What’s Cooking in the Finale?!

Happy New Year - 2024.

Jan 1st - We would like to thank everyone for your support and love! We wish everyone having a better year coming up. 2023 been a year of chaos - please make sure yourself, and people around you find time to sit down and enjoy some music. Fresh air and some wine/cheese also bring inner peace and let you temporary part off from this chaotic world. So let’s focus about the HIFI scoop again (we seem to do this every year now looking back).

In short - it seems to be only high end is selling at this moment in this industry or some say - a hobby. It makes no more sense to make anything from the entry level to the mid-range, due to historically high cost but also lowest demand of all time. It makes both manufactures and dealers unsustainable.

To make the industry more healthy. We wanted to suggest some ideas. From the start - we want to remind audiophiles about your next purchase - please try to buy a hifi product from a brand that is specialized in it. For example - buy amps from amps experts/companies that are good at it, because you want them to live on. And buy speakers from speakers experts/companies so they can live on too, and so on. Also give priorities to brands that produce in-house. Avoid brands/products that are made off shore, or OEM by someone else’s. That will greatly help those genuine and authentic companies that remains to make higher fidelity in the future. Also - when you buy a turntable - buy it from a turntable manufacture. Same as players and DACs/digital electronics - buy from a brand that has been doing it (digital/source) since first day, many people got distracted usually and asks us.

For our lineup - on top of the new flagship amps aka the 300B RSR EVO Monza, and our new F6 replacement, it’s Homage edition as our entry level integrated amp.

Looks like the 829B Special (The Galliard) is about to have a new version, driven with a pair of 6SN7/CV181, instead of the current 12AX7. Another major change is to make it open/classical architecture, with the tubes showing on the top of the chassis. Instead of build upon inside a box. Copper chassis will also be an costy option. The power amp version will be called 829B RS Reference and the Integrated version will also be available with 2-3 inputs, namely 829B EVO.

There is something new under Triode Lab as well…

The new 2A3 RSR V2 is coming (instead of calling it MK2), because it is as good as V1 but just different sound / take, a different flex on our design. And the V2 is also selling along with the V1. Both are selling strong, and hit our record sales figure for the RSR series. Same as the 45 RSR - the MK2 will renamed into V2, as the V1 still have strong surge of demands.

For Triode Lab - we also have many request in a preamp including MC stage as well. So there might be a bigger AP EVO version, which is already as good as some top players that costs over $100,000 USD.

And then we also have requests comeback with a PSET 2A3 full size integrates made with copper chassis and dual mono power supply designs with 6 pcs of transformers. MSRP to be $20-30K.

2024 FORECAST : Wish to reintroduce the Gemme Vivace EVO / or at least the Cadenza EVO Horn with the new series of TAD Compression Driver (we’ve already found a new high quality wood shop in Quebec region of Canada, production can be resume as early as summer ), both are of our favourite speakers design ever, in the history of HIFI. Why? its challenging / good, and few people mastered it.

and what’s in the make?

300B RSR EVO - with the secret Hashimoto 50W Class Output Transformers .
New hotter version F6 Homage with a pair of EF86, using Triode Lab 2A3/45 Output Transformers for some cream of the crop tube sound.
New compact 6V6 PP Integrates 14+14W - replacing , F168, F1812/F7189 and Sesto Elemento. North Americano transformers only - only if market improves. (Still can’t see the market at the moment).
And maybe a KT88 40-50W Integrated Amp? (Not sure if the market still exist with those type of tubes), but we did alot of OEM design back then and that’s why we never have to make one.

2023 UPDATE : Do not use GMAIL , both us here at Triode Lab / Finale Audio, and many dealers / and even EML tubes have every single email we respond bounced. So if you don’t hear back from us - we probably can’t send you the email. Jan 1st, 2024. Our server (1and1 UK), seems to fixed the issue, and no more problem sending and receiving emails with Gmails.

2023 NEWS on Colours / Paint

Unfortunately we no longer have car paint as option.

SCOPE for 2023:

Starting from 2023, all our amps will be using black anodized knobs (which actually looks quite good on our amps and match our amps beautifully - less distraction up front and flows better with focus perhaps) , polished/stainless/chrome/golden knobs …etc are subject to availability and cost (world supply issue). Not it only went from $20 a piece to over $50-100 per knob (Yes) - some literally have no more supplies because of shortage labour / rapid increased cost - doesn’t make sense for manufactures anymore, when the cost became $60 per knob, and that’s not including shipping, taxes, interest and storage cost.

And to the busy folks who don’t want to read all the log below : the cost of building tube amps is record high in history (we thought it was high before COVID). What’s worse is the availability of parts/transformers is left with 1/3 of choice in compared to before COVID - which isn’t surprising at all due to the low demand in high quality tube amps, because the hifi market is not strong enough these days and active enough to support these specialist manufacturers. Therefore, new tube amps made from now and future will only be left as an ultra luxury item (no matter where it’s built, and we know first hand many OEM factories from Far East probably won’t be reopen again to make assembly-line produced tube amps and hifi equipments - including tubes). And we probably won’t able to offer anything south of $4000-5000 CAD due to inflation / and sky rocket prices, and also the currency fluctuation (CAD drops from 1 : 1 to USD, and now to sub 0.60, aka over 40% de-appreciations in currency value - which makes a huge impact to Canadian businesses at sourcing (most sourcing is done using USD around the world).

