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WK Audio The Red English ver.

Link do zapowiedzi (en): WK Audio The Red

Opinion 1

Many of us are aware that Hi-Fi, and especially High-End, is a very niche, if not an elite hobby, when we look at the price tags of the components interesting the golden-eared, becoming more and more terrified. And all the others are more or less consciously denying that knowledge. But the facts, well collected and professionally aggregated, do not lie. It turns out, that the last published poll in Poland in August 2018, by the company CBOS, paints a quite apocalyptic picture of our reality. At first glance things do not look bad, as 65% of the respondents declare they listen to music on a daily basis. The leader of the pack is the age range between 18 and 24 (77%), followed by 25-34 (75%) and 35-44 (70%). This means, that the older the questioned person was, the less he or she was inclined to listen to music. Regarding the sources of the music listened to, the paid streaming services account for 8%, CD/DVD for 14% and vinyl for 2%. A second study, conducted from 17 to 29 November 2020, called “Musical choices of the youth” by Kantar Polska S.A. and conducted on youngsters aged between 12 and 17 years, showed, that while 67% of them is listening to music at least once a week, yet they buy this music on physical media, only 10% is listening to files or streaming services. And please remember – this is per week! And things get even worse. Already the “Report from assessing the music market for the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage” from December 2013 showed, that “89% of the respondents listens to music online using a computer, and more than half (53%) using a smartphone”; while the source for that was in 65% YouTube and similar free services, while the streaming platforms had only 4% share. And now for the best part. Do you know, which percent of the responders uses a stereo system for listening to files downloaded from the Internet or to recordings available online? 26%. So we are a niche of a niche, a museum and a cabinet of curiosities locked under a glass dome of mannerisms. And it looks like this state of things does not bother us, as despite the late pandemic turmoil, the branch is doing surprisingly well, novelties are a plenty, and the problems, if any, are regarding the availability of the goods and not about people not being interested with them. But we are a quite hermetic bunch, so nobody should be surprised, that most of the offerings that reach the market, despite some unique assets attributable to specific manufacturers, still have a lot of things, that someone else already shown earlier, or we know from a different application. The balance between the proprietary and the copied becomes key. And this is the case we are looking at today, as we are taking a look at top power cord The Red from the Polish company WK Audio.

The construction, and the looks, being the result of the former, are completely different and the accents are placed differently, than with the model The Air, we tested before Christmas Eve in 2019. Even more, looking at the details, we could easily claim, that they are inconsistent, as it is well known, that a client once “caught” likes consistency within a brand, and sticking to once chosen principles. And here are practically none. Of course the wooden box is normalized and unified, also the cable is terminated with the sub-top (in the meantime a new set of plugs was introduced to market with the flagship PROJECT-V1) Furutech 50 NCF plugs, but all the rest has as much in common with its predecessor as a car with a cartridge. Instead of a standard twisted cable hidden under a single sheath, the top cable from WK Audio, The Red, has three individual, parallel runs, separated with aluminum separators and massive splitters, placed about a few centimeters from the plugs, with the company logo etched on them. As you maybe guessing, or the faithful readers amongst you may remember, this kind of approach is not something especially original, as similar solutions were utilized by, for example, the Danish Argent in their top line of products Flow Master Reference Extreme, and that not only for power cables, but also for interconnects, which we were hosting in our systems some time ago. However in terms of color, conform with the naming, and construction, the company from Plichtow differs significantly from its Scandinavian competition. First of all it is … red, probably because the name “The Red” gives everybody quite clear information, secondly, it uses high purity copper, instead of silver, and thirdly, if those two were not enough, each of the wires has a different construction. This is key information, because with signal and loudspeaker cables it makes sense to orient it with appropriate direction, with power cables (maybe except the DC ones) the direction cannot be mistaken, but we still need to have proper polarity. And returning to the construction, although the manufacturer is not very keen on revealing his secrets, about what and how he implemented in the Red, he finally told us, that the combined cross-section of the wires is a whopping 18mm², so 5 more than in The Air. In addition, much attention was devoted to the aspect of combatting vibration, what translated in careful choice of materials used to protect the conductors from harmful influence. The distancers and splitter have a role to play in that too. It is also worth mentioning, that The Red is handmade, what taking into account the popularity of the WK Audio products in China does not leave any time for boredom or leisure for Witold Kaminski, the owner and constructor of this Polish brand.

