Vacuum Tubes with Bluetooth: How to Get to Vegas in Time and Surprise Stevie Wonder

Recently, we watched the FireAid benefit concert where Billy Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Stevie Wonder performed on the same stage - music from different eras in support of the survivors of the Los Angeles fires. And suddenly, one of our engineers recalled another story, where distant eras also came together – and there was Stevie Wonder again.  

In 2018, a music producer from the Dutch company Qoobi came to us at Promwad with the risky idea of creating a unique radio tube preamplifier that transforms digital music from a smartphone into warm and cosy analogue audio. We only had a few weeks to materialise this idea.  

Our client's sketches featured a glass and metal device from another reality. We took on the project knowing that the stakes were high and time was short. We had to develop the design, select the materials, ship all the components from China to Europe for hand assembly, and then send a working sample to Las Vegas for the CES show.  

When we made the final assembly of the device, time was running out: the anodised aluminium was polished by hand, the quartz glass was burnished to a mirror shine, and vacuum tubes – the heart of the device – were installed. We still remember the warmth in our chests when everything worked – we saw the light and heard the music!  

Just imagine: radio lamps were invented in 1904, and they work in tandem with Bluetooth on an iPhone – the technologies are more than 100 years apart! Just wish it all made it to Vegas in one piece!

When the guys from Qoobi sent us selfies of the ready-made device at their CES booth, we thought it was our triumph. Still, we soon got news exceeding all expectations: Stevie Wonder, known for his unique hearing, stopped by the Qoobi booth and noted the great sound from the Qoobi preamp. 

Yes-yes, the same Stevie who was now singing in front of us – along with an aging Sting and the never-aging Flie, a bass player from RHCP, who just radiated energy.  

How did the Qoobi story end? The guys received a bunch of awards and nominations in 2019: gold A' Design Award, Innovation Awards at CES and even the famous Red Dot. But for us, the main prize was the moment when the lamps lit up for the first time, and we realised we had made it. 

Read the Qoobi Case Study >

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