How an anonymous inventor became a hero to audiophiles everywhere. “If backing up your claims with evidence wasn’t enough, he even designed his own portable headphone amplifier called the O2 headphone amplifier.”
How an anonymous inventor became a hero to audiophiles everywhere. “If backing up your claims with evidence wasn’t enough, he even designed his own portable headphone amplifier called the O2 headphone amplifier.”
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 specifications 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 amplifier called the O2 headphone amplifier, also known as the Objective 2 headphone amplifier. Objective because he believed in objective tests over subjective listening.
The O2 amplifier 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 specifications could put many more expensive headphone amplifiers to shame.
NwAvGuy was so confident about his design that he issued an open challenge to anyone who could present him with a portable headphone amplifier that cost up to US$450, and could record better measured performance than his O2 headphone amplifier. No one came forward.
The design of the O2 amplifier 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 Amplifier of the Year award for 2012. The O2 amplifier is still immensely popular today, especially amongst budgetconscious 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.
