Woodside
AmplifiersPreamplifiers & phono stages
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Founder | John Widgery |
Woodside is a British maker of valve amplifiers associated with John Widgery, with roots in the classic British valve company Radford, whose designs and stock it is reported to have taken on. Woodside's best-documented product is the MA50 Renaissance, a monoblock power amplifier using EL34 output valves, which was reviewed by Stereophile in the 1990s. It was followed by the larger MA75 Renaissance and the single-ended SET-30. Woodside amplifiers were built in a traditional British style, with solid construction and a sound described as natural, sweet and musical, very much in the tradition of the great British valve amplifiers of the 1950s and 1960s. Their link to Radford gives them a place in the story of how classic British valve engineering was carried forward into the modern high-end era. Woodside's current activity is unclear. Its amplifiers are now rare and mostly found among collectors of British valve equipment. Its products are rarely seen today.
Notable Woodside products
- MA50 Renaissance
- MA75 Renaissance
- SET-30
- Woodside preamplifier
More about Woodside
Formally under the Radford name, Woodside has lifted this legendary product into the 2000's with a performance that Arther Radford would have been proud of. It boasts a very quiet phono stage and the overall presentation is one of a very real performance with little or no colouration across the band width. It is truly transparent and dynamic and of course, musical.
Sources: stereophile.com, pinkfishmedia.net