Customer Reactions

 

The VIB-ONE (received 6-10-2002)

Dear John,

A week after purchasing the VIB-One I have to tell you that the result is fatastic! The imaging improved and is more relaxed, when before I didn't think it was too exited. Upon removal of the platter it became obvious that the improvement is realistic: with the Vib-One the sound seems less in volume, more precise in details and more spacious. If an improvement like this has to be achieved by installing a new CD-player it might cost a few thousand dollars. In short, the improvement is clear and relatively cheap.

Rudo Meijer

HB-20

Wormerveer 14-11-02

Mr. J.v/d.Sluis

I'm very happy with my HB-20 amplifier! The sound is really "open" and not attached to the loudspeakers. Altogether the sound is beautiful, voices also are reproduced nicely.

Regards
Peter Gorter.

MP-DAC III in Belgium (16-11-2002)

Dear John,

It's working!!!!!! And what sound!!! Now I've been listening constantly for over four hours. I more and more enjoy the MP-DAC. I just can't wait to be able to listen to ALL my CD's, because now I really can hear EVERYTHING what's on the disc. With Tracey Chapman playing I now heard that two different people in the public are singing along, before I thought it was only one and/or I didn't here that at all!

And thanks again for all your help. Right now I'm saving money for the next kit. Things like these are not available from a shop.

Best Regards

Wim

Update received 23-5-2003

John,

I hardly get lyrical, but the upgrade for the DAC really is worth while, a must for everyone.
Regards Wim Sliggers

A-50 received 26-9-2003

Last weekend I finished building both A-50 amps and now they're playing. When mounting, apart from a few things, I hardly had any problems.

And now the most important issue. The music. The immediate impression was the low frequencies and the taut bass. That's what was missing using my Focal loudspeakers. The highs though showed some hardness. After the amp had risen its temperature and a few extra measurements I just sat down.
Well, what's there to say. Remarkable highs, the tiniest detail is discernable. The hard highs from the beginning disappeared quite soon. Voices are natural and all are heard. The singers in the background are differating themselves allowing you to count them. Placement also is a lot better then with my old amp. The lows suddenly were there. I always thought my speakers lacked lows but now it's all there. Peter Gabriel performs as never before. Also the definition of the lows is perfect without any booming.

But what striked me most are the low-middles (around the crossover between low and mid frequencies) and all the details in the music. The cello on the Sting CD really is cool. And the drummer at Eric Clapton's Unplugged seems to be playing in my room.
So far I'm really satisfied and the investment really is worth while.
Jan

MP-DAC III received 9-10-2003

Dear John

I installed the MP-DAC and it plays perfectly together with the Meridian drive. When comparing it with the Meridian Dac there's more definition, more background, in short it's very musical and gives a nice atmosphere. I can hardly imagine that any other improvement is possible.

Regards
H.K. Eindhoven

VIB-TWO (received 20-10-2003)

A short reaction about the use of the VIB-TWO platters I bought from Hawk Audio as a vibration-free solution for my two Dynaudio nearfield monitors. Those platters do their job as a support for the loudspeakers near my computer monitor. Formerly the loudspeakers were placed on a wooden table generating vibrations even with rubber strips underneath.

The result with the VIB-TWO now is that the sound from the loudspeakers is cleaner, without perceptible vibrations in the table around 100 Hz. The stereo imaging now also is a lot better.

Hans I. (Hans runs a recording studio!)

HB-20 (received 2-1-2004)

Hearing is believing!

How I came to buy a HAWK HB 20 amplifier.

Being a serious music lover I'm also interested in improving the sound quality of recorded music reproduced in my living room.

I made a series of modifications to my chain of music reproducing equipment without a satisfying result. It all started with new self-built speakers. A transmission line for the lower frequencies, based on the Rogers Monitor, kevlar and soft dome units for mid and treble, a ribbon tweeter for the highest freqs and of course good components for the crossover filter.

The speakers seemed to be capable of reproducing a far better musical image than they did at the end of my speaker cables. So I replaced this cable for a good but affordable Monster Audio cable. It sounded better, but not good enough. I went on and also bought a better interlink (by Cardas Audio). Beautiful, but I still missed definition, the sense of "being there". It had to be the DAC, which was one of the first models of Meridian. I changed it for the latest model, the 566 with 24 bit resolution, with a Siltech digital interlink. A lot more definition and a far better stereo imaging was the result. A new laser unit on the Meridian 500 CD player was also a major improvement. But the best thing was yet to come.

While surfing the net I hit the site of HAWK audio products. Very interesting, this purist approach of the electronics used for music reproduction. My curiosity was triggered and I went to Sliedrecht (Netherlands) where I met John van der Sluis. He had a lot of stories about manufacturers of electronics and looked meaningful when I told him that I had played my music for many years through a Mission Cyrus II (with PSX). He predicted that the musical differences I would hear when using a HAWK amp would be dramatical. He claimed the HB 20 could outplay many so-called high-end high priced amps.

To be honest, when I first heard some of my own CD's on the HAWK tube-speakers (RMT) through the HB 20 I was not completely impressed. Sure, I could hear a lot of transparency, dynamics and lively stereo imaging, but the lower frequencies were not what I was used to.

But after that first listening session at Sliedrecht I came back to pick up the HB 20 for a weekend in my listening room at home. Home trial is a service offered by HAWK audio after paying a caution and a small rental fee.

I still was sceptical. After hearing and reading so many marketing talk about HiFi equipment I only believe what I hear to be an improvement under well known circumstances (that is at home).

After hooking up the HB 20 and a warming up period it happened: the musicians on my CD's came into my room from behind the curtain which had separated them from my ears for all those years!
What the HB 20 offered me was a holographic sound image, not attached to the speakers but "hanging" in my room, with a great sense of depth and presence of soloists. Well-recorded voices have a very natural timbre, with the right amount of "air" surrounding them. The bass is very deep and tight, controlled and as loud as you would expect from any high powered amp. The little bells, cymbals, brushes and all the other micro audio information is reproduced with ease and in the right proportions and tonal balance. Yet there is no sharpness or fatiguing treble lift. Even the delicate interaction of musicians in chamber music is audible.

The PCB view from the back side.

PCB as seen from above.

Klick on the pictures to see a larger image.

Believing the design philosophy of HAWK Audio products to use as few as possible electronic components, especially in the signal path, pays you back in musical and emotional experiences.
But hearing and believing faces you also with another problem: you have to build your own amp!
That should add another experience to the ones you get from your music: the satisfaction of (successfully) having put together the instrument, which is in the heart of your music reproduction chain. And of course the admiration of your friends who envy you for this craftsmanship!
OK, I know how to use a soldering iron, but I never worked on an entire printed circuit board! So I had some mixed feelings when I eventually took home a carton box containing the HB 20 kit with all the electronic parts and nuts and bolts.
But I must say, that everything is done to make the construction of your amp into a success.
The print board itself is of outstanding quality. The components are easy to recognize (if you know the difference between a Zener diode and a "normal" diode) and the manual is almost fool proof.
And if something should go wrong, HAWK audio gives you all the service and advice you need.
In my case, all went considerably well and I am listening now to a very musical electronic device, for which my appreciation is growing. Due to the burn-in period of about 4 weeks, the best is still to come….

I think the products of HAWK Audio deserve a far better place in the audio market than they appear to have. Maybe this customer reaction will contribute to that!

Peter van Moort
Zoetermeer
Holland

A-18 Mk III (received 5-4-2005)

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