NY Audio & AV 2012

Even at low volumes, the sound coming from the Red Wine Audio/Fidelis AV room was detailed, engaging, and easy to enjoy. The system I heard was made of Red Wine’s Isabella vacuum tube preamp/DAC ($4000) and Liliana monoblock power amplifiers ($6000/pair), an MSB transport, Tellurium Q cabling, and a relative newcomer to the Fidelis line, England’s Kudos C20 loudspeakers. While all Red Wine products are battery-powered, the Liliana is especially interesting because it is the first Red Wine amplifier to employ a class-A tube input stage and a class-A/B MOSFET output stage.

Also on display in the room were Red Wine’s Signature 15 integrated amplifier ($1300) and Kudos’s smaller, very cute C2 floorstander. Red Wine’s Vinnie Rossie employed a diagonal setup to compensate for the room’s bottom-end hump, while RealTraps acoustic panels and Stein Music Harmonizers and Magic Diamonds (see “Sam’s Space,” Vol.34 No.9) were added to further reduced effects of the room. There was an overall sweetness and ease to the sound that I enjoyed.