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Power Amplifier Viva Audio SolistaAuthor: Christian Bayer Photography: Rolf Winter

THE FAMOUS BOOK BY CARLOS

CASTANEDA ON HIS SECOND AP-

PRENTICESHIP WITH THE MEXICAN

SHAMAN JUAN MATUS IS MAINLY

ABOUT HOW DON JUAN TAUGHT

HIM TO SEE. CASTANEDA HAD TO

GO WELL BEYOND THE LIMITS OF

HIS HITHERTO VALID LEARNT UN-

DERSTANDING OF REALITY. IT WAS

THE SAME FOR ME AS I SET ABOUT

FAMILIARISING MYSELF WITH THE

VIVA AUDIO SOLISTA.

A SEPARATE REALITY

There was a time when I believed myself to be a general con-noisseur of the music scene, I went to loads of concerts, boughtstacks of vinyl records and read innumerable magazines. ThenCD hit the market, and finally our world view was revolutioni-zed by the Internet. Some 20 years later I was sat in the “Süd-stadt” bar in Munich, freshly-pulled beer and a currywurst andfries in front of me, flicking through the “Intro” music mag. Theopen air concert season was almost upon us and I wonderedwhether perhaps I ought to check out a festival or two. Straightup: apart from a couple of headline acts, I had never heard of90% of the bands. For a while that really frustrated me. But thenI realized it was really exciting – so much new stuff to discover,just like the music itself. Just as I began to think that everything

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had already been composed, sung or played, a new band enteredthe programme who could extract something new, unmistaka-ble, unique from the seemingly same old formula. And at the sa-me time, as soon as you heard them, you had the feeling they’dactually always been there.Could there be, alongside my own reality, a second, a third, and

who knows how many other realities? Very likely. However thefact that the extravagantly designed and unusually built Solistaintegrated valve amp from Viva Audio triggers such thoughts inme is rather unusual. Particularly as until recently I’d never evenheard of the company, despite them having been in existence foralmost 20 years. The fact that Viva Audio is only now becoming

known to the German-speaking pu-blic we may deem an audiophile sin ofomission and have the distributors,Ibex Audio, to thank for this late pre-miere. Internationally it’s a complete-ly different story. As far back as 1998,the (sadly now late) Harry Pearson of“The Absolute Sound” gave the VivaAurora monoblocs his highest ratingand wrote “The least colored, speakerto speaker, of the single-ended ampli-fiers I’ve heard”.

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Power Amplifier Viva Audio Solista

Have you ever seen such a layout before? I certainly haven’t. Felt damped electrolytics and smaller capacitors,unexciting but very carefully chosen combinations of components. This, combined with the factory’s own

transformers, gives a mix that makes an uncoloured highly involving sound possible

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the technically sophisticated con-struction and elegant externals, theSchembris always take on board inputfrom outside, including endless li-stening sessions and, naturally, con-certs. But, as Amedeo is quoted on thebeautifully designed and informativewebsite, “Every Viva employee has tobe aware of this. It is like making goodwine, good whiskey, good food. Thelast touch is personal. More than justmaking a good product.” In my desireto fully understand the Solista, I con-ducted a very interesting conversationwith Amedeo, and pressed him for de-tails on circuitry, components andconcrete decisions in the developmentprocess of the Solista. But in vain. Likean interrogation of a hyperintelligent

Viva Audio is a manufacturing business from the Vicenza regi-on; an area of northern Italy so richly studded with great audiofirms: high end workshops such as Sonus Faber, Mastersoundand Diapason are to be found here. Proprietor and Chief Desi-gner Amedeo Schembri and his brother Giampetro founded Vi-va Audio in 1996 out of a love of music – and we’ll soon see howthis apparent cliché really does apply here. Like so many tinker-ers, Amedeo began building amplifiers and speakers in his teensusing any bits and bobs he could lay his hands on, alongside wor-king in recording studios. At 26 years of age, he first kitted out asound studio with components he had developed himself. Hespent much time in the studios and there he learnt precisely howinstruments – particularly unamplified ones – actually sound,which had a profound influence on the tonal tuning of hisequipment. For Amedeo the decision to go this pragmatic, non-academic way was quite deliberate, in order to protect his creati-vity from being constrained by traditional philosophy. He maysurround himself with engineers, but ultimately it is he who un-dertakes the final tonal adjustment of his apparatus. To refine

Motor-driven Alps potentiometers, copper Litz cable, Teflon-insulated signalcables, decent resistors. Again – it’s all in the mix

Felt-damped capacitors and specially cho-sen transistors support the second 845 in itsduties as rectifier

