VAC Signature Preamplifier mkII

The new [janus] signature is a whole different animal. They sound just as good as the IO.

As some parts updates in the new Janus will no doubt improve the performance, no matter what is done here, the Janus will NEVER have the magic of an Io or Callisto, signature or not. So much of what is going on in the Jupiter series products is about the power supply design. And this is what gives the Jupiter products the incredible dimensionality that comes off quite flat upon returning to the Saturn series.

Kurt_Tank, I agree with the issue of the Aesthetix products not having the ultimate in a low noise floor, due to tube noise, but once the music gets going, it quickly becomes irrelevant. Many claims of noisy Aesthetix products has been the issue of the old resistors used and people not taking care to find the required quad of ultra-low-noise tubes on the input of an Io or Rhea. But I agree, even with getting the tube noise way way down, as I did with an Io and Callisto signature pair, the background was not at all "black" as it is now with the Aria preamp.

If I could only hear the Ren Sig preamp vs. the Aria. Now this would be interesting.

Twin cities here.

The Eclipse models came out because the Io and Callisto signature products were rapidly falling behind the new models by the competition and not because $500 in new parts in the Saturn products put them just behind the Jupiter products. I have seen the parts changes in the updated Saturn products. I know these parts well as I rebuilt an Io and Counterpoint SA-2 with these. There is indeed increased resolution and dynamic contrasts with these parts but they do not bring much to the table in terms of the portrayal of space ..... the true strengths of the Io and Callisto designs. This is not rumor....it is just how it is whether or not the designer says one product line approaches another. I have read such comments by manufacturers and reviewers and I shake my head more times than not. I have heard the Saturn vs. Jupiter products side by side enough to know their inherent differences.

And my comment on the Io and Callisto PS was not about massive design. It was simply that these products like the Aria use tubes in their PS rather than ss devices. And I know how significant this is with regard again to the portrayal of space. I have done a lot of tube rolling in the Io and Callisto and Aria and the rebuilt SA-2 power supplies to know the benefits of tubes in a PS.

As for the Aria, it is its simplicity in the line stage, phono stage and PS that brings on far more clarity and resolution than I had with the Io and Callisto signature, both with premium tube sets. I was happy to see these products finally get some refinements. But parts changes only contribute to part of what takes a product to the next level of performance.