* SPAM ALERT *

Almost all my friends know this is spam fortunately. It lacks the warmth in the words.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Finalé Audio <frank@finale-audio.com>

Date: 20 October 2022 at 16:37:35 +02:00

Subject: Dealers

To: Dealers Emails

Hi

Do you have a moment to correspond with me via my private email?

I have an obligation that I would like you to complete as soon as possible.

Please reply via my private email ( frankng@email.com ) for directives.

Best Regards

Frank Ng

President

Finalé Audio

308013 Hockley Road Mono

Ontario L9W 6N2 Canada

CONFIDENTIAL: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.

Before we even stepped into 2022…

Almost our entire list of vendors, from metal company and paint / finish providers , to amp transformer and parts, were to have another major hike in cost again. (They already raised a few times last 2 years already).

Some of our “manufacture cost” on sourcing these parts is literally higher than the 2020-2021 MSRP’s “Street Price” on these items. That is crazy, to those who know what this mean.

Metal chassis fabrication is 200%+ on the already inflated prices over the last 2 years term due to the skyrocket core material prices, and shortage of hands-on labour here in Canada.

What a incredible year coming… I thought we reached the peak of costing already in 2020-2021.

But we will survive.

Frank

Founder of Finale Canada & Companies.

2022 : A new series of amps designed around the “Super-triode” 6H30 is coming.

TRIODE LAB : 2A3M-FFX “Supertriode” ( Developed) , 45RSR K2 ( Developed), HMS-2A3S (2A3S but with 6H30 instead of CV181 - both are my favourite preamp tubes. and HMS spec = Hammonds), and of course a more entry level integrates 45/2A3 is possible for those who are interested : HMS-2A3i / HMS-45i ( Developed)

FINALE Electric / Audio : 300B Classic Mono Blocks, the 12AX7 —> 6SN7/CV181 and with a completely new front end design , new 300B RS EVO (MK2) Stereo Power Amp , and we might have entry level 300B Integrated, namely HMS-300B - still trying to figure what the market seek for. (No go - everyone want top trim with Hashimoto)

And for all selectors on our preamp and reference integrates - the ELMA (Made in Swiss), will be the norm/standard. Both DACT / Lorlin will be replaced with ELMA - the best or nothing.

2021 - Forecast

Happy new year everyone! We wish this year will be the better year than 2020, which couldn’t be worse.

But thank god we have been so busy. Any new orders will likely queue to February-March.

And we were busy enough moving our studio - still not fully functional yet.

Some bad news for the entire HIFI world - almost ALL HIFI parts : tubes / transformers / labour went up again and with fewer selections (choices). This is due to the current difficulty of doing business and manufacturing (worldwide), as well as shipping issues / increases in shipping cost. For example, EMS Japan Service is still unavailable due to COVID ; so Fedex or DHL are the only options. Our core materials (such as aluminum sheets) have also seen historic increases. Same for shipping boxes and packaging materials.

Despite our reluctance to raise the MSRP (not necessarily your purchase price), we have no choice.

And we will also likely drop all the entry models below $3,000 CAD, as well as models in low demand, since the high costs here in Canada simply won’t allow us to make amplifiers to compete with China made amps. We think the few real remaining tube designers will focus mainly on higher end products. The cost of operating, parts, and labour have gone up by some 20% in 2020, and the cost of our last dozen of orders were higher than what we quoted to our customers. (For example - two of our biggest vendors raised prices 3 times in the last year).

So the times have changed. Perhaps soon a high quality, hand produced tube amplifier will became a connoisseur-grade product - a unique piece of art.

The up side is, with more budget per amp, we can build even better and more interesting tube designs!

And to those who are on a tight budget - although we probably won’t focus on entry level tube products, we should always have parts & chassis left to build you something special and affordable.

2020-2021

Although the entire world was hit hard with the Covid-19 pandemic, Finalé has been busy, both our electronics side and the garment manufacturing side. Finalé also started making PPE , when they were needed the most (world shortage of PPE core materials), we made and suplied them rapidly, so that front line health care people could be safe and continue providing critical care. Our parent company been manufacturing millions of isolation (hospital) gowns for the past half year, both for hospitals and government. And we also introduced our own reusable mask and isolation gowns under Finalé - it’s CSA certified AAMI Level 1, available in light blue and yellow in several sizes. Should you know anyone needs these at work, please contact us for core costing - we do this to help. And like our electronics, they are made better than anything else on the market, all hand made here in Canada by our elite workers. We also donated hundreds of masks & gowns to local hospitals / clinics / long term care facilities , to help de-stress the health care system.

2020

New model designation - EVO.

