Sam’s Space - Pathos Acoustics

Electronically Reprinted from November 2003 Sam’s Space

S a m Te l l i g

T here must be something in the air. Sonus Faber Cremona Auditors: custom stands are hi-fi makers think so.
The northern Italian city of almost obligatory. Inspiration comes also from Cremona, 80
Vicenza is 38 miles west of Venice
and 125 miles east of Milan. A medium-size In a world where more and more products miles to the west. There you can visit the
city — 106,000 at last count — Vicenza is big sound and look as if they could have been Stradivarius Museum and see instruments by
in Italian hi-fi. It’s home to Sonus Faber, made anywhere, Italian hi-fi — which such masters as Guarneri, Amati, and
Pathos Acoustics, and Unison Research. means, to a large extent, Vicentino hi-fi — Stradivari himself. And those speakers playing
stands out as different and distinctive: it ever so quietly? Guarneri Homages, by Sonus
It’s not the air, it’s the architecture. couldn’t have come from anywhere else, Faber: $10,000/pair with integral stands. If
That’s what Paolo Andriolo told me. He’s even in Italy. your purse strings allow, the Homages are def-
one of the cofounders of Pathos Acoustics, initely worth considering, especially if classical
whose offices are located in a palazzo on the Hard to believe that all of this has hap- music is your favorite.
edge of the city center. (I think Paolo wishes pened in the past quarter century — in the
he’d become an architect, like his brother.) last 20 years, in fact. But, of course, not everyone can afford
Vicenza was the adopted city of Italy’s $10,000/pair. Not everyone wants a small
greatest modern architect, Andrea Palladio Sonus Faber Cremona Auditor loud- stand-mounted monitor. (They may need deep
(1508–1580), who was born in neighboring speaker bass, for instance.) And some folks need speak-
Padua, site of Italy’s second-oldest university, Sonus Faber is Vicenza’s, and Italy’s, best- ers that are as well-suited to home theater and
founded in 1222. (Bologna was first. Pisans known hi-fi firm. But, founded in 1980, it’s surround sound as to music and two-channel.
are upstarts!) We’re talking about a place still a relatively young company. It wasn’t
where civilization was up and running when until 1983 that the company really got going, Enter the Cremona line.
most Europeans were probably still run- with its first stand-mounted monitor, the The terminology is confusing. We caught
ning around in animal skins and Parva. This was quickly followed, in 1984, by up with the floorstanding Cremona speaker
making campfires. the Minima FM2, a speaker that stayed in — called, simply, the Cremona — last
Inspired by the great Roman architects, production for almost 18 years. (You can find
Palladio favored clean lines, simple solu- the year-by-year history of Sonus Faber on January (Vol.26 No.1). It retails for
tions, innovative ideas, and practical the company’s website, ww.sonusfaber.com.) $7495/pair, and is complemented
approaches. In his buildings, form and
function come together brilliantly, Paolo told Sonus Faber established its reputation with by the stand-mounted Cremona Auditor
me and showed me in a brief walking tour of stand-mounted monitors: the Parva, the ($3595/pair plus $650 for the almost
the town. Most of Palladio’s buildings still Minima FM2, the Electa Amator, and the obligatory stands, or $4245/pair), and the
stand and are still in use. For instance, there’s Guarneri Homage, introduced in 1993 and Cremona Center ($3995/pair plus $450
the Teatro Olimpico, finished after the archi- still very much in production. Cabinet col- for stands).
tect’s death and said to be the world’s oldest orations are less of a problem with small mon- When I visited the Sonus Faber factory,
continually functioning indoor concert hall. itors, which can image precisely, throw a deep, owner-founder Franco Serblin stressed that
The acoustics? Fantastico. wide soundstage, and almost “disappear.” he’d designed the Cremona and Cremona
But there was something special about Auditor first and foremost for music. The
Vicenza before and after Palladio. Just years By the way, you should hear the soundstage Auditor is no mere brand extension, he
after “Palladio’s departure for a better world” at the Teatro Olimpico. Inspiring? Vicenza’s implied. He also suggested that some audio-
(Paolo’s words), Padua became the world cen- philes might prefer the stand-mounted
ter of science, grazie Galileo Galilei, who Auditor to the floorstanding Cremona.
taught at Padua from 1592—1610. Galileo’s Like its floorstanding sibling, the
spirit reinforces that of Palladio. And so, today, Cremona Auditor features Sonus Faber’s
with much less earth-shaking hi-fi, there is patented lute-shaped cabinet, inspired by
that spirit of innovation. If Pathos can’t inno- Giuseppe Guarneri, greatest of the Guarneri
vate, why bother? That’s what Paolo said —or family of stringed-instrument makers. The
words to that effect. (We were walking, so I Auditor also features the same stretched-
couldn’t take notes.) There’s no point produc- string grille. Yes, that’s patented, too.
ing what everyone else is. The lute-shaped cabinet consists of 32
On another visit to Vicenza, Giovanni pieces of solid and laminated maple, with a
Sacchetti and Leopoldo Rossetto, of Unison multi-coat, medium-gloss clear finish. Or
Research, told me much the same thing. you can have the speaker in the “graphite”
Vicentinos respect but don’t just follow con- finish for a more high-tech look. The front
ventional wisdom, Sr. Sacchetti said. Also, baffle, hidden behind that stretched-string
there may be more ways to approach a prob- grille, is covered with leather to soften sound
lem —and a product — than first seems obvi- reflections off the hard wood surface. Each
ous. The obvious solution may not be the speaker measures 13.75" high by 7.625" wide
best one, Leopoldo added. (at its widest point) by 17.875" deep. The
There’s another common thread among matching stands raise the speaker 25" from
Vicentino hi-fi makers: Equipment should the floor and tilt it back about 15°, the exact
look good. There’s no excuse for ugly hi-fi. angle being adjustable via threaded floor
spikes. The speakers bolt to the stands from
underneath their top plates (the speaker’s
underside is lined with felt) — nice, because
you wouldn’t want these beautiful cabinets

