Happy New Year, everyone! 2012 was by far our best year ever, at 430% revenue growth over last year. Incredible!
No surprise to us, “Erik” at Headfonia.com named the O2+ODAC combo his personal Product of the Year:
“I have heard and seen more gear in 2012 than in all the years before combined. For me, the rise, and subsequent disappearance, of NwAvGuy has probably been the most prolific event this year. Like it or not, the release of his maximum-value Objective2/ODAC combo (designed in 2011 but properly distributed in 2012) really shook up the scene and therefore deserves it’s place as my personal Product of the Year 2012…”
Well put. While we can’t claim absolute responsibility here, we ramped up production of the Objective2 and O2+ODAC combos in 2012 and the effect has been nothing short of amazing. NwAvGuy completely changed our business plans for the year, as well as my perspective on product development and customer recommendations. As the Objective2 gained popularity, we gained even greater respect for NwAvGuy’s contributions to the DIY scene, especially in the way of subjective bias.
A little surprise: Yes, we have black O2’s and O2+ODAC combos in stock. These have been available for a while now upon special request. We’ll add greater store visibility for the Black Edition O2 as soon as our knob supplier catches up.
Inventory Day
The end of the year is peak season for us, and that means two things. First, our production team is as busy as Santa’s elves. Second, we’re preparing for tax season. Part of this preparation is an annual Inventory count, in which we count everything in the office: chairs, computers, soldering irons, circuit boards, resistors, capacitors, IC’s, etc…
On the flip side of this enormously busy month, it’s equally important for us to reinvest spare cash in new equipment. We’d already acquired a CNC and laser engraver back in the summer. So in the name of NwAvGuy, we made one final acquisition in December–a PrismSound dScope Series III audio analyzer.
The dScope III is an amazingly powerful tool, which enables us to continue developing great products, with or without NwAvGuy.
We may find other uses for the dScope, aside from R&D. Rockford Fosgate ships unique test performance sheets with some of their car audio amps. Maybe some of you guys would like to see actual printouts of your new amplifier’s output? Tell us!
Thanks to everyone for another terrific year!
Can the (super slick) new black plates/knob be purchased standalone? The store shows the old silver ones.
Yes: http://www.jdslabs.com/item.php?fetchitem=O2FP
To be clear, I am asking if I can buy:
http://www.jdslabs.com/item.php?fetchitem=ML50CLR
http://www.jdslabs.com/item.php?fetchitem=O2FP
http://www.jdslabs.com/item.php?fetchitem=43
All in black, as in your picture. Only the front panel has an “option” for black, and the descriptions for the others sound like they are the original silver ones.
Actually both the front and back plates have options, but what about the knob? I suppose it’s available at digikey in any case.
We have a large batch of black knobs on order, and a few in stock. These will be listed in the store soon.
You can make a special request in the Order Notes during checkout for now.
That would be a pretty cool idea, publishing independent measurements on other manufacturers’ amps sent from customer. Yet, I’m not too sure about the ethical side of such practices (since the O2 is deliberately designed for measured performance, you would make multiple other more expensive competitors looks bad in comparison). Yet again, this may prove to be the wisest business decision ever.
Also, a large part of what makes NwAvguy’s opinion appealing is the lack of (at least, stated) financial interest behind his findings, which lessens the chance for bias. As your blog is obviously more bias-prone, the backlash may be stronger. I would suggest publishing only objective measurements without any subjective impressions, since that could get messy.
Myself, I would bring my Lake People down if I could (unfortunately, not in the near future). I am quite certain that the measurements won’t be as good as an O2, but my ears and my brain prefer it. Audio is a strange business.
Not quite what I was going for here. No, we wouldn’t continue NwAvGuy’s commentary/blogging. I completely agree with your take–it would be unethical for us to grade other manufacturers’ products. Our dScope will be used to design new products.
As for the last paragraph in my post, I was referring to measuring actual units being shipped to customers, and providing the customer with an amplifier “birthsheet” of actual measured performance. We’re not setup for this yet. Just gauging interest.
Thought that the measurements would be made publicly available, I wrote two paragraphs for nothing :sigh: If it’s only for private purposes then it is a brilliant idea.
