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In use, the Sub One is the real overachiever. Early on into the investigations, a friend had sent a link to a brief animated clip. It's about an alien abduction gone hilariously wrong which had played in local theaters ahead of Ratatouille. The sound effects include very low bass such as you'd expect for Hollywood versions of stealthy submarines sneaking into enemy waters. Until my glass desk top started vibrating, I was completely oblivious of what was to come. I'm talking well below forty music hertz, i.e. synth terrain which most acoustic instruments won't enter. Hello.

Realizing that this was serious weaponry at least on the desktop, I reached for Mercan Dede's 800 [DoubleMoon 53700422]. Would I get confirmation beyond infrasonic drones, ominous atmosphere and interstellar takeoffs? You bet. Low, taut, dry and damped was the verdict, without any of the boom and virtual dust showers lesser bass box wannabes suffer; nor any of the ringing ported designs incur. Comparing the higher-pitched table trills to the octave-shifted rolls of bigger drums made the point. The gestalt was the same, with no loss of focus or articulation in the lower registers. And yes, at happy levels it was "hands off" the keyboard since my forearms on the table absorbed all the mechanical ruckus that bled into the glass from the downfiring passive radiator.

Make no mistake then, the Glow subwoofer is the real deal. Once heard with it, the Voice Ones solo become far less impressive and anemic. My low-pass setting for the Sub One sat at 75Hz, speakers unfiltered. That high value tells you that for wide bandwidth aka modern music, a 'fullranger' with a cone diameter smaller than a table spoon simply isn't sufficient. No surprise there. It simply rendered Patrick Tang's enthusiasm for just the speaker that of a proud daddy or pushy salesman, not a harcore audio enthusiast who can hear what all is missing.


Down low, cone surface rules. It explains why the doubled-up drivers of the Sub One have more kick and energize more profoundly than the equivalent efforts by NuForce and Qinpu reviewed recently. Of the three, the Glow subwoofer is the most expensive but justifiably so. As subwoofer rather than bass filler, it's the only one to live up to its billing in earnest. With it in the loop, you can play the most beastly bass whoppers in your collection and not feel shortchanged (still on the desk top). To be sure, this isn't just quantity (extension) but quality (control and damping).

Comparing the Glow Audio system with the Voice Ones vs. the Qinpu system anchored by their $249 V1.8s with even smaller but paralleled 2-inch drivers, one visible, the other not and vented through a miniature 'Tractrix horn' port, the Qinpu rig conveys more energy and directness, sounding faster and more open-throated. The Voice One sounds warmer and woodier. You notice this particularly on strings, be they en masse and bowed or solo and plucked. The Glow sound with the Amp One is nicely rounded and very listenable over the long haul but subdued on jump factor, incision power and subjective separation. Put differently, resolution and speed are traded for warmth and comfort.

This isn't due to the Voice Ones but the Amp One. Replacing it with the €220 Dayens Ampino 25-watt transistor integrated from Serbia -- a giant killer in the absolute sense if ever I met one -- instantly drove the above system up the resolution and energy ladder by quite a few rungs.

A few things occured at once. Lateral staging opened up and the overall scale of sonic events expanded. Bass firmed up even more and its amplitude increased to require a substantial adjustment on the Sub One's attenuator. Clarity, articulation and attack power increased across the entire audible bandwidth including the treble. And, the Voice Ones turned out endowed with just a hint of peppery bite in the upper midrange, far from objectionable but audible as a minor feistiness. This orientation into freshness was completely obscured by the EL84 amp. You could rightly say the two were made for each other. Which is true. But the Amp One obscures rather more than just that minor presence region lift. It's an altogether slower and cozier proposition that lowers the amount of 'fi' in high fidelity.


At twice the price of the Ampino and just 1/5th its power -- the Dayens actually makes 40 watts into 4 ohms -- the Amp One for all its appeal is actually quite outclassed. However, it does retort with the USB DAC and headphone socket. Kevin Halverson's new $99 Streamer would be ideal to assess how good Glow Audio's USB DAC is. There's also the little Calyx Kong recommended by Christine Han of April Music.
When those contenders arrive, their reviews will include comparisons to the Amp One's built-in DAC. But because the latter can't be extricated to leash to a more resolved amplifier, the true distinguishing traits of the High Resolution Technologies and Calyx units will naturally encounter the same obscuration effect. Of the three components making up the Glow Audio system, the most expensive is also the weakest. Whether ultimately the speakers or subwoofer come in first is hard to gauge. Morel and Gallo to mention just two offer small spherical satellites to compete against the Voice One. Importantly, theirs come with proper stands. At present, Glow Audio's lack thereof is the greatest handicap for its speaker. Yamamoto of Japan makes very beautiful wooden stands for such applications but you really expect a purveyor of 'computer speakers' to offer their own. Were the threaded inserts on the bellies of the Voice Ones not angled outward to create a monster footprint with the speaker atop far taller stilts, a simple swap of the present footers for longer ones would neatly solve the problem.


