Vitus Audio RI-100 Integrated Amplifier

EQUIPMENT REPORT

Vitus Audio RI-100 Integrated
Amplifier

Sledgehammer With a Heart

Neil Gader

The word “entry-level” covers a vast swath of price points chassis and the massive aluminum faceplate and pushbutton
in the high end. For Vitus Audio, a premium maker of controls of the RS; however, unlike the Signature and
electronics from Denmark, its Reference Series, which Masterpiece components, the rear casing is prosaic sheet metal,
includes the RI-100, is a $13k entry-level product—Vitus’ a nonmagnetic aluminum rather than the thick slabs of steel and
bottom rung. It’s beneath the Signature Series, Vitus’ pure Class aluminum of the pricier products. The expansive back panel
A fully balanced designs, and even further down the ladder from houses a pair of unbalanced RCA and a trio of balanced XLR
the heady, damn-the-torpedoes, dual-chassis Masterpiece Series. inputs, plus a preamp output.
The RI-100 is vivid confirmation of the Paul Simon lyric, “One
man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.” Controls, memory functions, and assorted connectivity can
all be optimized via menu-driven software from the front panel
The Reference RI-100 linestage integrated is not my first date or remote control. The latter is an Apple remote, not the fully-
with a Vitus Audio amp. In Issue 218, I reviewed the Signature featured rechargeable masterpiece that the uptown Signature
Series SIA-025, a marvelous Class A linestage integrated and, at Series offers. Since it’s an off-the-shelf device, the user needs to
a vertiginous $25k, the most expensive one I’ve reviewed to date. pair the remote to the RI-100 (unless you like triggering other
So it would be natural to assume that the RI-100 at roughly half Apple-compatible devices elsewhere in the house). Like the
the price would be a big step down. Not by a long shot. pricier models the precision volume control is relay-based and
employs only a single resistor in series with the signal at any given
At its core, the RI-100 is essentially the Vitus Audio RS- time. Still, ergonomics are a little clunky and the display too small
100 solid-state stereo amplifier with the addition of a linestage for my taste. Personally I like spinning a heavy volume wheel and
preamp. It outputs a stout 300Wpc RMS into 8 ohms. Cosmetics seeing the results via a large set of fluorescent numerals
are minimalist but the amp is built to endure. It shares both the

122 April 2013 theabsolutesound

EQUIPMENT REPORT - Vitus Audio RI-100 Integrated Amplifier

I asked company president Hans Ole Vitus about the key weight of brass sections and capturing the full body of a featured
differences between Reference RI-100 and the previously saxophone on recordings like Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West.
reviewed SIA-025. He stated that the output stage is identical I could pick out with utter clarity the surprising minutiae that
to the SIA-025, but with some topology differences in the input humanize a performance—whether it was a creaky piano bench
module. The transformer is a more traditional EI-core rather or a rustle of clothing or the flutter of sheet music being turned.
than the Signature’s custom UI-core. Parts quality and matching
of internal components, while stringent in the Reference Series, But the RI-100 was also a sleeping giant that could summon
reaches an ever-higher threshold in the fully balanced Signature a sledgehammer of energy at any instant. As I listened to the
Series. The crucial difference, as mentioned earlier, is output bass drum and tympani exchanges of Copland’s Fanfare for the
stage operation—Class AB for Reference Series and Class A for Common Man [Reference Recordings] I felt that I was finally
Signature. realizing the unrestricted dynamic and visceral potential of this
recording. There was more deep-seated rumble, sustain, air, and
As powerful as the RI-100 is, brute force is not the sonic decay. And this translated into greater insight into the nature of
element that stands out—at least not all the time. From day one, the recording itself.
what really struck home was the lack of an electronic signature
throughout the frequency spectrum. There was no glaze smudging It also reproduced the delicate world of space and ambience
transients, or any dry powdery whiteness over the treble. The around the music like few amplifiers I’ve experienced. This amp
RI-100 was supernaturally quiet. I’d describe its character as fixed a musical image in a precise position without sacrificing
relaxed but ready. Sure there was impressive transient speed that the distinct ambient space that instrument was occupying. It
seamlessly integrated with a rich tonality. But the RI-100 was not also teased out high-frequency information, harmonics, accurate
euphonic in the classic tube sense of the word, nor was it etched sibilance, and leading-edge transient cues, and did so with a soft
or pushy like less-desirable solid-state. In comparison to some touch. The string sections of Appalachian Spring had buoyancy
other amps I’m familiar with, its top end would have seemed a and a lack of strident edge that on more than one occasion had
tad warm and reserved at first, except for the amount of sheer me recollecting the flawless treble performance of the pure Class
musicality that poured forth, especially on violin recordings like A SIA-025.
those featuring Arturo Delmoni [JMR] or Anne-Sophie Mutter
[DG]. The RI-100 delicately presented the upper register of the There are people who will look at an integrated amplifier like
violin as sweetly contained aggression, which is the most concise the Vitus Audio RI-100 and ask, “What am I going to do with
way I can describe what a violin sounds like at full tilt. three hundred watts per channel?” My stock reply is, “Eighty-
three.” As in 83dB, the sensitivity of my long-standing reference
The Vitus conveyed a chesty center of gravity on recordings compact loudspeakers, the ATC SCM20SL. Every amp that has
from the lower mids on down, zeroing in on the substance and come through my listening room in recent years has had to deal
with this two-way sealed-box compact and its death-defyingly
124 April 2013 theabsolutesound low sensitivity. (Seems to me, when a rating dips this low it
should become an “insensitivity” rating.) If you consider that
every 3dB decrease in loudspeaker sensitivity requires double the
amplifier power to achieve the same sound-pressure level, you’ll
realize just how much loudspeaker sensitivity dictates the need
for amplifier power.