But enough of the digressions not related to the main questions about sound. Instead of focusing on plugs, sheaths or bending ability, which actually is quite fine, taking into account the size and weight of the cable, it is now time to describe maybe not the sound of the cable itself, but more how it influences the components connected to the power using it. In the very beginning, it needs to be underlined, that The Red announces to cities and world – Urbi et Orbi – its presence, so all of you, trying to find a possibly transparent cable, devoid from any character, can forgo the rest of the review, or at least read it as something of an aberration of the surrounding reality, that does not fully fit in your individual taste. Putting the sound aside, as another sidestep, it is worth noticing, that the tested cable, due to its construction, is quite absorbing in terms of application, so it not only requires a lot of space to be placed freely, but also its significant weight can levitate not so heavy electronics, or make it spontaneously and uncontrollably move around on your rack.
Returning to the topic, the sonic signature, the first aspect, which draws attention, is the juiciness and “vastness” of the generated sound, very nice to the ears. In most systems this effect might be seen as a kind of unplugging, or unclogging the main artery, as due to its significant cross-section The Red is more or less predestined to high power amplifiers, or other devices that have a big appetite for the electric current coming from the wall. This is why most of the time in my system it spent plugged into the back of the 300W Bryston 4B³, and I must confess, that for a long time no other cable from similar price range gave me so much joy. Instead of splitting the sound into atoms and splitting the hair in four, the WK Audio builds a very engaging spectacle, very well based on a bass foundation and served as a whole and not as a combination of individual components. In addition there is a lot of the mentioned bass and energy enclosed within it, but first of all, even on the disc full of bass murmurs “New Moon Daughter” by Cassandra Wilson it is very hard to find any signs of overdoing, or any attempts to grab the other parts of the sound spectrum, what is not so obvious with the fleshy double bass and dark vocals of the singer. And secondly, despite the slight upping and drawing of the contours with a slightly thicker line than I am used to on a daily basis, you cannot accuse it of any averaging, or simplification in terms of selectivity or differentiation. Additionally the soundstage is not reaching forward, at least when we are talking about the first plane. The depth of the stage is explored much more eagerly, so we can avoid placing the soloists on the lap of the listeners. Finally it is a jazz mystery and not a lap dance in an inferior bar in Las Vegas.
Going slightly further in the climates not very comfortable for most systems, operating on the verge of Electro and Industrial “Eat Me Alive” by SWARM, with its synthetic murmurs, whistles and beats filled the whole room with tremor, and if something was to be only an etheric reverb, then it was, and if something was to remind of shooting a heavy machine gun, then a salvo almost teared everything apart in its path. Interestingly, the apocalypse in the lower registers did not prevent the midrange to become more saturated, resulting in the vocal layer, dominated by female vocals, to prone with sex appeal, and the strong, even intensive treble, did not lose pace, but was a true ornament and dot on the “i” adding appropriate, predatory taste to it all.
Now in my opinion, The Red handled rock, and at that the more heavy end of it, starting with the “Over the Horizon Radar” by Jorn, only touching heavy-metal, to the classic of thrash, the “Countdown to Extinction” by Megadeth, issued by MoFi, even better. The reason for that seems obvious, as, if my memory serves me well, I did not encounter a lover of this kind of sounds, who would not prefer a bit of extra weight on the sound, some stronger and thicker line drawing the contours, and the mentioned accent on the higher bass, and choose the anorectic ticking of “The End of Life” by Unsun instead. And with The Red in the system everything became more spectacular and gained on volume what not only made the sound more attractive, but in most cases brought appropriate tonal balance back to the, usually, quite light made recordings.

So can the WK Audio The Red be regarded as a proposal for everybody? Half jokingly half seriously I could say it is not, as some lovers of D-class power amplifiers, with feather weight, might have issues with uncontrolled levitation. But now fully seriously, if your systems is not too obese and does not sound too thick, then applying The Red will only add vigor and will nicely up the drive, showing, that it is worth giving a second chance even to older rock recordings. And one more thing – comparison to the predecessor. Seemingly The Air was more accurate and precise, but it is The Red, which has much more swing and dynamics, so you should be able to swallow its higher price quite easily and just admit, that it fully deserves the top spot in the portfolio of the company from Plichtow.

