DENVER (PTA) — High End by OZ gave us a US debut from Vitus Audio with their monster integrated amplifier, AudioSolutions brings an incredibly dynamic loudspeakers to the table, and Ansuz Acoustics cable worms its way into yet another room and heart.

The Story

Big news in Vitus integrated amplifier country, but first I definitely want to highlight the loudspeakers from AudioSolutions. It’s a second year for them in America, and once again, I’m hearing something really special.

We talk about room size too much at audio shows, but that’s because it matters much. The exhibit spaces for most systems is small but they manage. Bookshelves always impress at shows, because they can aptly supply a room with accurate and deep-enough bass.

Bringing your flagship towers and squeezing them into a sleeping-suite just isn’t as much a recipe for good sound as it is being seen and being frugal. Large rooms are limited as well, so that’s just the way it goes.

It was last year when I first heard AudioSolutions at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2018. If you heard them for the first time last year, it’s probably because it was their US debut. High End by Oz was showing the smaller AudioSolutions Figaro M last year, which was a knockout loudspeaker debut using a Vitus 25-watt Class-A amplifier. But that was last year, in a much smaller room.

It’s a new year and a much bigger room, the AudioSolutions Virtuoso M ($32,000 pr USD) loudspeaker. The Virtuoso series of loudspeaker fit in between the previously heard Figaro line, and the unheard flag-ship Vantage line.

The Virtuoso line borrows a lot of technology from the Vantage and Figaro line. From below, the “box in a box” cabinet design is enhanced for the Virtuoso line. From above a scaled down version of the Vantage crossover network. Efficiency is the name of the game at a rated 92dB for the Virtuoso M, and with clean bass frequencies reaching down to a rated 25Hz, you understand why these are 165-lb loudspeakers.

On to the new integrated. The all-new Vitus Audio SIA-030 ($40,000 USD) is a new integrated amplifier that rates output power to 30-watts under the Class-A umbrella, and up to 200-watts in Class-A/B thereafter. In it’s RMAF display form, the stunning dark-titanium-orange aluminum finish chassis is to die for. Looking more like a monoblock than an integrated, the sleek and hulking nature of the design, remains as compact as described.

Yes it is a 140-lb beast of an integrated, but it packs a lot of tech into its size. The 22kW transformer is the usual UI custom design, rated at 400,000 microfarads, and accounts for 45lbs of the unit’s weight all by itself. More features include a new full-color multi-line display for easier reading, a fully regulated power supply and lower-than-low noise specs all-around. Module inputs are in the works.

Other components of the system, Vitus Audio’s SCD-025 Mk II ($25,200 USD) DAC/CD Player, from United Home Audio the Ultima 4 OPS-DC ($30,000 USD) reel-to-reel deck, with Ansuz Acoustics cabling throughout the system.

The Sound

The AudioSolutions Virtuoso M tower is not much larger than the Figaro M I heard last year, but in seemingly every way it plays bigger, deeper, and with greater finesse. Is the larger room to blame? Possibly.

During our listening we lived Class-A range of power for SIA-030 integrated. Possibly flirting with an A/B switch a time or two, but for all of it an amazingly detailed glow and tonal balance that felt right at home. This was my second day of listening with the show system. First on Thursday, which set a high bar for all that followed. Now on Sunday, nothing has really changed in my opinion. The offerings from High End by OZ remain at the top of my list for the weekend.