Its not a new generation or a new design. It is the same best of the best design from us , but even more sharpened. Because after all these years , we no longer required to leave space and arrangement for using different parts , bits , and transformers (very limited choice today, compared to 10-30 years ago at the peak bloom of HIFI industry). And after decades of making the best HIFI tube amplifiers in the world. We know what are the best choices (proven reliability and sound wise), and now our EVO designs can be simplified and go straight to the best setup / heart with what we only sees and uses today. For example, now there is only two brand of transformers left we will be using (Some of the best HIFI parts manufactures already left, such as Tamura , Tango , James , JBL , and now Fostex. We can foresee more going.) , and one brand of caps to use, then we don’t need to spare out so much extra accommodation to make the chassis more tight fit and smaller. So when you see an amplifier with a EVO designations - it probably to be the the end game.

2019

Prices further increase - making high end tube amps became more exclusive and expensive than ever (no matter where it is made). So are the supply and offering of tube amplifier related parts , tubes and transformers. Also metals - the chassis are made with. Almost everything that was mentioned in my previous sentences raised their prices more than double compare to 2009, which already took a big peak compared to Y2K. Therefore , we can almost foresee most of the remaining tube amp manufactures will either quit , or raises their prices to unobtainable price tag - normally a company require 3-10X of markup to survive. Good news is , we will not be affected , as we kept our shop / production small and niche , and our reasonable priced 'haute-couture' of amplifiers keep bring us stable businesses, even Toronto became one of the most expensive city to live and do business. We can also foresee the record high uses of HASHIMOTO Transformers of Tokyo, from Japan , which make sense to those who can fetch the money , they want the best and keep it forever. It also became a investment, and a future classics.

2018+

Let us present Finale's Pink-Lingu RCA Connectors (Rose Gold Plated)

Since we have issues with a brand name RCA connector we been using for decades and we cannot find substitute for both quality and value. We decided to make our own. It will be used and voice our products with it here and after. It has passed our tests from its conduit behavior to melt/function point. The plating is high quality rose-gold finish and the center insulation is real Teflon that is heat resisting. We just like this shinny colour so much that changes from pink-gold to copper depending your light source9

2017-2018:

Thanks to Arteluthe Design, we also make our own knobs now. Made out of stainless steel, its elegant, precise and solid. Easily the best in the market. Hand polished and made right here in Canada (Quebec). Not just the aesthetic, the touching feel and weight of it is brilliant. We will use it across our brands.

2017:

Based on an engineering order/note issued from our chief, the following will be in effect immediately without notice:

CMC Gold RCA / Binding Posts: These connectors will be used across the entire line, due to its excellence in quality, reliability and consistency. We have been having quality issues with another brand that we have been using for a long time, until we notice the quality is coming back. The uber RCA connector choice we use now is the DH Labs USA or Furutech Japan
Transformers : Due to the shortage of HIFI transformers supplies, HAMMONDS of CANADA and HASHIMOTO (Sansui) of JAPAN will be our main two suppliers ofHIFI transformers. We will also continue to work with a few other top North American manufacturers in our custom designs, including Heyboer (Mercury) of USA, Edcor of USA, and ANK of Canada.

One thing we know for certain is that success never stops to admire itself. We’ve been super-busy working on new projects and we have a few ready to be disclosed. No matter what happens, we know this year will be an exciting one for us and for you as well!

2016:

RECENT NEWS : Starting in 2016, there will be a price increase to all entry level amps, as a result of different factors; unfavorable currency exchange, higher cost on parts (all prices have increased dramatically, from all level - direct pricing from the parts manufacturer to importers/distributors, and even local stores), and, not to mention, inflation (our metal parts manufacturer inflated prices over 50% on chassis and parts, for instance). Moreover, the selection in tube amplifier parts (everything from transformer to caps) has reduced, as many smaller brands are being brought out by the bigger multi-corp and, so, are either phased out or combined into the bigger name. It is also quite sad to hear about the two legendary famous HIFI transformer companies in Japan shutting down their business. However, we will continue to fight hard, despite it being an uphill battle. Looking ahead in 2017, we will streamline and phase out some variations of certain models and narrow our lineup to maintain the quality to price ratio to our customers.

LAGATO Phono Tube Preamp (Debut any time with MOQ)

Our reference and best phono design!

For those of you who do not know us., we aren't just an expert of tubes in the HiFi application. We have experience as solid state circuitry designers / electronic engineers (from car stereo, radio station/studio equipment, vessels communications engineering, to consumer electronics, and so on). We believe designing solid state amps is even more fun and challenging because we are not only good at it, we are truly passionate about it!. As vinyl freaks and connoisseurs, we mastered the art of turntables decades ago.

The LAGATO will be housed in a large size chassis, as there will be three to four (3-4) separated sections :

1. MC Input (handled by a DOZEN high quality transistors, it will be very quiet, and when we say quiet, we MEAN quiet!)

2. MM Input (the MC then enters this MM stage, or use this input when use with MM cartridge), the signal then goes to OUTPUT for external pre-amplifier, or to the LAGATO's on board tube buffer/pre-amplifier to directly drive power amplifiers)

3. Line Stage Input (used as a standard tube pre-amplifier)

Tube power supply will be external. This will be a pretty end game as a phono solution.