Power Amplifier Viva Audio Solista

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restimating the many challenges thisapparently simple technology pre-sents, especially when you considerthe energy, the heat, the voltages andof course the vibrations that an amplike this produces. But there is no dog-ma surrounding valves or circuit de-sign. If Schembri finds what he belie-ves is a better method ofamplification, (in other words moremusical), he will adopt it. Incidentally, with Viva even the ap-

parently obvious can be deceptive: 2 x845 triodes per channel normally me-ans either a push-pull or parallelsingle-ended configuration. You’dthink so, but you’d be wrong! The se-cond 845 is used as a rectifier! To my

suspect, he continually evaded me and gave only vague, ne-bulous, general responses. Amedeo is an incredibly friendly andcongenial fellow, evident even before you meet him in person.But he has his principles and will not be drawn on technical de-

tails. Firstly, because he doesn’t want the competition to copy hisdesigns, and secondly, because he wishes his products to be seenas musical facilitators rather than technical objects. As a result allI can do is state the obvious: he exclusively uses point-to-pointwiring, which is absolutely maxed out, and may explain the mas-sive energy that the Solista possesses. All his amplifiers operate inClass A with strictly no negative feedback. The transformers areall made by a Viva in-house specialist; he gives nothing away re-garding core material or winding gauge but sound-improvingcustom solutions are guaranteed. Schembri really does appear todesign his circuits through endless rounds of experiments, con-stantly searching for the best sound (or rather “non-sound”) aswill become evident. And anyone who deems a hardwired ClassA zero negative feedback design to be commonplace is unde-

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Power Amplifier Viva Audio Solista

knowledge no other commercial sup-plier does this – if you ignore WesternElectric, where a 211 served as rectifierfor their 845-based cinema amplifierssimply because that is all that wasavailable at the time. Schembri says hestruggled to find a rectifier valve thatcould cope with the high current andvoltage that the 845 demands. Afterseveral experiments and with the helpof various transistors a power supplywas created that sounded how he ima-gined it ought to. How exactly…? Yep,you got it… no comment. For the am-plification, he needed a triode thatwould deliver high performance in asingle ended configuration. In theabovementioned technical environ-ment, the 845 proved to be the mostsuitable candidate. The classic 6SN7serves as the driver valve; in the largerAurora monos a 211 fulfills this role.The preamplification stage is not to-tally passive like in so many amps of

this type, but rather active, with a 6C45Pi in each channel, asmall Russian high performance triode, equivalent to the legen-dary WE 437. Then there’s a buffered direct input, via which theSolista can be used purely as a power amplifier.When you look inside the amplifier, you are presented with an

unusual view (to put it mildly!) Components, directly connectedto each other, are damped, calmed, tuned with pieces of felt in afashion that only the maker could understand. During the tu-ning, which is carried out by highly accomplished listeners andfriends whose judgements are much valued by the Schembris, theutmost attention is paid to every small change in sound caused bychanges in size, thickness and position of the material. But steady– these gentlemen might be perfectionists, but are anything butcomponent fetishists. In other words, the audiophile componentper se is of no interest. In their world there is no such thing as thebest component, only a harmonious synergy of carefully chosencomponents optimally fulfilling their roles in the right places.And those components could perfectly well be off-the-peg. Crite-ria? The ears. Every decision for or against a particular solution isbased around achieving the end result, which as we mentioned, isto please customers who are interested in the art form of musicand not in technical fetishes. Which, on the other hand, given theflamboyant exterior of the amplifier, isn’t so simple. I’m remin-ded of a quote by Marcello Mastroianni – “how can we expect

The three valves look a little bit like the Town Musicians of Bremen: 845, 6SN7 and 6C45Piharmonious side-by-side and, more importantly, with each other

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straightness from a woman, when her entire being is a curve?” Ifyou compare the Solista with, say, Sophia Loren, then to some ex-tent is it Loren 2.0, who carries out her duties with the greatestprecision, while maintaining the same sex appeal: you can no mo-re ignore the design of the Solista than you could tear your eyesaway from Loren’s plunging neckline. Nor should you. This am-plifier is far from being all show and no go.Contradictions wherever you look – but not wherever you li-

sten. The design was developed in association with the architectJoelle De Jaegher. Solid aluminium with automotive lacquers, ofoutstanding build quality. At first, the Schembris chose the paintpurely on aesthetic grounds, but then they noticed a positive ef-fect on the sound, resulting from the interaction between thepre-treated aluminium and the method and thickness of thepaint layer. Amedeo freely admits that this was serendipity.Perhaps this is evidence of their real recipe for success – comple-te openness to ideas and influences coupled with unflinchingclarity in their decisions which are purely sound-oriented.So how does it sound, you ask? Good question. Next question!

Why? Because this amplifier has no specific sound, no acousticsignature. It definitely doesn’t sound like a typical valve amp ora typical solid state amp. That might sound disappointing if youwere expecting yet more superlatives, but far from it. At 22 Watts

xxxTest system (image hifi listening room)CD Player: Accuphase DP-720 Loudspeakers:Magnepan MG 1.7i Speaker ca-ble: Tellurium Q Black Interconnects: Silent Wire AC32 Mk2 Mains cable: SilentWire AC16 Mk2 Tuning: fastaudio, Acoustic System, Audiophile Schumann Reso-nance Generator