Stereophile, November 2003

Sam’s Space

to land on the floor. The high-quality bind- does double duty for music, you’re in luck. to design and marketing; Giovanni Borinato,
ing posts allow easy and secure finger-tight- You can have your Terminator and who does the engineering; and Gaetano
ening — but there’s only one set, which rules Tchaikovsky, too. Come to think of it, I was Zanini, who helps run the business day to
out biwiring. able to play Tchaikovsky full-tilt —minus day and lends his golden ears. Gaetano used
deep bass, of course. to run a hi-fi shop in Vicenza.
One complaint: I found the stands a bear
to assemble because the drill holes in the My, my, this speaker did respond to quality You couldn’t ask for three more sharply
wooden center columns were too small. I amplification and quality source material. The defined personalities. Paolo is intellectual
had to take out my trusty Black & Decker Conrad-Johnson pair exhibited its virtues. and austere. Gianni is lighthearted and fond
and drill each hole a little wider in order to Ditto the Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 300 inte- of jokes. Gaetano is a quiet family man who
attach the top and bottom plates. If you have grated — faster, with more power, more loves his music and his food — my sort of
to do the same, be careful — you wouldn’t punch, a little less body and a tad less bloom Gae, actually. The three seem to work well
want to over-drill or use too big a bit. Your together.
dealer should deliver the speakers and Even more than with the
assemble the stands. Bolting the speakers to The Pathos Acoustics Logos integrated
the stands can also be a bit of a hassle, but Cremona floorstanders, amplifier retails for $4495, vs $5595 for the
once it’s done, it’s done. Your dealer should Pathos TT (formerly the Pathos Twin Towers)
also set them up for best sound. Even more tweaking the Auditors’ with remote. Unlike the TT, the Logos does-
than with the Cremona floorstanders, n’t use the firm’s proprietary INPOL circuitry.
tweaking the Auditors’ positions enhanced positions enhanced their (See my discussion of the TT in the January
their soundstaging in our living room. 1999 Stereophile, Vol.22 No.1.)
soundstaging in our
I initially used a Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista The TT earned a Class A rating in “Re-
SACD player and matching Musical Fidelity living room. commended Components” for its superb reso-
Tri-Vista 300 integrated amplifier. That was lution and stunning immediacy. A single-ended
lotsa power: 350Wpc into 8 ohms. Later I sub- than the tubed amp. As for the Pathos design, this 35Wpc amplifier ran in pure class-
stituted the Pathos Logos and Pathos Classic Acoustics amps, you’ll hear in a moment. A, and ran very hot. Another drawback of the
One integrated amps, to achieve an all-Vicenza TT was the INPOL circuit’s inability, in single-
system. Along the way, I tried Conrad- The deepest notes were missing, of course, ended mode, to deliver full power into imped-
Johnson’s combination of Premier 16LS Series but I thought the Auditor delivered surpris- ances much below 8 ohms. The Pathos TT
2 preamplifier and Premier 140 tubed power ingly strong mid- to upper bass. More impor- was one of my references for a while, but
amp, which I wrote about last month. Gosh, I tant, the bass, midrange, and treble seemed lacked the versatility I need in an amplifier for
was so busy I hardly had time for summer seamless — rather like listening to a full-range reviewing. With the right speakers (preferably
vacation. Speaker cable was Triangle Silver electrostatic. Of course, the floorstanding 8 ohm, not dipping much below 6 ohms), the
Ghost. Cremona, with its dedicated bass driver, dug amp was —and is —magic.
deeper.
The Tri-Vista 300 offered more power The Logos is more of a real-world prod-
than I needed, and showed me that the But don’t assume you’ll necessarily like the uct, rated to deliver 110W into 8 ohms and
Cremona Auditor is an excellent handler of floorstander more. Being minimonitors, the 220W into 4 ohms. A fairly large amp, it