Marcin Olszewski

System used in this test:
– CD/DAC: Ayon CD-35 (Preamp + Signature) + Finite Elemente Cerabase compact
– Network player: Lumin U2 Mini + I-O Data Soundgenic HDL-RA4TB
– Digital source selector: Audio Authority 1177
– Turntable: Kuzma Stabi S + Kuzma Stogi + Dynavector DV-10X5
– Phonostage: Tellurium Q Iridium MM/MC Phono Pre Amp
– Power amplifier: Bryston 4B³ + Graphite Audio IC-35 Isolation Cones
– Loudspeakers: Dynaudio Contour 30 + Brass Spike Receptacle Acoustic Revive SPU-8 + Base Audio Quartz platforms
– IC RCA: Tellurium Q Silver Diamond
– IC XLR: Organic Audio; Vermöuth Audio Reference; Acrolink 7N-A2070 Leggenda
– Digital IC: Fadel art DigiLitz; Harmonic Technology Cyberlink Copper; Apogee Wyde Eye; Monster Cable Interlink LightSpeed 200
– USB cables: Wireworld Starlight; Goldenote Firenze Silver; Fidata HFU2; Vermöuth Audio Reference
– Speaker cables: Signal Projects Hydra; Vermöuth Audio Reference Loudspeaker Cable + SHUBI Custom Acoustic Stands MMS-1
– Power cables: Furutech FP-3TS762 / FI-28R / FI-E38R; Organic Audio Power + Furutech CF-080 Damping Ring; Acoustic Zen Gargantua II; Furutech Nanoflux Power NCF
– Power distribution board: Furutech Pure Power 6 NCF + Furutech PROJECT-V1
– Wall power socket: Furutech FT-SWS(R)
– Anti-vibration platform: Franc Audio Accessories Wood Block Slim Platform
– Switch: Silent Angel Bonn N8 + Silent Angel S28 + Silent Angel Forester F1 + Luna Cables Gris DC
– Ethernet cables: Neyton CAT7+; Audiomica Anort Consequence + Artoc Ultra Reference + Arago Excellence; Furutech LAN-8 NCF
– Table: Solid Tech Radius Duo 3
– Acoustic panels: Vicoustic Flat Panels VMT

Opinion 2

I hope that you are as happy as I am, when we are about to test a product coming from a Polish company. For me this is very positive, as many of such encounters have shown us lately, that those companies are successful in closing in the gap to the big world. Of course this is not an easy task, as the competition is not sleeping. But when we have the opportunity to test another product from a small, and relatively fresh, manufacture in short time, this is the more heartwarming. So what is the company I am talking about? Please stay calm – you know them, I assure you. Today I will show you the newest approach to music by the Plichtow based cable manufacturer WK Audio, which supplied us with his flagship product, the power cable The Red.

As it often happens, there is no chance to learn about all the solutions used by the manufacturer in its product. On one hand, I can understand that approach, but on the other, the only things that I was able to learn, were the usage of high purity copper conductors, proprietary winding of the conductors, different for each signal path – this parameter determines, that you need to carefully detect the hot pin in the wall socket or power strip and a lot of effort put into the elimination of harmful interference between the wires, for that purpose three aluminum separators were used, keeping the wires in equal distance, and finally minimizing vibration with the use of two splitters on both ends of the cable, just before the top plugs from the Japanese Furutech line. However all the rest of the technicalities is the sweet secret of the manufacturer, so I will just add, that the noble looking cable, placed in red sheaths, is sent to the clients in a nice, wooden box, covered with perforated foam on the inside. As you can see, in the age, where everything can be mimicked, there is not much information to work with, but even though, the available ones show clearly, that the constructor went a slightly different way, than its competition with regard to placing the conductors in the cable. And if the chosen path was the best one, we will check in a moment.

