REVIEW

There’s also a purity of tone to the music coming out of the speakers which is characterized by opening notes of Angie by the Stones and off Goats Head Soup. That first note on the guitar just rings and decays with such a natural sound that you do sit up and take notice immediately. This continues through the song with the tonal signatures of that guitar (and others) shining out. Strings come in, rise, and then envelop you. I know this tune pretty well and I can genuinely say that this is as natural sounding as I’ve heard it – you really can look into the mix and “see” the individual instruments laid out in front of you. As the song gets busier this natural (coherent?) performance continues and with instruments never feeling forced or embellished. Now, this sound of nothing sounding “embellished” is to be expected and I suppose could well be somewhat to do with my expectation of the Vinius and its minimalist philosophy and aesthetic – though I don’t think it is and I think I’m aware enough of this system to be able to actually hear what is going on when a piece of kit is. I ended up listening to a whole load of “acoustic” guitar music on this and every time it was a pleasure, with the natural timbre of this or that guitar coming through the speakers – Jorma Kaukonen’s Genesis was a treat…in fact, the whole Quah was a delight to listen to!

I listen to a lot of house and techno (broadly speaking electronic) music and this is often bass heavy and can be pretty demanding on a system from top to bottom of the sonic spectrum….none more so than Dusty Kid! I would suggest that there is a tendency for many active preamplifiers to overly push the bass (and tops) in a mix and that leads to a sonic presentation that can be all tizz and thud. Dusty Kid’s I Love Richie still has that deep and throbbing synth bass line underpinning the whole of the track, but it never seems to become overly saturated or too much, even when it breaks just after 3 minutes. I can’t say it sounds natural because it’s not a natural sound, but this bass element is in keeping with the rest of the track’s components and make-up and not pushed to the fore more than it should be. I push the volume on this track pretty hard and still all I get is a balanced sonic picture of the tune. Yes, this is very bass heavy, but the bass isn’t pushed…if that makes sense. The harsh electrical percussion sounds cut through the mix properly and the whole track is a coherent, if full on onslaught, of sonic enjoyment. There is still the physical kick of the music that hits you in the chest, but there’s also the ability to hear the tones and smaller elements of the mix like the sound of the synth drone on the same artist’s Cowboy track. Some may prefer their music to be artificially enhanced by their preamplifier, I know this, but into the Krell and in this system there’s absolutely no need for any enhancement in any part of the musical spectrum. For me there is more than ample dynamic oomph inherent on the actual recording without anything requiring a boost.

On older recordings like Popeye Does the Mashed Potato by The Buttons (CD rip) it is clear to hear that the recording process was limited in its scope way back in (I think) 1963. The sound is harsher and pretty unrefined, and the Vinius doesn’t hide this. Long story short in this respect is that this preamplifier is not going to make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear and if your recording is harsh or whatever then this preamplifier is going to show it for what it is… but that sort of goes without saying in a quality HiFi system, I’d say.

Epic tale reduced to a soundbite; you are hearing what is on the file with the Vinius! You are also hearing the character of the DAC too and this is a good thing in my book; why would you pay tens of thousands of pounds/dollars/euros/magic-beans on a DAC (or any other bit of kit) only for the preamplifier to stamp all over it with its own character. I’ve heard folk use the term “the preamplifier is the heart of a system” and whilst I agree with this pretty much wholly, the kind of preamplifier that appeals to me is one that adds as little flavour of its own to the final sound. Now, your mileage may well vary in this last respect and, indeed, the needs of your power amplifier might be that it prefers an active preamplifier to drive it.

As I’m writing up my notes I’ve got the Vinius in the system and there’s Let It Be by the Beatles playing. And it sounds as big a tune as I ever recall it being and that overdriven guitar that cuts through the mix at around 2 minutes sounds absolutely naturalwell, as natural as an affected and amplified electric guitar can sound. What I’m saying (again is that there seems to be no embellishment or addition to the sonic character of the file.

Look, I can play a hundred and one tunes and the outcome is going to be pretty much the same whichever tune I drag out or from whatever genre I drag it out from – this is as transparent a preamplifier as I have heard and is, I would say, at least the equal