CanMania 2014: Jolida says hello to little Rowen

Jolida had a set of nifty little bits at CanMania this year, all targeting the personal audio enthusiast obviously. The new kid of the block was a cute little prototype, tentatively called “Rowen”, after Jolida CEO Jerred Dunkerson’s daughter. C’mon — “aww” with me! Awww! This little gal features a pair of 12AX7 tubes, all lit up with blue LEDs, and a big volume pot on the front. Features are still a bit in flux, but will probably include a DAC (32bit/384kHz and supporting DSD) and maybe a wireless (not Bluetooth!) input, with some kid of 3D/”surround sound” and cross-fader effect. The price for the Rowen, or whatever it’s production name will be, should be about $750.Availability will be later this year. Jolida has been making affordable tube-based audio electronics for years, but I’ve never seen their current personal-audio line, so finding it here was a happy accident. If you know nothing of the brand, generally, that’s fine — they’ve been around for a couple of decades making quality electronics for those of us with “regular” budgets. Not cheap, no, but there will be no need to dip into the kids’ college funds just yet. The $500 Glass FX Tube Headphone Amplifier dumps 100mW into 32Ω [...]