Test system (author’s listening room)Turntable: Garrard L Art du son 401 TR Tonearm: Schick 12” Cartridge: DeccaSuper Gold with Paratrace stylus and ebony body, Decca Mono, Grace F-8c, ZYXR100 Yatra H CD Transport: Philios CDM 4/19 modified DAC: Tobian DAC, Silbato-ne DA-105 Integrated amplifier: Tobian VR40 Preamplifier: Croft Micro 25 “R”Power amplifier: Eastern Electric MiniMax, Quad 303 Loudspeakers: TobianMonitor 10, Tobian Monitor 12, Suesskind Audio Puls Cables: Speaker cable: Bel-den 9497, Interconnects: Audio Consulting, Jupiter, Funk Tonstudiotechnik Mains:Kreder Audio Tuning Tuning: bFly-audio, Kryna, Acoustic Revivexxxx

it isn’t particularly powerful. But mea-sured performance is one thing, ener-gy is another, and this is very noticea-ble in the Solista’s monstrous dynamiccapabilities. With my Tobian Monitor10s (98dB/W/m efficiency) and theSilbatone DA-105 DAC it was almostoverkill in my listening room. So Ischlepped the Solista into the second,larger listening room, hooked it up tothe larger Tobian 12s and the corre-sponding DAC. What can I say? Thisamplifier possesses such overwhel-ming power, an almost wiry energy,that I was reminded of the almost su-pernatural power that the exceptionalYG Acoustics Carmel 2 loudspeakercan unleash.Out of the huge pile of music that

I’ve listened to with the Solista, forthis article I have chosen pieces thatparticularly mean a lot to me, and thelive recordings, as this is the yardstickfor the Schembris. Amongst these arethe classics by Creedence ClearwaterRevival on Chronicle (Fantasy CCR-2,LP, USA 1976). I have never heard thismusic sound so direct, literally live-sounding. John Fogerty with his gruff,raw voice appears to me like a whiteversion of the composer of I Put aSpell on You, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.I’m rediscovering the thrilling drama-turgy and multidimensional quality ofthe piece anew. The Solista shows tre-mendous resolution without a trace ofdissection. Spatial information andthe interwoven justaposition of guitar,bass and percussion on Suzie Q leaveme speechless, because it’s almost as ifI’m hearing this totally personal pri-mal music for the very first time. It’s asif another, new reality is emerging be-

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Power Amplifier Viva Audio Solista

fore my ears. Similarly with the ma-gnificent new release Big Bands Live –Duke Ellington Orchestra – Liederhal-le Stuttgart March 6, 1967 (JAZZ-HAUS/SWR Music, 101722, 2013,LP). “Knob Hill” starts with a pianotrio and once again showcases the mi-nimalist funky groove of the wonder-ful pianist Duke Ellington. After awhile this is overlaid with ever increa-sing accents of wind instruments untilfinally Paul Gonsalves stands up – be-lieve me, he really does stand up – andplays his rich, passionate tenor sax so-lo. In between, Ellington suddenlyclaps his hands, seemingly from no-where, and every time I flinch. Ano-ther example? My favourite pianist,

Hampton Hawes, is the last to appear. He became famous withthe All Night Sessions of 1956. These quartet recordings weremade in one take, live in the studio, which for the first time cap-tured the whole genius of the musicians and the spontaneity ofWest Coast Jazz. Hawes extended his trio with the inclusion ofthe guitarist Jim Hall, which allowed him greater rhythmical fre-edom. This can be clearly heard on, for example Will You Still BeMine from Volume 2 (Contemporary Records, S 7546/LKS 236,ca. 1970, USA, LP). How subtle and clearly articulate the pianoand guitar sound, how intimate, direct and spirited, how the key-board swings in and out, and how the guitar body resonates, howcleanly the dynamic leaps unfold – can that really be true? Did Ireally just hear that?So what makes the Solista so special? Is it the design? Could it

be the technical solutions? The tuning perhaps? Naturally there’sno such simple answer. It’s a quality that transcends all the abo-ve, and actually makes you forget the striking appearance of theobject itself. It’s what Amedeo Schembri had in mind when heconnected a particular valve in a particular circuit, how he crea-ted the power supply and its housing, how the components werechosen, and how he tuned and harmonized it all together. TheSolista really does appear not to stamp its mark on the music, itsimply waves it through. I actually fail to understand how such acleverly constructed bit of kit appears to act like the oft-mentio-ned “wire with gain”: how difficult is it really, to develop an am-plifier, that has the ability to pull back so much of that which islost between the actual musical event and its reproduction, thata believable musical reality is created, which hardly differs fromthe original? The Solista does exactly that.

xxxxViva Audio Solista Integrated AmplifierFunctional principle: Integrated valve amplifier Output performance: 22 W perchannel (8 Ohm) Inputs: 4 x Line inputs, 1 direct input Valve complement: 2 ×6C45Pi; 2 × 6SN7GT; 4 × 845 Special features: Hand-wound transformers, point-to-point wiring Finish: Black, blue metallic, other colours available on request Dimensions (W/H/D): 43/25/52 cm Weight: 35 kg Guarantee period: 2 yearsPrice: € 15.990

Contact: www.ibex-audio.de, www.vivaaudio.comxxxx