LIO mentioned in the August 2015 Stereophile

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Vinnie R.

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LIO mentioned in the August 2015 Stereophile
« on: 13 Jul 2015, 02:03 am »
All,

Just spotted in the August 2015 Stereophile - Herb Reichert's review of the Falcon Acoustics LS3/5A speakers:

Quote from: Herb Reichert / Stereophile
A supersweet, unusually liquid-sounding class-AB MOSFET amp - such as the
25wpc Vinnie Rossi LIO integrated - could bring this antique design into the 21st century.  The Falcon-Rossi combo
delivered lively, grainless magic, and showed me just how neutral and "invisible" these minimonitors could be.


What a pleasant surprise, and there was more!  8)

In the same issue, Herb reviews the new Magnepan .7 speakers in his "Gramophone Dreams" column, and
adds the LIO into the mix of integrated amps to test with:

Quote from: Herb Reichert / Stereophile
Driving the Magnepan .7s without the DWM woofers, the LIO sounded supersweet,
tautly detailed, and fantastically musical


But he noted that the volume level came on strong, the LIO started to lose steam:

Quote from: Herb Reichert / Stereophile
At low volumes, I could swim easy in the warm, colorful space of the music, and big
classical orchestras and solo guitars retained most of their scale and texture.  ...At higher volumes, however, it was clear
that the LIO was not a perfect match.

Just for background info:

- Magenpan .7s are spec'd at 4-ohm, 86dB sensitivity
- Falcon LS3/5A are spec'd at 15-ohm, 83dB sensitivity

Based on his comments, it sounds like either speaker could work quite well with the LIO in smaller rooms or where the listener
is not looking to play it too loudly.

Of course the upcoming higher-power, stand-alone ultracapacitor stereo power amp that I'm working on for RMAF will be
the perfect match with LIO for those with hard to drive speakers and playing at louder volume levels.  :weights:

Finally - the official Stereophile LIO review (Herb Reichert) *should* be out next issue / next month!

-Vinnie