8,-2/THE REMARKABLE
STORY OF NWAVGUY
AND THE O2
HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER
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In 2011, a man who went by the online handle
of NwAvGuy started making controversial posts
about audio equipment on various Hi-Fi forums. I’m
assuming he’s a man because of his
nickname, but we’ll probably never
know because his identity was
never revealed.
Users criticizing or disparaging
products aren’t new on Hi-Fi
forums. It happens every day.
What made NwAvGuy different
was that he was able to back up his
claims with evidence. He showed
members that some manufacturers’
equipment were not living up to
their speciï cations at all. In the
end, his posts caused such a stir
that he was banned on a couple of forums; most notably
Head-Fi.
If backing up your claims with evidence wasn’t enough,
he even designed his own portable headphone ampliïer
called the O2 headphone ampliï er, also known as the
Objective 2 headphone ampliï er. Objective because he
believed in objective tests over subjective listening.
The O2 ampliï er was designed with two goals in mind:
to be affordable and to offer high levels of performance.
In fact, if you were handy with tools, you could order the
components online and build your own for under US$150.
And its speciï cations could put many more expensive
headphone ampliï ers to shame.
NwAvGuy was so conï dent about his design that he
issued an open challenge to anyone who could present
him with a portable headphone ampliïer that cost up to
US$450, and could record better measured performance
than his O2 headphone ampliï er. No one came forward.
The design of the O2 ampliï er was even made
available for manufacturers to produce for free. One
company that did so was Epiphany Acoustics in the UK.
And their implementation of the O2 was so good that it
won Hi-Fi World magazine’s Best Headphone Ampliïer
of the Year award for 2012. The O2
ampliïer is still immensely popular
today, especially amongst budget-
conscious audiophiles.
NwAvGuy became a hero to
audiophiles everywhere who
did not have fat pockets and
who were getting jaded with
the ever increasing prices that
manufacturers were charging.
But then NwAvGuy disappeared.
He stopped posting on his blog and
the manufacturers he was working
said he stopped responding to
emails. No one knows what happened, but it is said that
he is well, because his domain NwAvGuy.com continues
to be renewed every year. No matter what, NwAvGuy’s
legacy will live on forever in the audio world.ľ=0-1hbm]rou
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Unfortunately, the award-winning Epiphany Acoustics
has closed shop, but there are other stores where you
can get your own O2 amp, designed to NwAvGuy’s
speciȴ cations. One of them is the Objective2 from JDS
Labs, which comes in both black and silver editions.38 +:0 | MAY 2017