SSI 2009

i saw a familiar face when I went into the Veloce room, as Mark Conti, who designed the unusual Impact speakers from a few years back, is now involved in this line of battery-powered amplification. My eyes were attracted by the Veloce Platino LFT-1 linestage in the photo ($12,500), which will run for 70 hours before needing recharging, but driving the Marten speakers in the room via Purist cables was a pair of battery-power monoblocks ($12,000/pair). Battery power? Yes, the input stage, based on a 6922 tube, is transformer-coupled to a high-efficiency class-D output stage based on the Hypex module designed by famed Dutch engineer Bruno Putzys. A charge will last 40–80 hours depending on the speaker's load impedance, Mark told me.

The sound of Jackie Ryan's You and the Night and the Music CD, played on an Upgrade Company-modified Esoteric X-01 player, lived up the Hypex module's reputation as being one of the few class-D designs that lets the music breathe.