by Rafe Arnott
Walking into a Vinnie Rossi room at a hifi show is sort of like walking into a speakeasy, or a private club. The vibe is always super chill and Vinnie is always the epitome of casual, happy, chatty, and laid back… which in this particular case at Rocky Mountain Audio Festival 2016 is no small feat as he is expecting his third child. Mr. Rossi and his lovely wife are expecting a daughter within the next few weeks, and man was Vinnie hyped when I asked how his family was doing (Congrats Vinnie!).
If your a Vinnie Rossi fan (and I am unabashedly one) then you know all about his incredible modular-designed LIO integrated amplifier system, but for true fans of his ultra-capacitor powered designs which eliminate the need for fancy power conditioners, or regenerators (AND EXPENSIVE AC CORDS MY FRIENDS) then you will be truly hyped to hear that Vinnie is springing the brand new MINI PURE-DC-4EVR on his legions of fans. After receiving numerous requests for a “dedicated DC power supply product that uses the same patent-pending, isolated, ultracapacitor-based power supply technology” that is featured in his LIO designs.
The unit is firmly targeted at the “Sonore microRendu and other small computer modules, USB cards, dacs, preamps, headphone amplifiers, and even small amplifiers, and other products & DIY projects requiring fairly low DC voltage(s). Even some CD transports, turntable motors, and field-coil drivers run on 12Vdc.” This is news to rejoice about people, as after hearing the setup at RMAF which featured the said MINI PURE-DC-4EVR unit juicing a Sonore microRendu, I can easily say that this is a no-brainer upgrade that will add incredible depth, and dimensionality to computer-based playback. I’m fairly familiar with the sound of the LIO being fed ones and zeroes (this is a Class-A, OTL zero feedback pre-amp, with a fully customizable MOSFET integrated amplifier pulling power duties as well as Class-A, zero-feedback JFET phono stage with MC step-up transformers, and DSD/PCM 32-bit/384 DAC duties, to the tune of 25 w/pc into 8 Ohms and runs an incredibly reasonable $10,470 USD), but what I heard in Denver is a whole other ball game.
The LIO was feeding a pair of Harbeth Super HL5 Plus ($6,995 USD) in Denver, and the sound was even more organic, ballsy, emotionally-engaging, and outputting the most jammi-est midrange I’ve heard from this combo. It just begged to be turned waaaay up. Get your pre-orders in now at:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=0svf3dmpsunq5njf4ebv9nltn0&topic=145402.0
http://www.vinnierossi.com/
