Hi-fi is changing its mind

FiiO is best known for portable players, DACs and the little dongles people plug into their phones. It is a modern digital audio company, which makes its decision to build an 18kg valve amplifier rather interesting.

The new EA13 has four EL34 output valves, two NOS Sylvania PCF80s and custom output transformers. There is no DAC, no streamer and no app. It produces 18 watts per channel before distortion rises beyond 1%, gets extremely hot and costs $769 in the US.

John Darko found that it gave music more presence, urgency and instrumental body than the solid-state amplifiers he compared it with. He also measured the EL34s at 100°C after an hour, so this is not a story about old technology being perfect.

The interesting question is why a company like FiiO would make it at all.

FiiO knows how to put streaming, Bluetooth, touchscreens and software into a product. It has chosen not to. Instead, it has built something that would have made sense in 1959, refined it where useful and left the basic idea alone.

That is familiar territory for us.

Lowther has spent nearly a century developing loudspeakers around a light moving assembly, high sensitivity and a single drive unit. The materials, magnets and manufacturing have continued to improve, but the philosophy has remained remarkably consistent.

Restored 1970’s Acousta 115

The point is not to reject new technology. It is to know what problem you are trying to solve before adding more of it.

On paper, the EA13 is the kind of low-powered amplifier that makes sense with a sensitive loudspeaker. I have not heard it with a Lowther, so I am not going to pretend I know how that particular combination sounds. What interests me is that FiiO has made the choice available in the first place.

It is not the only company looking backwards to move forward.

At the first High End show in Vienna, Klipsch and OJAS built a listening room inside a shipping container. Their new kO-R2 speakers use a large sand-cast horn above a cabinet containing a 15-inch woofer. They resemble an Altec Voice of the Theatre system from the 1950s, but this is a new loudspeaker, limited to 600 pairs and designed for people buying hi-fi now.

The system was driven by a hybrid Silbatone amplifier, with a Garrard 301-based record player at the front. Elsewhere at the show, the Verdier turntable range had returned, Audio Note was playing its Meishu valve amplifier and Klipsch was showing its 80th Anniversary Klipschorns.

Over in California, Shakuto Audio has built a new 97dB loudspeaker around genuine vintage Altec 811B horn flares. The horns are restored and paired with modern drivers, cabinets and crossovers. TONEAudio tried them with 20 watts of KT88 valve amplification and immediately started talking about 2A3s, 300Bs, First Watt amplifiers and old receivers.

These products are very different, but the priorities behind them feel connected.

Lowther PM range, unbeaten since the 1940’s

For years, much of hi-fi has moved towards smaller speakers, more amplifier power and greater digital control. That has brought real benefits. Systems are easier to install, streaming has made an enormous amount of music available and DSP can solve problems that would once have required rebuilding a room.

But every choice changes the relationship between the parts.

As speakers become less sensitive, amplifiers need to become more powerful. As more functions move into software, products become dependent on updates, platforms and services outside the owner’s control. Something becomes easier today, but potentially harder to keep for twenty years.

The products appearing now suggest that some listeners and manufacturers are reconsidering that balance. They are interested in efficiency, simpler signal paths and equipment that can be maintained.

That does not mean everybody suddenly wants enormous horns and glowing valves in the living room. It means the definition of progress may be changing.

The question is becoming less about how much technology can be fitted into a system and more about how much is actually needed.

The FiiO EA13 is simply what made me notice it. A digital audio company has built an amplifier with no digital audio inside. Around it, old horn designs are being restored, established turntables are returning and new high-sensitivity speakers are finding an audience.

Maybe we’re the cool kids again. As always let me know your thoughts by replying.We read them all.

Next week Mike is back with ECM part 4! SAX APPEAL!

Until then keep listening.

Pete

Sources: FiiO EA13 review, Darko.Audio · Brilliant Corners #42, Stereophile · Shakuto Audio A811b-12, TONEAudio