power. In some applications, it’ll have to be Cremona Auditors seemed to image better, measures 9" wide by 5.75" high by 19"
(I’m thinking home theater). Sonus Faber placing soloists and instruments even more deep, counting what ever protrudes, and
rates the Auditor at 88dB/W/m, its nominal precisely across and into the soundstage. Keep weighs 60 lbs. Pathos gear is distributed in
impedance at 4 ohms, and recommends in mind, too, that the Auditors, even with the US by VMAX Services.
powering it with 50–250Wpc. Flea-powered stands, cost $3250/pair less than the floor-
single-ended triode (SET) amps need not standers. Like all Pathos products, the Logos is visu-
apply. Ha! But I did find a way to get that SET ally stunning. A pair of Sovtek 6922 input
sound with the Auditors. Read on. If you have deep pockets, you might audi- tubes sits inside a triangular cutout sliced into
tion Sonus Faber’s Guarneri Homage. Yes, it’s the front panel. To enhance the glow, mirrors
The drive-units are from ScanSpeak, of been around for 10 years. Yes, its drivers are behind the tubes make it look as if there are
Denmark: a 1" ring-radiator, fabric-dome older designs. (Once he puts a speaker in pro- more than two tubes. Each tube sits inside a
tweeter and a 5.85" doped-paper duction, Franco Serblin isn’t one to change chrome Palladian rotunda. Along the amp’s
bass/midrange cone (crossover point not things.) While I’m not sure the Guarneri sides, heatsinks spell out the Pathos logo. The
specified). These are similar to but not quite Homage would stand up to heavy-duty sinks are hot but the look is cool. Watch out
the same as the drivers in the Cremona floor- home-theater use (abuse?), it has an exquisite — the edges of the heatsinks are a little sharp.
stander. The Auditor is ported at the rear, musicality, especially with strings and voices.
where the sides of the cabinet almost come You can own a pair for a mere $10,000, with A block of solid padouk is set into the
together. integral stands. front panel, inside which is a 100-step digital
volume control. You don’t actually turn the
Pasquale Maggiordomo (aka Patrick That should empty your wallet. knob. Instead, you flick it to the right or left
Butler), of Sumiko, US distributor for Sonus and watch the number change on the red
Faber, lives nearby and helped tweak the Pathos Acoustics Logos integrated LED display. A network of laser-trimmed
setup. This time he moved the speakers only amplifier resistors is said to provide perfect interchan-
slightly in our shoebox-proportioned living This is turning into an all-Vicenza column. nel balance. This is good — the Logos lacks a
room. They ended up 58" out from our nar- Maybe that’s okay. If you like Italian speak- balance control, which would only com-
row back wall and 31" from the sides. Did I ers, you might like Italian amplifiers. It does promise the sound. A slim remote control,
mention that the Cremona Auditor’s fre- seem that Sonus Faber and Pathos Acoustics housed in matching padouk, has unmarked
quency range is specified as 46Hz–40kHz? breathe the same air. functions for volume up and down, mute,
and input select.
The Auditor’s tonal balance was very simi- “And if you like Italian hi-fi, you should
lar to what I recalled from the Cremona floor- like Italian fashion,” says my wife, Marina, The input selector uses miniaturized
standers last winter: crisply articulated but not looking over my shoulder. relays that were originally developed for
bright, detailed but not sterile. The speaker telecommunications operations. There are
could play very, very loud, so I imagine they’ll “Nah. Everything comes from Wal-Mart, two balanced XLR inputs and five unbal-
serve well in —and withstand —home the- L.L. Bean, and Eddie Bauer.” anced RCA inputs, all line-level. There is a
ater applications. If your home theater system pair of fixed-level RCA tape outputs, but no
Pathos was founded by three gentlemen variable-level preamp out — a possible con-
from Vicenza: Paolo Andriolo, who attends

