Hegel H360 or H590 or Constellation Inspiration Integrated 1.0 for Magico A3

With your budget you wouldn’t be far off being able to afford a Vitus RI-101 on a deal. Having auditioned that amp recently with the A3's, I would be confident it would be a good bit better than even the Hegel H590, and will have better build quailty. The RI-101 will also have optional dac/streamer & phono modules going forward.

@htan8744, Just curious which model Vitus amps you've heard at audio shows? The reason being, there is a big jump in sound from the RI-100 to the new RI-101, and a further jump to the Signature series.

@denon1, I’ll run through your questions one by one..

"How reliable the Vitus RI-101?" - I guess the first thing to say is, Vitus Audio are a luxury brand like AP or Hublot, not a mass market brand. Their new factory in Denmark is SOTA They are using machinery which is VERY expensive. This article will give you some idea - https://www.monoandstereo.com/2016/12/new-state-of-art-machines-in-vitus.html
If you want to learn about the philosophy of the Designer, Hans Ole Vitus, there is an informative series of short videos here - http://www.bestofhighend.com/hans-ole-vitus-part-1/
And unlike some other high end manufacturers, they design and built the majority of their chassis parts (incl: boards) in-house. They are all about attention to detail, which you see from their well made and immaculately shipped boxes through to the signed QA sheet inside the box & well written manual on cd.

"Is it on the same level of luxman, accuphase, gryphon?" - I recently did an a-b shootout between Luxman, Accuphase & Pass .8 series separates. Build quality on the Japenese amps was excellent, and fyi in that shootout I preferred the sound of the Accuphase A-70/C-2850 combo. But the Vitus RI-101 and SIA-025mk2 are playing on a higher level imho. As for Gryphon, I would rather not comment on them in the forums. Will pm you.

"I don’t think we have service in US from Vitus, this is the only thing that stops me from considering new vitus integrated" - Vitus definitely have Distribution in the US. Bob from Rhapsody Audio in NYC is one of your main Dealers, and is also an authorized Service Centre for Vitus. From memory, there are atleast four or five Dealers in the US. Maybe drop Bob a line and ask?

"I currently have luxman 509x driving canton reference 3k speakers. I like the sound but feel that on a higher volume levels it should be more relaxed, and instead it just gets loud with some harshness that I don’t hear at lower levels. To me its a sign that I need more power to drive my speakers maintaining the same level of refinement that luxman provides" - It does sound like the Lux is starting to run out of puff. It has a damping factor of 370 which is not very high compared to even Accuphase. I recently reviewed the Vitus RI-101 fyi before changing my member name & saying sayanara, (or "proshchay" in Russian) to that forum - https://www.stereonet.co.nz/forums/topic/16208-my-impressions-of-the-vitus-ri-101-integrated/

@twoleftears + 1 on CH and Soulution. Really nice gear, though would be above the OP's budget. Magico are now using CH amps in their listening/testing room.

iar OP2 posts08-24-2018 12:10amI have the time to wait to hear the Hegel 590. The dealer said the Magico A3s are backordered and will take 3 or more months to be available.

The A3’s which I recently reviewed are terrific. On a lesser budget than the Vitus RI-101, the Hegel H590 being based on the flagship separates should have plenty of power and pair well with those speakers. Another powerful integrated around the same price ballpark is the Audia Flight FLS-10 which is well made, on the warm side/musical, and has 3 x the total capacitance of the H590 which is important, as that gives you your speed, dynamics and control.

audiotroy                                                                                                        08-24-2018 6:48am
1,053 posts

The reason you will occassionaly see Magico shown with Constellation is Irv Gross was the salesmanger of Constellation and then moved to Magico.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

This Press Release begs to differ - https://www.constellationaudio.com/sites/default/files/2016-09/Constellation_Audio_Irv_Gross_030314. My guess is Irv was offered a job with Constellation which came about through Magico’s brief ’cross polination’ with that company.

@iar, Fyi the Vitus RI-101 would be around $6k cheaper than the T+A PA3100HV and has a more stable psu which doubles down to 4 ohms, wider bandwidth, a fully balanced relay-based volume control taken from the SL-103 and MP-L201 preamplifiers, excellent build quality (made in Denmark), the option of adding a dac/streamer or phono module later, and known synergy with the Magico A3’s. Indeed, I reviewed that exact combo recently and loved it. The sound was natural, effortless, well controlled, resolving of low level details and musical. Best of all, the amp got out of the way and allowed the music to flow (closer to the SIA-025mk2). Just sayin’.

@iar, that will make audiotroy happy. Keep us informed of how your auditions go..

@audiotroy I was referring to the Vitus RI-101 which is MUCH better than the RI-100, just like the Magico S5 Mk2 is MUCH better than the S5 Mk1. I really wish there was a rule against Dealers coming onto these boards and posting long infomercials (actually cut & paste jobs from reviews) pushing their own lines!

@soix Even if the OP starts out with a used T&A amp (if that’s what he ends up doing), I think he’ll end up with something like a Vitus RI-101 as that integrated has uncanny synergy with the A3’s, and is absolutely effortless. Buy yes I recognize that is a circa $15k amp vs $9.8k speakers, hence I guess why Magico have demo’d the speakers with Hegel at shows. The Vitus however could be considered a high end bargain when you factor in the properly worked out optional dac/streamer and phono modules.

@Iar, I’d try to seek out an audition of an Audio Flight FLS-10 which is in your budget. I’d rate that amp higher than Accuphase or Luxman, and it’s not made in Taiwan.

@htan8744, Cheers. I was curious as the RI-101 has only been released in the last few months, and is substantially better than it’s predecessor.

@denon1 I’m not 100% sure. The amp is $22k in Australia, £11800 in the UK and circa €14000,00 in Italy, so my guess is high $15k in the US (w/out dac)? Though Bob at Rhapsody Audio could confirm that.

@Iar, at that price point you could also buy an Audia Flight FLS-10 integrated which is on the warm/musical side & has almost twice the power of the Diablo 120, including more than twice the total capacitance. All Magico speakers like plenty of power, and that extra power will give you your speed, power, driving capability and control. That headroom gives you a sense of ease also. The Audia Flight amps are 100% made in Italy at their factory.