The ATC will not do bottom octave bass, but driven with
the right amplification it is extremely articulate, as it rolls off
into the 40Hz range. How does this apply to the RI-100? Marc
Cohn’s track “True Companion” [Atlantic] has a bass drum

SPECS & PRICING

Power output: 300Wpc RMS UK Retail price:
into 8 ohms £9500
Dimensions: 17.1" x 7.6" x 18.5"
Weight: 88 lbs.

AVA GROUP A/S UK Distributor:
Sandgaardsvej 31, DK-7400 www.kogaudio.com
Herning
+45 9626 8046
[email protected]

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Vitus Audio RI-100 Integrated Amplifier - EQUIPMENT REPORT

(likely augmented in the studio) that’s softly struck at the end of the same token the RI-100 powers through the broader swaths
each verse. I’ve heard this track hundreds of times on a countless of large-scale symphonies and power rock in a way that makes
number of amplifiers. Systems have a hard time reproducing other amps seem a bit submissive. It’s virtually unrivalled in its
the extension and detail of this moment, but the RI-100, likely breathtakingly tight-fisted low-octave reproduction, but it won’t
summoning a healthy heaping of its 300 watts, provided more quite offer up the fullest breath of soundstage dimensionality
detail and sustain from this cue that these speakers have ever like the superb Vitus SIA-025.
reproduced before.
So which one is for you? The answer depends most heavily on
What constitutes authentic bass reproduction in a system the choice of loudspeaker, the size of the room, and to a lesser
always involves strong personal preferences. The question of extent your own listening bias. For example, if you’re seeking
control and grip cuts both ways. On the one hand, I expect to orchestral levels in a large space with only a moderately sensitive
hear the resonant sustain and gradual decay of bass information, loudspeaker, the RI-100 would brilliantly fill the bill. But perhaps
but if it’s not balanced against a controlled attack the illusion of your tastes run more to smaller-scale music such as soloists and
realism dissolves like so much smoke. By the same token, too chamber groups, and you also have a high-sensitivity loudspeaker.
much grip can choke off sustain and decay. For example, during In such a case, the SIA-025 could be the better choice.
Jennifer Warnes’ “Way Down Deep” [Private] I’ve heard the
talking drum played by percussionist Paulinho Da Costa run the However, this story isn’t over. The RI-100 will fulfill its
gamut from flat and tuneless to fat and loose. With the RI-100 I destiny—filling those empty red-sealed slots on its back panel—
felt I was hearing an ideal balance of transient impact, drum skin when the optional DAC and phono modules become available.
flutter, and voicing shifts. Said to be retrofittable in the field, this will be a first for Vitus
Audio, and I intend to report on these developments when they
The Reference Series RI-100, on balance, gives away little to hit the market sometime in 2013. However, even as a “basic”
its highfalutin’ pure Class A Signature Series siblings. They both linestage integrated the Vitus Audio RI-100 has carved out a
present music with astounding presence and energy. Both are fluid unique segment in the high end—what could be termed “entry-
and articulate. But the Class A SIA-025 has a riper tonality, and level elite.” It currently has few challengers, and none that I have
a micro-presence that expresses the smallest dynamic gradients yet heard can surpass it. An alpha amp if ever there was one.
and image clusters (orchestral section layering and choral groups More to come on this one soon.
come to mind) in a way the larger amp can’t quite match. By

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