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The very best speaker match for the M1 were my Boenicke B10. Their opposed sidefiring twin 10ers produced plummy subwoofer bass under full control and deeply drawn colors (a nice joy ride was the Hector Zazou-produced Sevara Nazarkhan). So that's what I used for the finale. By now there was no surprise. The combination of L1 + M1 played as a like + like affair. It wasn't about an attraction of opposites. That's perfectly sensible. These designers see and speak with one voice, not a forked tongue. Each component reflects the same view on hifi priorities. Though I'm no analogue man as in vinyl, I'm familiar with the cadre's core complaint about digital audio. Like unripe fruit it lacks juiciness. Without invoking any other differences, I believe that haters of digital would find the WAL combo to be a very solid step in the right direction even when sourced by the devil's binary code.


It's become so commonplace to reference resolution as pixel count and rendering of micro detail. Yet shopping for a television screen you'll also be looking for color depth, contrast, black levels and an avoidance of flicker with close-spaced angled stripes. True resolution—showing what's there—would be all-inclusive. It's not just about counting the number of angels on the needle's tip. In the pixel-count sense the WAL gear isn't about ultra resolution and how that might relate to modern. This gear shares far more with my wooden Boenicke speakers; with the tonal mass aspect of the Zu or WLM credo; with Simon Lee's insistence that a very grounded bass foundation is vital (and his belief that an overabundance of detail is counterproductive); with the primary reason why many embrace valves at least somewhere in their signal path.

If you feel that today's hifi sound has become too obsessed with separation, transparency and treble illumination, WAL talks your language. The perhaps best way to put your finger on that is a scene in the Naomi Watts movie Diana. In the last two years of her life and before the final 26-day fling with Dodi Fayed ended in tragedy, the English princess had a lasting if very secretive affair with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan. On their first dinner date in the palace, Diana labors over the type of organic veggie dinner she expects might impress a health-conscious doctor. Finding it rather bland, Hasnat dares to ask for a hamburger instead. Caught short, Diana has her guard fetch one and good doc is in heaven diving into a burger dripping with juicy fat. Whether historical or not, the point is made. Six days a week, comfort food executed well satisfies us far more consistently than designer bistro fare can.
 
On my personal wish list would be a defeat toggle for the retina-burn amplifier LED so it can go dark like the preamp.
The WAL combo isn't the skinny movie vixen with the gravity-defying silicone. It's a naturally opulent dame slightly past her prime - gloriously fulsome, slightly lazy. This isn't the best at whisper levels where extreme lucid mode wins. Starting at slightly below standard levels however, its brand of lower midrange fullness kicks in en masse to unapologetically focus on the meat in the foreground. On a Hüsnü Senlendirici cut past the first bridge, recording trickery opens new virtual space behind the scene. This creates a café atmosphere with clanging dishes, the din of patrons and traffic noises past it. The WAL combo wasn't that keen on telegraphing this faux but coincident otherness. It instead injected solo clarinet and paralleled bass with additional color and mass. Primary action was the focus in the here & now. Background mood chicanery devolved into what Germans call Firlefanz. Irrelevant silliness in the there 'n' then.


I overwrote for emphasis but that's really the essence. Before I heard the combination, I was of a mind to reserve an award for the L1 headfi/preamp. I thought the amp good but not as special. Once I heard how the two reconfirmed and built up upon each other, it became clear. The award would have to honor this teamwork because the results are rare for pure transistor gear driven from modern digital sources. You could invoke classic Japan-bound Tannoy dual-concentrics. You could invoke the ASR Emitter amp. They inhabit the same sonic universe. To that Wow Audio Lab add jewelry cosmetics and compact form factors, then keep pricing grounded in the real world. What a discovery!

Wow Audio Lab website