Stereophile, November 2003

Sam’s Space

cern for those who use pow- Pathos Acoustics Logos integrated amplifier: European — no, make that
ered subwoofers. The Logos more power, less heat than the famed TT. Italian — design at its best.
features a single pair of high- Most people can’t imagine
quality speaker binding posts. Like all Pathos products, that such stuff even exists.
These days, almost everyone
According to Gianni the Logos is is in the dark about great hi-
Borinato, the Logos runs about fi.
18W into pure class-A before visually stunning.
switching to class-AB. The amp Pathos Acoustics Classic
runs fairly warm —though not run didn’t spoil the performance. As for One integrated amplifier
as hot as the TT —and needs noise, there wasn’t any. Either way. The I was talking to the Chief
plenty of ventilation. At any Logos was astonishingly quiet. (aka John Atkinson) the
rate, you’d never want to hide other day about the new ver-
such a work of art in a cabinet. I received the Logos some months ago sion of the Pathos Classic
There are three pairs of MOS- and so had the chance to try it with several One integrated — a Classic if
FET output transistors per different speakers, including the Triangle there ever was One. I told
channel, which means the amp Magellan, for which the Logos was a very The Chief that I was trying
can deliver the current without fine match. I also had the chance to briefly to restrain my enthusiasm
any sweat. use the Logos with the floorstanding lest I be perceived as going over the top.
Cremonas before they went back. For the “You like to go over the top,” said JA.
On their website, Pathos states that part of most part, though, I did my serious listening “Yeah, that’s what Marina says. But Chief,
their philosophy is to avoid negative feed- with the Cremona Auditors. this is one of the finest amps I have heard of
back. “What we avoid is global feedback,” any kind, from anywhere, at any price. It
Gianni explained. “Some local feedback is The Logos gave me a very clean, clear retails for $2195. What do I tell readers who
needed to stabilize the circuits.” Solid-state sound, with excellent bass control and a have invested tens of thousands of dollars in
amps really can’t work without some local smooth, grain-free treble. The harmonic North American muscle amps?”
feedback. integrity of tubes? I guess so. Sibilants were “You tell them how you feel,” said the
handled especially well, without splash or Chief.
“Global feedback reduces THD [total har- sizzle. What the Logos lacked in some of I laughed my evil laugh.
monic distortion] and lowers output imped- the TT’s stunning single-ended immediacy The Classic One is supposed to be
ance,” Gianni continued. “You get excellent it made up in more power and more cur- Pathos’s entry-level integrated amp. But you
test-bench measurements. But the human ear rent delivery into low-impedance loads. might end up making it your exit-level inte-
is much more sophisticated than test gear and The Logos carries a lower price than the grated — once you hear it, you probably
can detect the lack of naturalness that comes TT, too. I noted excellent control of the won’t want anything else. This is assuming
with global feedback. Listening fatigue soon bass drivers on both the floorstanding Cre- the Classic One delivers enough power for
sets in. monas and the Magellans. your speakers and room. It’s not exactly a
wimp, pushing out a rated 70Wpc into 8
“The amplifier’s preamp stage is fully bal- The Logos struck me as a great-looking, ohms and 135Wpc into 4 ohms, using a sin-
anced from the input to the output of the fine-sounding, well-engineered product. gle pair of MOSFET output devices per
preamp,” he continued. “That is, up to the Even with unbalanced sources, I noticed no channel. According to Gianni Borinato, it de-
power-amp stage.” The 6922 tubes are dou- hum, no noise, and an extremely quiet back- livers about 12Wpc of pure class-A. It runs
ble triodes. They provide the gain, and the ground — indeed, no background at all. warm, but not excessively hot.
preamp stage operates in pure class-A. While I loved the looks of the original
I highly recommend the Logos, especially Classic One (we can call it the One/One
“It’s not a matter of following fashion,” said if you need the power and authority of a fair- and this the One/Two), I didn’t much care
Gianni. “Tubes are still the best device for ly beefy integrated amp and don’t want to for the sound, which I thought lacked clarity
amplifying voltage. Period. The advantage is put up with the squalid looks of most ampli- and focus. Rather like me. Too many cur-
evident in the harmonic presentation. fiers made in North America. You pay a pre- tains. Too many whales. (Of course, Lars
Meanwhile, solid-state devices, not tubes, are mium for the design and cosmetics, of meant veils.)
what you need to amplify current. Speakers course, but not such a great one — a butt- I wish I could have taken the Classic
desperately need high current at very low ugly integrated with 100hp or more is likely One/Two (okay, it’s the Classic One) over to
impedance. Tubes deliver the opposite: low to set you back $3000. And then you’ll have Lars’s lair and put it against whatever
current at very high impedance. to look at it. $10,000, $20,000, or $30,000 amp was his
current favorite. I suspect that the Classic
“There are advantages to having a balanced The Logos is an excellent choice for those One might have won out, giving the Swede
preamp stage,” Gianni continued. “You min- who need high power, high current, want a quite a yolt. Come to think of it, I would
imize common-mode noise picked up by refined and delicate sound, and value have loved to take the Classic One over to
your interconnects. The noise is the same, Harvey “Gizmo” Rosenberg’s. He would
coming and going, plus and minus. It gets have wanted to modify it, of course.
canceled in a balanced system. You can hear You can identify the new version of the
cleaner, more natural sound, with more detail Classic One because it has the 100-step dig-
and precision. It’s like lifting a curtain.” ital volume control (same as the Logos) and
the On/Off toggle switch on the right. It
Or removing a whale, as my late friend also has the walnut remote. The Classic One
Lars liked to say. is smaller than the Logos and weighs 26.4
lbs vs the Logos’ 60 lbs. It’s an unusual shape:
“Beware of amplifiers on the market that deep and narrow. The dimensions are a
claim to be balanced when they’re really mere 9" wide by 5.75" high by 19" deep.
not,” Gianni advised. “These amps take a bal- The Classic One’s open architecture
anced signal from their XLR inputs and con-
vert it into an unbalanced signal through a
chip. The result is not the same as balanced.”

