Woo Audio’s Jack Wu was in person to debut his new Woo Audio WA23 Luna amp ($9,000), which he paired with Abyss’ new Diana TC planar headphones ($4,495). Only minimal information was available on Wu’s new amp, but he revealed the following: The WA23 Luna is an unbalanced triode design that can be used as a headphone amp or preamplifier. Power ratings remain a secret, but Wu said the Luna is a high-gain point-to-point design. It draws watts from a pair of Electro Harmonix 2A3 power tubes; also on board are two 6C45 pilot tubes and a 5U4G rectifier tube. It can fly a variety of headset designs, Wu said.

Wrapped in aluminum and finished in black with gold accents, the 40lb Luna and its linear power supply looked fantastic. By design, the large, gold-tinted Alps RK50 volume potentiometer is visible through the chassis. Below the volume control, three small knobs adjust the choice of preamp or headphone amp, high or low impedance, high or low gain, and input. A fourth three-position button toggles between three inputs, two RCA and one XLR.

Built in Long Island City, New York (once the home of Fisher and other hi-fi brands), the WA23 Luna has classic visual appeal, not least because of its two prominent Coke bottle 2A3 tubes.

The Abyss Diana TC headphones also possess a classic visual appeal. To this reporter, they look like ’70s Quad gear, from the understated color and understated design to its mesh European leather sweatband — “with soft Alcantara,” the website says — and shells. earcups with “high-tech ceramic polymer finish.” It comes with a 1.5m JPS Labs cable.

The Diana TC is specified at a nominal impedance of 69 ohms and a sensitivity of 90 dB/mW. Its 63mm planar drivers are complemented by a sleek outer shell design: an “improved Fibonacci side-hole pattern for the new TC driver properly tunes the sound while following the flow of nature,” the site notes. website.

On “Burn the Witch” by Radiohead via the duo Woo/Abyss, the sound was enormous. Thom Yorke and Co wrapped around my skull on an open, clean and immersive soundstage. I was tempted to buy, borrow, or steal the show’s samples, but a cooler head prevailed.—Ken Micallef