VITUS AUDIO SS-102
Integrated amplifiers
The SS-102's craftsmanship is spectacular as is its minimalistic design. The sharp-cut fascia is clean aluminium-glass look with all six push buttons recessed into it. The amp is a pretty brute-force industrial design, finned sides encased in monolithic oversized construction that is very rigid so that the amp could be carried around by grasping the lid’s handles. Actually, the SS-102 is the bulkiest and the heaviest integrated amplifier I have ever touched.
Function and form
The SS-102 sits on the top of their “integrated” range. Important to mention that what Vitus Audio calls an “integrated amplifier” is not necessarily what comes onto your mind. The integration means that the SS-102 is a one device. Yet it will not allow you to do usual tricks that you would expect from an integrated amp. For example, it only has 2 line inputs, single-ended and balanced, one pair each. Forget about headphones. Forget about vinyl. Do not even think about tone controls, tape monitoring or similar. All that the Vitus SS-102 allows you to do is to feed it with analogue signal from a source component or DAC, adjust the volume and send it to loudspeakers.
There is nothing like signal preamplifier, rather the volume control is a passive device, an attenuator that is based on resistor-relay array. Vitus Audio provides possibility to bypass the volume control so the amp transforms into a power amplifier by single push of a button on its frontplate. At the end, no one suspects the SS-102 to be an integrated amplifier as there is no volume knob – the attenuation is realized through two up and down buttons as is the rest of functions: intensity of the display and backlit logo, mute function, switching inputs and finally switching between its operation modes.
Bass management
The Vitus SS-102 can operate in class A (up to 2x50W) or in class A/B (up to 2x100W) though neither manufacturer nor manual specifies into which load – I suppose it is 8 ohms. The manufacturer does not give away too much details on the SS-102’s inner topology. The amp should benefit – like other Vitus Audio’s designs – from absence of negative feedback. According to Hans Ole any type of feedback implies phase errors that consequently smear the sound. Quite recently Audiodrom has investigated a lot into the subject of amplitude vs phase distortions and it has become clear, that if the former is not perfect yet the time errors does not occur the listeners would tolerate it; it does not work the other way round though, not speaking of the case where both areas show some issues.
Another specialty of Vitus Audio is using UI-core transformers instead of toroid transformers. Is it only an attempt to differentiate or does it have a real advantage? I do not know – recently we have reviewed the brand new Luxman M-900u power amplifier that uses CI and EI core transformers and sounds amazing.
According to Vitus Audio UI-core transformers provide needed stability, low radiation, low voltage drop and clarity plus they eliminate the need for additional power conditioners. Sounds challenging!
There is also one more thing that is shared between the SS-102 and M-900u: bipolar transistors in its output stage.
Clarity & delicacy
When MJ dropped by for a listen, he commented in the following way:
My impression is that of tonal richness that is to the extent of being dense. This is something I like as real sounds are always very dense and layered textures though they may appear being simple. Yet our audiophile ears prefer “clean” sound which is (too far often) totally incomplete sound. I am not against cleanliness as long as it means transparency. In Vitus Audio SS-102 I was receiving both – richness and transparency.
The sound of the SS-102 is dense, harmonically rich and very fluid. It is the type of sound you would never associate with the words ‘transistor’ or ‘solid state’. Yet, it also lacks the lushness and (sometimes) infidelity of the tubes. The sonic picture painted by the Vitus is smoothly precise, contoured, very well timed and extraordinarily dynamic. It comes as no surprise that the Vitus SS-102 is at home with especially classical music, where it can deliver both size and drama.
Tonal accuracy
The track named Orpheus (David Sylvian) features an unusual yet beautiful combination of flugelhorn and slide guitar at around 2´30 mark. The guitar is nicely highlighted through the SS-102, it is not difficult to visualize its plucked strings in front of you. The guitar triplet in When Poets Dreamed of Angels is similarly spicy: the upwards tilted mix made a base for ´audiophile´ type of sound, not unlike what Stockfisch Records are famous for, yet with twofold dynamics (I believe that someone should finally explain to Stockfisch that compression is not a good thing). The strings are fabulous through the SS-102, with fast transient attacks and long reverberant decays. Due to the darker and smooth character of the Vitus I would expect sluggish sound but opposite was in place. The amplifier could provide plentiful detail retrieval with harmonic richness which is a killer combination. From top to bottom, as I witnessed with double bass in Mother and Child.
Spatial resolution
Unfortunately, the SS-102 is also among the priciest single pieces of equipment I have ever hosted. At 30,000 € the manufacturer could have included at least a remote controller to heal the financial wound a bit. The remote actually is available but at extra cost. Though I really liked the sound of the Vitus Audio SS-102 it remains to be the first component I reviewed that I recommend sonically but see it as a poor investment alternative – there is way too many contenders that bring more value.
Manufacturer's website: http://www.vitusaudio.com
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