Unfortunately, Musical Fidelity’s Tri-Vista
SACD player lacks balanced outputs; but I
could run balanced using my McIntosh
MCD205 CD changer. While I preferred
the sound running balanced, a single-ended

Stereophile, November 2003

Sam’s Space

reminds me of a classic block-style tube One didn’t just emulate or approach the sound bloat around. Most amps do.
amp — even the power-supply trans- of SETs —it rivaled, if not surpassed, the If 70Wpc (into 8 ohms) isn’t enough for
former at the rear looks like a tube amp’s sound of flea-powered SETs I have known.
output transformer, chrome cap and all. you, you can double your wattage by buying
Two Sovtek 6922 input tubes reside in On all recordings, particularly great classi- two Classic Ones and bridging them into
chrome Palladian rotundas, as in the cal ones (and that often means older rather mono for fully balanced operation: balanced
Logos. A small chunk of solid walnut is set than newer), the Classic One had a way of power-amp stage and balanced line stage.
inside the amp’s front (you can hardly call illuminating the music from within and The dealer can make the modification, but
it a “faceplate’’). The top is black Plexiglas. breathing air into the soundstage and the per- you can’t. Paolo will spank you if you try.
formance. Everything and everyone sounded
The Classic One is one of the most beau- more natural — instruments, voices, the But I’m not sure more power is the way to
tiful hi-fi products ever made. It’s exquisite. recording venue. The music just flowed nat- go. Some of the magic may come from using
And the build quality is very, very high. urally. The harmonic presentation was this single pair of MOSFETs per channel.
North American and British manufacturers exquisite. The treble seemed effortlessly and
should look at this amp and feel Curiosity got to the cat. I removed the
ashamed for foisting off on us such Pathos Acoustics Classic One: this could be your Cremona Auditors from their stands and
squalid ugliness as they do. No “exit level” integrated amplifier.
wonder women, for instance, don’t used the stands instead for my
want to buy their products. Who Pathos has achieved Sonus Faber Minima FM2s. I
wants to look at them? Even I something phenomenal couldn’t bolt the Minimas to
don’t, and I wear clothes from the stands, so I used a gener-
Wal-Mart. here — and in their ous dollop of sticky-tack to
entry-level integrated. secure them. Otherwise, the
The Pathos Classic One has a Auditor stands were perfetto.
single pair of balanced XLR endlessly extended. With good recordings,
inputs (the preamp stage is bal- the sense of recorded space was…well, spa- The Minima FM2 is a clas-
anced, as on the Logos), and four cious. Not specious. sic minimonitor from the
unbalanced RCA inputs. There’s 1980s. Like many other min-
also a tape output, but no vari- While the bass was not so authoritative imonitors of the era, it’s rela-
able-level preamp output — a and weighty as what I heard from the Logos, tively insensitive (84dB) and
bummer, perhaps, for subwoofer- the bass was exceptionally well-defined, as it perhaps more friendly to
ers. The digital volume control, is with flea-powered SETs (until you push a solid-state amps than to tubes.
source selector, and walnut SET’s volume, of course). But I didn’t have to Powered by the Pathos
remote control are exactly the put up with the severe power limitations of Classic One, the Minima
same as those used on the Logos. SETs. I could use the Classic One to get FM2s offered up sheer magic:
SET-like sound from the Sonus Faber superb tonality, spectacular
