Thread: Upgrade on the way...

I am excited to share that I have decided to swap my Soulution 330 for separate pre and power amps.
Since I have the Esoteric K03-XD and found its DAC to be of a different league over the one in the 330, and because I strongly believe my Magico Q3s will benefit from a bit more power, I decided to upgrade to a non-integrated amp combo.

I will soon be receiving a Soulution 511 stereo power amp and a Vitus Audio MP L201 mkII pre amp. My intuition says it will be a nice synergy all together. Some might think that the 511 and the Vitus are not a match due to each being of a different price category, but I believe that Soulution has one of the best, neutral and precise amps on the market today so it will match up nicely. We'll see, uh... hear

With some regret I will say goodbye to using my turntable for a while, because the Vitus does not have a phono stage. But I am not such a record enthusiast as one could be anyway. That's mainly due to the incredibly bad quality of most records made today ... 50% chance of buying a non-warped, centered, clean record... and the ease of digital. I do enjoy the rituals of record playing and its so comforting sound signature once in a while.

Also, I have ordered a Zanden 3100 pre to have a pair of pre-amps with different characters, solid state vs tube. Maybe a Zanden phono stage in the future?

Can't wait

Cheers

Congrats! Good moves.


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Originally Posted by pietpara

I am excited to share that I have decided to swap my Soulution 330 for separate pre and power amps.
Since I have the Esoteric K03-XD and found its DAC to be of a different league over the one in the 330, and because I strongly believe my Magico Q3s will benefit from a bit more power, I decided to upgrade to a non-integrated amp combo.

I will soon be receiving a Soulution 511 stereo power amp and a Vitus Audio MP L201 mkII pre amp. My intuition says it will be a nice synergy all together. Some might think that the 511 and the Vitus are not a match due to each being of a different price category, but I believe that Soulution has one of the best, neutral and precise amps on the market today so it will match up nicely. We'll see, uh... hear

With some regret I will say goodbye to using my turntable for a while, because the Vitus does not have a phono stage. But I am not such a record enthusiast as one could be anyway. That's mainly due to the incredibly bad quality of most records made today ... 50% chance of buying a non-warped, centered, clean record... and the ease of digital. I do enjoy the rituals of record playing and its so comforting sound signature once in a while.

Also, I have ordered a Zanden 3100 pre to have a pair of pre-amps with different characters, solid state vs tube. Maybe a Zanden phono stage in the future?

Can't wait

Cheers

Nice!!

Hi,

I wanted to share that after some patience, I have received my new gear this Friday and have been setting it all up and managed to listen and warm up everything.

I've not connected the Zanden yet, but replaced the Soulution 330 with the Vitus pre and Soulution 511 poweramp.

My first impression in the first hour of listening was "sounds strange, as if ir were less coherent or cohesive". Going through some vocals by Norah Jones to Pink Floyd Animals remaster to Dave Brubeck's at Carnegie Hall to Dub Spencer and Trance Hill, Can, Carla Morrison, Lou Reed, Yello and more music through the spectrum, I realize that it's not lacking cohesion. Rather, it's an impressive ability to individualize each instrument, voice, sound in timbre and location with space around it. So yes, it's less cohesive but as it's supposed to be. It also has improved a lot in this separation when music gets very busy, keeping micro details also still audible.
Another very clearly noticeable improvement is the much better and deeper defined bass. Not that there is constantly more of it but when it's there n the recording it's much more compete and controlled / powerful / punchy.

I know it was to be expected, but I am incredibly content with the upgrade. Even though one knows to describe what direction one would like the upgrade to bring your system, it is still always a surprise to actually hear it, where words always fall short.

Some interesting observations are that the preamp gets warmer than the poweramp and that it takes a couple of hours to warm up.

Cheers

20230319_151633.jpg

The last 2 evenings I hooked up, warmed up and listened to the Zanden 3100.
I have to say that I am impressed, very impressed.

The spaciousness, large soundscape with such incredible realism and dynamics are even scary. 👌
Of course, especially blues, jazz with vocals are represented with such vibrance and presence its amazing.
As someone here in the forum wrote,... with a good amp you don't hear at what volume the knob is set because the dynamics should take over... and this is exactly what happens.

Beautiful 😍

That for a small device, no external psu as with the 4x pricier Vitus is chapeau!

After 1 year of tremendous enjoyment with my new gear, I have been so lucky to audition a Gryphon Antileon EVO. Being dazzled by the sheer control through unlimited power and resulting vividness and soundstage coming out of the Q3s, I decided to purchase the 25th anniversary edition.
When I believed to be a 100% Soulution fan with Magico, I have to admit that Gryphon is the next league. So much more realism, lower octaves, stage depth and micro details.
Happy chappy.