8 watt outputs are wound on a lamination stack adequate for a healthy 40 watt push-pull trans. Expensive Rubycon Black Gate electron transfer caps are used for bypasses where most amps in this class would use cheap electrolytics. Believe me, Gordon's hobby is trying out every tweak electronic part you can buy, so you know that he experimented a lot to come up with the recipe he finally settled on. I really liked the taste.

It's depressing to think that people routinely blow $2000 in fluorescent-lit chain stores on junky offshore digital-ready crap when the same credit card bill would purchase a hand-crafted great-sounding tube amp built with premium quality parts, forethought, and love.

I'd better mention for the record that Gordon Rankin is a buddy of mine.

If I didn't like this amp, I would have sent it back to my pal Gordon with some bogus polite excuse to preserve our valued comradeship. As it turned out, I'll just cite the Junior as one more reason why I hang out with the guy.

Manufacturer

Wavelength Audio

4539 Plainville Rd.

Cincinnati, OH 45227

513-271-4186

Price: $2000

Associated Equipment: CD Player: Rega Planet

Speakers: Lowther PM-6A, Tannoy D-50, KEF RDM-2

Wires from Kimber, Nirvana, Hovland, and Rega

Accessory: VansEvers Cleanline power conditioner

Fi: The Magazine of Music and Sound is a component that should be added to every sound system. Featuring the world's best writing on audio and music, Fi brings readers more of what really matters. For subscription information call (800) 779-HIFI (4434) or write to:

Fi: The Magazine of Music and Sound

P.O. Box 16747

North Hollywood, CA 91615-97644