As is, the Sub One here really is the completely dialed proposition that's free of any criticism in its class. The speaker needs a proper lift in height to become fit for desk-top duty. The amp is a perfectly legit and affordable entry into the world of tubes. It delivers exactly what one would expect - a warm, pleasant, fulsome sound that's free of etch and fatigue to score high on so-called musicality if less so on ultimate resolving power. The unanswered question was, would the Glow Audio system translate to regular hifi duty set up in the middle of a room as Patrick Tang insisted it could? After my experiments in the office, I was doubtful with the EL84 amp, anticipatory with the Serbian transistors.

The Ampino was the bomb (it handles my big ASI Tango Rs like a champ as its feature review will detail). Without equivocating, these little speakers with their petite but very potent sub make it into the big times of the living room. When appropriately powered. To my ears, the Amp One is underpowered. Make no mistake, it'll play loud enough. But amplitude need not equal control or ideal working operations. In the above space, the Dayens amp merely increased its lead over the former desk-top comparison and this not as a function of greater loudness (though it patently had far more headroom).

No, the clear lead was in articulation, image focus, elan, rhythmic drive. With the Amp One, the same tunes sounded slower, woolier, sleepier. Opaque. Based on its headphone performance over my highly efficient audio-technica ATH-W1000s (very good), I became suspicious that the Amp One even in the nearfield was a bit underpowered for its own speaker mates. Again, the 'under' in power relates not to achieving desired sound pressure. It does relate squarely to lacking the effortless definition, greater detail retrieval and broader staging these speakers are clearly capable of.

In a follow-up email, Patrick Tang agreed on the importance of a proper stand and indicated that design work on one has already begun. Whether that's to replace my massive WLM stands above (or whatever equivalent a current customer would use); or whether it will be a far shorter solution for the table top wasn't clear.


Wrap
I'm no expert on such little systems but recent investigations into competing rigs by NuForce and Qinpu do present some context. Against that background, I consider the Glow Audio Sub One the perfect example of what a Realsization Award winner is all about. Given that one main appeal of small systems is life style where cosmetics become far more important than for hardcore audiophiles who claim to not care, the cosmetic disconnect between Sub and Voice Ones is hard to swallow. It's thus a likely impediment to the cause (the black speaker option closes the gap). The footer issue impacts performance on the desk top and remains to be solved. With a proper support that raises this speaker to ear level; and if augmented by the Sub One (or a competing subwoofer); the Voice One is a very persuasive specimen of the no-crossover breed. Without bass support however, anyone familiar with good audio will quickly be left wanting. If you come from the usual crappy plastic squawkers of course, you'll be well ahead of the game. As usual, it's all relative.
Which leaves Glow Audio's maiden and now improved product, the EL84 integrated. (One unmentioned improvement is how the tube grill is secured. It now simply straddles the grab rails, then screws to the chassis as shown. Two bigger holes in the perf pattern align perfectly to undo them with a long screw driver. Afterwards, you'll likely not redo the screws. Simply park the cover on the amp. It won't rattle or bounce and runs two felt strips to protect the lacquer. A functional improvement still to be made is to relocate the USB input to the left cheek, then spread out the remaining socketry to create more space between the RCA jacks and left binding posts. At present, it is awfully crammed back there particularly when the Sub One enters the picture. Two, add a pre-out to allow low-level connection to the Sub One - but return to the crammed connections.)
The Amp One's simultaneous appearance with the 'unknown' Dayens amplifier at half the coin simply wasn't terribly advantageous to Glow Audio. As always, it's what you compare something to that impacts the balance. The Amp One's real appeal resides in what it packages: a headpone amp, speaker amp and USB converter run off valves. If you meet it with expectations reared on the usual PC audio electronics, you'll be stoked. If you come from a good living room system and know about the Dayens Ampino for just one example, you won't be. 'nuff said. It's no soft-pedaling or writer's trick however to close this report out on a bona fide high note. Glow Audio's Sub One is beautifully built, superbly attractive in its anthrazite/bamboo skins and classy brass footers. Most vitally, it performs exactly like a musical subwoofer should even in a big room - quick, properly damped, powerful, without bloat, ring or sloppiness and good into the low 30s. That it manages to do all that for $408 delivered globally is shocking. It truly is. Bravo.
Quality of packing: Good.
Reusability of packing: Multiple times.
Ease of unpacking/repacking: Easy.
Condition of component received: Perfect.
Completeness of delivery: Power cords, replacement rings to go without grills, footers for the speakers.
Ease of assembly: Screwing in the tripod stand-offs into the speakers is the extent of it.
Website comments: Informative and easy to navigate.
Human interactions: Prompt and forthcoming.
Pricing: Very competitive on Voice One and Sub One, good on Amp One.
Final comments & suggestions: The Voice One is a speaker still looking for a stand (both freestanding and desk top). While most its color options match the equivalent Amp One options, the Sub One doesn't match at all. Run off the Amp One, the Sub One can only connect high-level. The Amp One would benefit from relocating the USB input on the right side, then widening the spacing between the rear-panel connectors to ease cable installations. In absolute terms, the load and efficiency of the Voice One do not seem perfectly matched to the low power delivery and damping of the Amp One.
Glow Audio website