Introduction Article of Cardinal XS on Tube Kingdom VOL.7 by Mr.Tadaatsu Atarashi

Very carefully selected high grade parts are used in Cardinal XS which has extremely simple circuit. Due to excellent OPT,Cardinal XS has very rich bass.

Wavelength Audio ia a tube amplifier maker located in Cincinnati ,Ohio.

Mr.Gordon Rankin is the founder,president and chief engineer.

Wavelength Audio was founded right after his graduation of

Ohio Northern University Electrical Engineering Dept.in 1981.

Cardinal XS is a 300B single ended monoblock power amplifier.

It's circuit is very simple--ultra simple ,I dare to say.

It uses carefully selected high grade parts.For example custom

made MagneQuest power trans and output trans,RCA input jack and

output terminal by Cardus,IEC power code,etc.

First stage is SRPP by 6SL7GT which drives 300B by CR coupled circuit.

Power supply section uses GZ34(5AR4) as rectifier.

Filter condensers are film condensers (Solen) [JGR actually these are SCR not Solen],no electrolitic

condensers are used .Solen [JGR actually these are SCR not Solen] is also used as cathode by pass of 300B.

Cardinal XS uses custom made version of MagneQuest FS-030(OPT)

[silver wire is partially used] which determines the sound quality of this amplifier.

Output impedance is 4 ohm or 8 ohm which can be selected by selecter switch.

Input impedance is fixed and it has no gain control.

We tested Cardinal XS using

• speaker B&W 801S3
• CD player Studer A730
• level control 600 ohm T type attenuater
• output tube new WE 300B (1997 made)
• AC line 115V/50hz

First impressions is Cardinal XS has very high quality sound.

Schubert Impromptsu played by Mitsuko Uchida sounded with very sophisticated and beautiful expressions.

I felt as if I were listening to it in the best seat of concert

hall in Wien. I stopped evaluating this amp but devoted myself to

listening to Schbert music.

Cardinal XS has excellent bass reproduction capability which

usual SE amps do not have.This excellent bass reproduction

capability is brought by excellent output trans.

Cardinal XS has beautiful sound which enrich the heart of listeners.

Cardinal XS reflects the personality ,culture of the designer, his passion to excellent amp making,his sense of music.

This excellent amp got Best Components Award (1994) of Absolute Sound magazine.