Music Lovers presents Vivid & VTL
www.musicloversaudio.com
This was an absolutely superb room presented by Music Lovers, a local dealer with not one but TWO Bay Area locations (one in Berkeley, one in San Francisco proper). The Vivid Giya G-3 speakers ($40,000) featured here also feature in a running joke between my husband and myself. The joke is entirely on me: when I first saw the Giya G-1's in Stereophile or some similar magazine a couple of years ago, I laughed out loud and scoffed about "ridiculous looking speakers for space age bachelor pads" or somesuch.
This room also featured the debut of the VTL S-200 stereo amp ($10,000), the latest in their Signature series. This fully balanced amplifier also features VTL’s SmartTube automatic biasing technology as well as adjustable damping. VTL also provided their TL-7.5 Series III Reference Linestage ($20,000) and TP-6.5 Signature Phono Stage ($8,500). Digital was provided by the dCs Vivaldi Transport ($39,999) and dCs Vivaldi DAC ($34,999). Brinkmann Bardo took care of vinyl with their turntable ($9,490) and Pi cartridge ($2,700). Reel-to-reel tape finished out the analog set-up; unfortunately, I don’t have the make/model in my notes, but tapes were provided by Tape Project.
VTL is an excellent pairing with this speakers; the new stereo amplifier gives the impression of having plenty of power on tap, and provides clarity and tone without shading into unwelcome warmth or romanticism. I very much hope that Beatrice Lam of VTL, Vivid Audio distributor Philip O’Hanlon, and dCS distributor John Quick of Tempo Audio Sales are proud of their room’s performance, because it was truly one of the highlights of the show.
www.musicloversaudio.com