Mama mia! The new Classic Cremona Auditors. The amp would have soundstaging. Rather like the
One took me completely by sur- worked well with the floorstanding soundstage I heard — you
prise, especially since I was expect- Cremonas too, I’m sure. guessed it — at Vicenza’s
ing it to be only a tad better than Teatro Olimpico. (The hall is
the old. It wasn’t. It was a whole At first, I thought the bass with the Classic very wide. It’s an indoor
order of magnitude better than the One might be a little lightweight. When you amphitheater.)
ho-hum original. audition this amp — and you must — don’t
get tricked. I found the bottom end superbly Speaking of tonality, the
Excuse me while I wipe the controlled, exquisitely defined. It just didn’t sound of the Classic One was
foam from my lips. Raving will do not subdued — brass instru-
that. ments had real brassiness,
strings could have that wiry
Pathos has achieved something edge when required. (Not all
phenomenal here — and in their classical music is beautiful;
entry-level integrated. Again, I some is meant to be jarring,
expect it will be exit-level for most, unsettling.)
because where could you go from here?
Well, you could get more power. But, you Contacts
know, audiophiles are often greedy little pigs.
Gotta have that power. They pay with inferi- Pathos Acoustics s.r.l., via Caprese
or sound quality. 129, 36100 Vicenza, Italy. Tel: (39)
0444-248053. Fax: (39) 0444-241136.
JA told me not to constipate myself, so Web: www.pathosacoustics.com.
here goes. The Pathos Acoustics Classic One Sonus Faber s.r.l., via A. Meucci 10,
is one of the finest-sounding amps I have 36057 Arcugnano, Vicenza, Italy. Tel:
ever heard, of any era, from anywhere — (39) 444-288788. Fax: (39) 444-
including amps costing $20,000 and more. 288722. Web: www.sonusfaber.com.
Those megabuck models of course offer Sumiko, 2431 Fifth Street, Berkeley,
more power, but power limitations aside, I CA 94710. Tel: (510) 843-4500. Fax: (510)
know of nothing on the market — certainly 843-7120. Web: ww.sumikoaudio.net.
nothing I’ve heard — that surpasses the VMAX Services, P.O. Box 570, Chazy,
Classic One where it counts (for me, that is): NY 12921. Tel: (800) 771-8279, (514)
in harmonic accuracy, resolution, and illumi- 932-7786. Fax: (514) 931-8891. In
nation — immediacy, if you will. Canada: P.O. Box 8, 1217 Greene
Avenue, Montreal, Quebec H3Z 2T1.
I marveled at the magic even before the Tel: (514) 931-1880. Web: www.vmax-
Classic One broke in and warmed up. It services.com.
infused the Sonus Faber Cremona Auditor
speakers with light and life —the way the
finest, flea-powered SET amps do. The Classic

Posted with permission from the November 2003 issue of Stereophile ®
Copyright 2003, PRIMEDIA Inc. All rights reserved.

For more information about reprints from Stereophile, contact Wright’s Reprints at 877-652-5295

Sam’s Space

Meanwhile, be sure to audition the Pathos

Acoustics Classic One. This is an ideal ampli-

fier for a small two-channel system in a

library, office, or den. The Classic One

worked like a charm in our living room, too.

If you need more muscle, there’s always the

Logos; maybe the thing to do, while you’re

at your Pathos dealer, is audition them both.

If your pockets are deep, here’s a

thought: Try to get a Classic One together

with a pair of Guarneri Homage speakers.

This would be rather like a poor man, say

from the Italian south, marrying a rich

woman from the Italian north — but I’ll bet

the combination clicks.

In Vicenza, there is indeed something in

the air. s

Stereophile, November 2003 37