Here at SoundStage!, we would never write up an audio manufacturer in exchange for favors like fancy dinners. To do so would be a serious breach of journalistic ethics, would call into question our authority on the subject, and worst of all, would place at risk the trust our readers have in us, which we’ve worked for years to build. Anyway, after a tour of its facility in Pruszków and a dinner of traditional Polish dishes, culminating with a prime cut of top sirloin, grilled to a perfect medium rare and served with a peppercorn sauce, here’s what you need to know about Ferrum Audio.
Well, that got you to click, didn’t it? The truth is that my enthusiasm for the Polish brand is completely my own. Besides being a gang of truly kind, warm, and welcoming guys and gals, Ferrum has made some exemplary products in the four years since it first incorporated. The flagship Wandla DAC has been a favorite of mine ever since I reviewed it on SoundStage! Hi-Fi in February of this year. Since then, the company has been progressively updating its lineup, some of which I detailed in my coverage of the Headphone Zone here at Audio Video Show 2024.
The Erco Gen 2 DAC/headphone amp and Hypsos Dual Output power supply represent updates to existing products, and they have been available for a few months now. But the Wandla HP is the latest entrant to Ferrum’s lineup, and it is being featured here at Audio Video Show 2024. As one could guess from the name, the Wandla HP adds an onboard headphone amplifier, and a capable one at that. Outputting up to 3.5W, the Wandla HP doesn’t step on the toes of the Oor dedicated headphone amplifier or Erco DAC/headphone amp, but it can provide enough power to drive the notoriously difficult HiFiMan Susvara headphones, lead analog designer Maks Matuszak told me. The accompanying photo shows the prototype unit with a green PCB, while customer-ready units will have Ferrum’s signature red board in that spot. The Wandla HP in Ferrum’s room at PGE Narodowy shows the unit with the production PCB installed, in fact. The Wandla HP is set to go on sale starting November 15 at a price of $3295 in the US. The price is the same in Euros.
But Maks and his more digitally minded colleague, Paweł Gorgoń, are the sort of hi-fi designers who can’t sit still. To wit: they told me the next product that Ferrum plans to release is a streamer, with the hope that it will be ready to go to market in a year or so. There is, of course, no name or pricing information yet. When I asked if they had a prototype to show, Paweł held up two PCBs, smiled, and said, “This is our prototype so far!” Evidently, there is still much to do before a Ferrum streamer comes to fruition.
In case you haven’t caught on to the pattern yet, Ferrum has the eventual goal of being able to offer a full “just add speakers” system one day. During my visit to the company’s headquarters, rumors swirled of a Ferrum stereo amp in the not-so-distant future. Methinks it’s best not to hypothesize too much about such things yet. But if the company ever offers such a product, its current offerings indicate that it’d probably be damn good.
Watch this brand. The quality to back up the hype is all there, and I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t mean it. No matter how many fancy restaurants they bring us to.
Matt Bonaccio
Contributor, SoundStage!
