Viola Cadenza and Symphony

Hi' Hamburger

I own both amps.

Firstly, it's not bottom this set is missing - far better than, for example Pass XA-100.5.

Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to test my combination against others combinations in a A-B test. However, I and others had a chance to hear the Symphony up against other similar products, and here was the Symphony clearly the best every time! Soon there will be an online review of my Cadenza, conducted by a respected reviewer, and it is good one.

The keywords that best characterized the combination are: large and a very precise soundstage, with superb control and detail.

The combination has two weaknesses, namely some stupid plastic WBT terminals at the Symphony (ask if you can order some others) and a lack of remote to the cadenza.

You can find more reviews of both amps here:
http://stereophile.com/solidpreamps/1205viola/index.html
www.highfidelity.pl/artykuly/0606/viola.html (Polish)
www.highfidelity.pl/!ev/artykuly/10_12_2006/nr/09.html (Polish)
http://www.lpaudio.it/diffusori/prove.php (Italian - click on "Viola")

Finally - go for it :-)

Hi Chris10an,

I think these amps are quite rare on the market and not many people have heard them, but I am quite surprised at the amount of foreign language (non-English) reviews that you have posted. Thank you for the links.

I discovered that you used to own "a specially built Vitus SS-010 with XLR pre out (for bi-amping)". May I know if the Violas were the ones that satisfied you finally? Could you tell me how the Vitus and Viola sound compared to each other?

I believe you are in Denmark and this country has a great number of famous loudspeakers and amplifiers (eg, Gryphon, Vitus, Gamut). But to see that you prefer the Violas (USA speaks something special about them (???)

Ah yes, no remote-control! I can live with that! ;-)
And I wonder if Viola will entertain request for special WBTs. Cheers

Hello again :-)

New components to a setup, must (also) be selected to make that best possible synergy to the rest of the system.

I could not find any amplifiers, that could deliver all the needs I had to a amp, so I chose to go for a bi-amping solution with the Vitus for the top. The short version is, that I unfortunately never got the opportunity to listen to my Vitus here at home. Therefore I can’t describe all the precise differences and similarities between Vitus and Viola in a well know setup. However, Viola has undoubtedly more punch and a bigger and a more correct and detailed soundstage.

You “forgot” to mention the best Danish speaker brand, namely Peak Consult, who is among the best manufacturers in the world in the ultra high-end class (take a look at Tone Audio or Stereophile). I’m the happy and very satisfied owner of one of their best products, and the amplifiers there have to replace the Vitus, should therefore have a good synergy with my Peak Consult speakers and Wadia source. Today, I only use the Viola to drive my system - the Symphony is that good!

Should I upgrade, it should be to the Legacy model, but it now way too expensive, as Viola sadly has make a dramatic price increase on several model (specially Forte, Legacy, Solo and Bravo) this year. Even with the same price as in 2011, I don’t think I would upgrade anyway, even if I had the money.

Since all of Viola amplifiers are hand built, I am sure that other terminals can be ordered and mounted without any problem, and the charges won’t be huge.

Btw, a Cadenza today, is equipped with 2 XLR inputs, and the extra XLR input has replaced the Fischer inputs.

Thanks for informing me that the latest Cadenza has 2 XLR inputs and no more Fischer. Frankly, I never knew what a Fischer connector is. It must have been a ML / Cello legacy.

I also want to listen to the latest Jeff Rowland stuff first before coming back to the Viola. I think I have too many choices but will be going round to listen as much as possible.

I am glad that you like what you have found and will continue to support the brand. Enjoy, cheers!

i m owner of these remarkable products, driving my Peak Consult Zoltan special edition. For fore front the weiss jason/medea working quite fine the digital reproduction section. The combo is one of the best if you know to hearing; meaning that they reproduce the music honesty with punch, detail etc. But i can't tell you what is their best point. For me that is the music. If i can tell you about the treble or about midrange something goes wrong for sure. You can hear what you want for endless time without any sign of fatique. Very musical instruments which can reproduce the music with true. But if you decide to buy the pair must be connected with silver cable as the copper don' t work well ( my the prana cosmos interconnect). For the speakers i use copper ( cincilla from von gaylord). Absolute music!

I owned the Symphony for about 1 and half years and I am still very happy about it. It is clean and fast, it may not be able to deliver the lowest bottom compare to some other amps, such as Gryphon(much more expensive!), but I think the the overall sonic balance is very good and did not emphasis on any range. I have compared to 2 other amps I also owned at about the same time, which are ML 402 and Dartzeel NHB 108, each one has its strong suit and no one is obviously inferior to the others. Considering the price, ML is a bargain, although its transparency can not match with Symphony nor Dartzeel.