I must confess, that I had a very clear observation from the moment I plugged in the tested cable in my system. But what is most important, this was correlating very much with the assessment of the previously tested power cable from this manufacturer. I mean the understanding of the constructor, how a somewhat universal product should present itself. But why only “somewhat universal”? Please stay calm, I am not looking for any stir ups about the tested cable, I am just reminding you, there is not any one solution that fits all. There exists no truly universal item, that would resolve all the needs and ills of our world, but there are some items, that fit more or less the needs of a wide variety of clients. And while the first cable we tested, The Air, favored the lower midrange, supporting it with a solid dose of well controlled energy, The Red was far more mature in terms of reproducing the musical events. I mean, that while similar to its predecessor it presented the system with a brilliant body, it did so within the full spectrum of frequencies, and it did not forget about leaving the sound appropriate breathing space. This time it did not favor anything, and hence it did not close off the freedom of reverberations of the individual sounds, important for a given musical spectacle. Unfortunately The Air did tone down the treble slightly, and pushed out the midrange. In contrast The Red went through the whole sound spectrum, from the strong and hard bottom, through the midrange, which reproduced well the magic of music, to the lit upper registers. And the most interesting thing is, that this was not an observation on the verge of perception, but on the level of sound, that that was pleasant for the true reception of music. There was no kicking, no tiring of the listener with an overly big amount of low murmurs, but we dealt here with energy, well embedded in each range. Immediately everything started to pulsate with timing, which is not easy to get on this price level. It was universal enough, that I can claim, that it can defend itself even during reproduction of the most ethereal music. Of course if you must, you can find something to not be happy about – like that things are too offensive, and thus a bit too blunt in Baroque music, but I assure you, even if someone notices that, taking into account the universality mentioned by me, the avoidance of tiring pumping of the sound, he or she will not describe it as pure evil, but just a signature slightly different to what was expected. Yes, a signature, not an issue, as The Red did everything with grace. It sounded clear and energetic, but not on your nose, and this was the main asset for me. It had no problem in putting all kinds of rock music in appropriate mass, surprising me nicely with unexpectedly strong and juicy guitar riffs, or energetic vocals, full of revolt. It brilliantly created all kinds of electronic music, on one hand presenting me with seismic, and painful for my ears, murmurs, while a moment later, the ether was cut with a whistle or rasping clipping. But it was also able to show, that in jazz, playing with silence, all is not about only showing an ideally decaying, individual sound, but also about showing its vibration, and thus sonic intimacy. Are you surprised with such turn of events? In the beginning I wrote about The Red clearly injecting a dose of energy into the sound. And this energy is not always the most important aspect of the presentation. But please remember, that I also wrote, that it acts in the full spectrum of frequencies, and by that, I did not feel any of the subranges sticking out. Just after it was applied, the whole spectacle came to life, so it offered and increased volume without pulling the rope to any side, and that was its main aspect, in my opinion, something that was surprising positive in its perception.

Now is the tested power cable tailored for everybody? You may be surprised, but I could recommend it to probably every person. Of course my opinion is supported with knowledge, that any of the subranges is favored, but just the whole reproduced music has a load of joy added. And this allows to think, that even the well composed systems, after applying the WK Audio The Red, will be able to show something, the potential buyer would never expect. For once it could be the brilliant timing, another time the surprising energy, yet another a brilliant contours of the virtual sources placed in ether, but never painful overdraw. So when you are looking for that kind of accessory for your system, it should be worth checking for yourself, if you and the tested cable could go along. Do you not agree?

Jacek Pazio

System used in this test:
Source:
– transport: CEC TL 0 3.0
– streamer: Melco N1A/2EX + switch Silent Angel Bonn N8
– DAC: dCS Vivaldi DAC 2.0
– Master clock: Mutec REF 10 SE-120
– reclocker: Mutec MC-3+USB
– Shunyata Research Omega Clock
– Shunyata Sigma V2 NR
– Preamplifier: Gryphon Audio Pandora
– Power amplifier: Gryphon Audio Mephisto Stereo
– Loudspeakers: Gauder Akustik Berlina RC-11 Black Edition
– Speaker Cables: Synergistic Research Galileo SX SC
IC RCA: Hijiri Million „Kiwami”, Vermouth Audio Reference
IC XLR: Tellurium Q Silver Diamond, Hijiri Milion „Kiwami”, Siltech Classic Legend 880i
Digital IC: Hijiri HDG-X Milion
Power cables: Hijiri Takumi Maestro, Furutech Project-V1, Furutech NanoFlux NCF, Furutech DPS-4.1 + FI-E50 NCF(R)/ FI-50(R), Hijiri Nagomi, Vermouth Audio Reference Power Cord, Acrolink 8N-PC8100 Performante
– Table: SOLID BASE VI
– Accessories: Harmonix TU 505EX MK II, Stillpoints ULTRA SS, Stillpoints ULTRA MINI, antivibration platform by SOLID TECH, Harmonix AC Enacom Improved for 100-240V, Harmonix Room Tuning Mini Disk RFA-80i
– Power distribution board: POWER BASE HIGH END
– Acoustic treatments by Artnovion
Analog stage:
Drive: Clearaudio Concept
Cartridge: Essence MC
Step-up: Thrax Trajan
Phonostage: Sensor 2 mk II

Polish distributor: RCM
Manufacturer: WK Audio
Price: 4 500€ / 1,5m (in Europe)

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