Munich 2023

I was dashing past hundreds of exhibits in the four huge ground-floor exhibit halls of the MOC when Lab 12's exhibit caught my eye. On the recommendation of Herb Reichert, my audiophile buddy, Scott, bought the Lab 12 tube preamp shown above with Stratos Vichos, Lab 12's owner and designer, and forever sings its praises.

My initial intention was to simply snap a photo for Scott. But then I learned about the Naya ($TBD, probably around €3500–4000), Lab 12's forthcoming Hypex class-D power amplifier with built-in DAC and phonostage (above). Named for Vichos's oldest daughter, the amp, in his words, "can be very sweet as well as dynamic and wild. We are trying to keep the natural, non-fatiguing sound of tubes while opting for class-D for effective power of 100Wpc into 8 ohms." Although front panel aesthetics may change, its DAC will decode up to DXD. Vichos does not believe in DSD, and is currently unsure if the DAC will be do MQA Please stay tuned.