Then again, with the internet and especially head-fi these days, individuals with huge axes to grind (there are a lot of them, each very vocal) may take advantage of your service. A reasonably restrictive terms of service, in my opinion, should be considered.
It IS still a brilliant idea though. I wish you success!
I’d definitely like a measurement sheet with a new amp purchase. I think that would totally differentiate you guys from other vendors, as well as continue the objective mentality and provide proof that the amp is to spec!
Does anyone know where NwAvGuy is? He hasn’t posted anything new in his blog since May 2012. Thanks
NwAvGuy is definitely MIA. Our good friend George Boudreau (ODAC board designer) sent him a courier letter in early December. The letter was signed for, but no reply. He must have his reasons.
Man, this bums me out.. I sure hope he makes a comeback sometime.. or like, at least posts something to explain his absence.
It’s not cool to just disappear, unless absolutely necessary.
@Chris: My feelings are the same. Interestingly, bursts of creativity and subsequent withdraw behavior are common amongst brilliant artists and designers.
I spoke with George Boudreau again last Monday. George claims to be one of two people in the DIY audio community who have NwAvGuy’s mailing address, and even George was given only his three initials (not even a first name!). George was asked to keep NwAvGuy’s initials and address strictly private, and he’s not even sure whether the address is a home or office.
More interesting was George’s story of ODAC development. He said that design of ODAC began after NwAvGuy had begun designing ODA. They exchanged emails rapidly for a few weeks. NwAvGuy suddenly stopped writing, disappeared for over three months straight without an explanation, and so George assumed ODAC and ODA were both dead projects! George commented that, “something serious” had happened which caused NwAvGuy to set his DIY contributions on the shelf (a family death, he believes).
Thus, it’s not absolutely certain that NwAvGuy will be gone forever. I’m sure he has his reasons.
Guaranteed NWAVGUY has been threatened by the Audiophile community or more likely the manufacturers. He was exposing these high profile companies for the thieves they are feeding off the middle class. His plans for the high powered ODA with in-built DAC could have been a game changer.
I’d really like to get to the bottom of this. We know that someone logged into his email accounts this spring to read emails (read receipts came back, no replies). And he’s signed for a physical letter that George Boudreau / YoyoDyne Consulting mailed.
If it didn’t seem like an invasion of NwAvGuy’s privacy, I’d urge Mr. Boudreau to hire a private investigator to reveal the full story. He’s one of the closest links we have to NwAvGuy.
I would absolutely love to have the PERFECT audio in my car. Heck, I would actually buy car speakers. Without it, car audio is totally and completely 100% blagh. Market is huge there. It should be an easy sell, and huuuuuuge market should it be priced right. [Hopefully] we can get people to catch on (!)
You could sell these to anybody, around the world! A mean prduct, ready for takeoff! If it catches on, OH B0Y I would (Yes)!
ODAC / O2 quality in the car = huge improvement over ostensible and uuubber questionable things that are in cars now,.
BUT FIRST AND FOREMOST! I WANT A NWAVUY STAT [for speakers and headphones] amp! As that would be the most irrefutable favor to the high end audio community we could impart and leverage for the good of humanity. That would be the amp that would make them more accessible and a bigger market for everyone.
(Hint: Hint: Something for QUAD 2805 – 2905 would be nice.) I kid, I kid, …. but Please.. I will help donate for your own set of ESL 28/2905. : S Just do it.
NwAvGuy, Thanks for dethroning Jude. At least making [what he represents] him come down from his perch. And helping all the fallacious little Head-fi threads at least for a half – 3/4 year tremble in fear at knowleage of the ODAC thrashing around. It was great. The product is and was great. Bechmark – ODAC. I LOVE IT! SR – 009 + ODAC + KGSSHV = clear, and BOOM BOOM BOOM. It is all but indiscernably a Benchmark Dac 1 (pre).
your grateful admirer and distant freind:
Hennyo: “That anonymous stat guy”.
Not sure what happened to NWAVguy but I remember reading in one of his posts that he has designed not to be disclosed electronics for not to be named employers so it might be possible that his employers (probably the military or some government agency or some such) told him to tone his public image down (even though we don’t know his real identity) aka stop running a blog that generates big waves on the Internet. Just a feeling I have, who knows.