Mola Mola at Centre Circle Audio

Mola Mola – Nothing fishy in the name

By LIM JUAN

What's in a name like "Mola Mola" for a hi-fi brand? I was aware that this was the name for the gigantic sunfish, so I was half expecting the affable Ewald Verkerk, in charge of Mola Mola's international sales who was in town to visit the company's Malaysian distributor Centre Circle Audio, to tell a tale of the company's principals loving deep sea diving in their spare time...  or perhaps just loving seafood.

He let on that the name was chosen as a result of engaging external consultants on how best to get the brand traction on its launch. A repeated name tends to better stick in memory, according to the consultants. That makes sense to me – for example, band names like Duran Duran, Talk Talk, The The, Bourgie Bourgie etc are indeed more easily remembered.



Mola Mola's most recognisable personality is Bruno Putzeys, he of Class D amplifier development fame. Putzeys is not an equity holder in, nor is currently under permanent employment by, Mola Mola (in case you were wondering how the man is associated with so many other high end hi-fi related companies, seemingly at the same time).

Verkerk shared snippets of information on the company and its wares, so here are some of which I found to be interesting (there were others, which he politely asked not to be published). Firstly, Mola Mola is a sub brand under Hypex Electronics BV. Hypex has companies operating in several jurisdictions including here in Malaysia where some of the circuit board modules used in Mola Mola products are assembled.

Further, Mola Mola's designers operate as a team, previously led by Hypex owner Jan-Peter van Amerongen, who sadly passed away toward the end of 2021. While there obviously would be lead individuals in the product development's various stages, decisions on a product, including its fish-oriented name in keeping with the brand, are arrived at by consensus. Ewald was previously a distributor for Mola Mola and other hi-end hifi products before coming on board and claims he is the most audiophile-oriented person among the team members.



Verkerk shared an anecdote where the issue of "cable sound" came into play. When evaluating the sonic effect of different power cords, the engineers didn't approach it with a closed mind – where there was a perceived sonic difference, instead of flatly blaming it on imagination, they sought to rework the power supply in that case so as to try to eliminate any sonic effects that may be influenced by the cable.

When asked about the company stance of not adopting MQA into its DACs, Verkerk admitted it was not so much determined purely by listening but by evaluating the technical factors, including transparency of the technology. They firmly believe they have a better approach to getting the best sonic results from their DACs without MQA. But they have never said "never" on its potential adoption.

Also, in spite of Hypex Ncore modules being available to other high-end audio companies, it is impossible for those to make the equivalent of a Mola Mola amplifier as they have other electronic advances proprietary to the brand. Even the casework of Mola Mola's products are fastidiously evaluated before being deemed good enough to reach production, and paying attention to double shielding does directly affect the end sound quality. The results with the DAC was so good that even a professional music producer acquired some units to use as part of his studio work.



The brand's products are admittedly costly and not within easy reach of many, but Mola Mola believe that they have found a niche where they are able to better deliver in terms of sonic performance and pride of ownership, beating out many more expensive high-end audio products. They also believe that, while current Class D amplification can still be improved, like all other topologies, the implementation and results in Mola Mola's amplifiers have reached an advanced stage where the future increments are foreseen to be small, unlike the large improvements with Class D amps generally in the recent past, so one should not fear any imminent obsolescence.



At the time of the visit, only Mola Mola's Tambaqui DAC was seen in store, the amplifiers having been sold prior. Do give Centre Circle Audio (+603 7728 2686 / WhatsApp: +6018 988 2686) if you are interested in this innovative brand's amps, DAC and yes, they sell a separate phono stage too.