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Soulution 710 Amplifier and 720 Preamplifier

Friends:

I am just curious how much better these ultra-reference, ultra-expensive Swiss units are than well respected American reference products like Pass Labs, Spectral, Boulder, Clayton Audio on the SS side or VAC on the tube side.

I am driving German Physiks Carbon mkIV omnidirectionals.

I am told the Soulutions are ultra neutral, ultra-transparent,and ultra musical, sharing the finest characteristics of tubes and SS, yet high bias class AB I'm told by a dealer.

I realize all is in the ear of the beholder, but are these swiss designers using better parts, more innovative circuitry, etc to generate a level of musicality and purity a notch above the finest US brands?.

I am looking for a final purchase as I approach retirement, and am actually considering the Soulution 710 Amp and 720 Pre (an almost mind-boggling cost of $85,000 retail, less a fair discount)..yes I am most fortunate to be in this position, but I do not wish to pay $40,000 extra for 3% difference in sound quality. (I realize this is the nature of purchasing ultra-reference high end gear)

Any strong opinions about the Soulution line would be greatly appreciated (including reliability) Yes, I am planning a trip to NYC in less than 5 weeks to audition, but your thoughts would be a helpful foundation to my audition.

Thanks in advance
Brian
audiobrian
kusina
78 posts
 
I like to hear the end of stories. Did Brian make a choice and buy something? If he did, has he any second thoughts that he'd like to share?

Also, I wonder how Vitus amps compare to Soulution or other leading brands. While Vitus seems comparatively weak in watts advertised, some of those watts are pure Class A. Does that give Vitus something of a sonic advantage?
mmhobby
1 posts
 
I couldn't agree more to the posting of Brianherlihy. After being a long time fan of the music produced by my top of line Spectral setup, it was a quick and easy decision to move over to the Soulution 721/710 combo. It has all the goodies of the finest Spectral amp setup (resolution, speed, 3D, dynamics, neutrality), and adds to that the smoothness, density of color and finesse of the finest tube amps. I've compared my Spectral amps many times with both SS and Tube competition, but never I heard something that gave me more musical satisfaction. but the Soulutions easily surpassed it.

By the way, I still play disks with the Spectral 4000 pro CD player, which is still the best in my experience (albeit, I haven't tried to find for better very hard, it is that musically satisfying).
wadav
84 posts
 
Thanks MmHobby for the comparison to Spectral. I am sure there are some intangables that separate the two.
audiobrian OP
184 posts
 
Friends:

Sorry for my lack of response. I have been taking care of some unexpected problems, outside the realms of audio.
I did audition the Soulutions and found them to be quite musical. However, to my ears, in my system, I found even more musicality and a slightly more natural presentation with a VAC Ren Sig IIa Preamp and a pair of Clayton Audio M-300 class A monoblocks, considerably less expensive.
The Soulution gear tended to be ever so slightly lean with my German Physik Carbons. The tubed VAC reference pre and class A Claytons, with 300/600 wpc class A, just sound completely "right" with the German Physiks.
Of course this is one man's opinion and system dependent.
I am using Stereovox IC's and Speaker cables, and Cardas GR power cords thruout.
My belated thanks to all respondants.
kusina
78 posts
 
Audiobrian, Thanks for updating us. It is satisfying to have some conclusion to a narrative -- though in the case of audiophiles, the conclusion to one narrative may mark the beginning of another. In any case, congratulations on getting what sounds "right" to you. I briefly heard an earlier version of the German Physiks Carbon speakers at a dealer, and I was greatly impressed. The sense of presence was "fantastic" -- which is to say, real.
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