PREAMPLIFIERS

Amplifier technology is very well understood. There aren’t many secrets any more and there are a number of really good high-end amplifier makes out there all operating at the highest levels of performance. Because of this, elements like reliability, company stability, aftersales, value for money, depreciation and aesthetics become even more paramount to differentiate one from another.

People tend to like to buy amplifiers more than anything else but the truth is the bar is so high now that they are a lot less important than other parts of the system. Every amplifier we sell makes for an utterly staunch, neutral and highly transparent foundation for any system and even if you build something around our cheapest amps, and furnish it with good setup and ancillaries, it will still be an incredible sounding system.

The low box count, small real estate system is something we really specialise in. This is partly because it’s what the UK market demands but then it’s also because these days our Integrated amplifiers are so high performing that we do not advocate a pre-power or mono amplifiers until the customer has obtained a top level source and Loudspeakers, and also fully finished the system off with excellent cables, mains and isolation/resonance control systems. And this system will likely be fast approaching a very large amount of money so many customers simply never need to be looking at pre/power.

So it follows then that our range of preamplifiers and linestages is fairly small. Many people with this sort of budget also opt for the Tidal Contros, a unique and remarkable piece of electronics which combines the highest level Streamer, DAC and Volume control all in one box for less than the cost of many a big name flagship preamplifiers themselves. It has changed the way we build many systems here.

Vitus is one of the mainstays of Lotus. Elegant, refined and deliciously seductive; the beauty of valves with the control and power of solid state yet sounding like neither, Vitus always earns the very highest scores for musicality and emotional engagement.

When we started retailing this Danish high-end brand 10 years ago there were only 1 or 2 other UK appointed dealers and it’s fair to say they were fairly inactive as far as sales went. We ran hard with the brand, wrote about it extensively, did much to build the marque in this country, and converted well over a hundred Naim owners into it over the latter part of this decade. As you would expect, we understand the products deeply and having built so many Vitus systems and shoehorned it into many other non-native setups as well, we have exhaustive experience with its inner workings and idiosyncrasies. To get the best from it and truly realise all of its naturalness and potential, it does require extensive knowledge. As well as being supported correctly, it deserves carefully matched mains cables, interconnects and of course loudspeakers, products that are also truly high-end rather than mixing it with a set of floorstanders or speaker cables for example, that belong in a more regular British hifi system. This won’t happen here.

At the lower costs level we do heavily focus on the Vitus Integrated amplifiers. By the time you get to the Signature pre power range, you are approaching very high levels of resolving ability and dynamics but still with the same slight emphasis on refinement, calmness and tonal luxury. After the Signature electronics, the Masterpiece series takes you further on again, into a domain really only shared by the top handful of solid state electronics manufacturers in the world. A Vitus system, properly setup, is a difficult one to walk away from and there are very few solid state state brands which can be as beguiling and addictive in the way they go about things. In the ten years we have championed them, Vitus has won many many devotees all over the UK and the dealer network has grown considerably.

Thrax Audio from Sofia in Bulgaria was a new addition here in 2022. Tidal starts at too higher price point for many customers which meant that for quite a long time, there was really only the choice of Vitus here for many. Not such a problem in itself given how much happiness Vitus has brought into British homes in the last decade but I always felt there was room left at Lotus for someone else. Along the way I considered many many brands for this role but most were simply not that much different from Vitus yet in most cases not as musical either and usually poorer value.

Soon after I started retailing their fabulous Yatrus turntable in 2019, I began to suspect that Thrax potentially held all the aces. A simple but yet broad range of profoundly ingenious products which are high performing enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best of everything else I sell whilst at the same time occupying different price points and offering a completely different visual look too.

Jaw droppingly open, uncompressed and vivid. Holographic, dynamic and utterly see through. Thrax gives a highly neutral and natural sound like all my other amplification brands but it is perhaps a degree more extrovert in the way it goes about things, without of course ever feeling forced or aggressive. Like Tidal, Thrax is very very transparent and hailing from Bulgaria with a simplistic supply route means its performance level for the money is genuinely surprising.

As most of the designs are hybrid in nature, and often a unique marriage of the best old legacy designs and very new technologies, Thrax also presents like a genuinely different option to both Vitus and Tidal not just in sound but in philosophy and personality too. Some of the choice advantages of vacuum tubes with none of the maintenance or reliability considerations, married with staunch transistor design and novel ways of approaching the problem of removing noise and artefact from the reproduction chain.

Thrax offers essentially 3 small ranges of electronics. Two single box ‘all in one’ Integrated systems sporting streamer, dac and phono stage, at a price significantly lower than the similar form factor Vitus RI-101. Moving upwards you then get to their Reference range comprising Maxinimus Dac, Orpheus phonostage and Dionysos Linestage which can be paired with either the Class AB Teres power amp (in stereo or mono form) or the Class A Heros power amps. After the reference products comes the flagship Statement range of Libra Preamp and Sparatacus Power amps, comfortably in the same ‘no holds barred’ stratum as the very best from Tidal or Vitus Masterpiece. Thrax also produce speakers and a turntable, both just as impressive as their electronics and covered elsewhere in this guide.

Tidal for me will always be extremely special, a whole reason to start a dealership or even get into this hobby in the first place. The brand could quite happily have its very own luxury shop right in the heart of Mayfair or Knightsbridge selling just Tidal. It not only arguably deserves this but it would surely flourish exponentially if it did. Their recent partnership with the Bugatti motor company is a triumph of identity and market perception. It further clarifies their lofty status and the very highest design and manufacturing standards which they inexorably maintain. Truth be told well over 50% of everyone walking through the doors of Lotus is buying Tidal and has a Tidal system. It is our core business and once you begin to discover the brand you will quickly understand why.

For the size of the total world customer base, there are now too many High-end amplifier brands out there. Many of them are very competent and a select few are truly world class but not one of them can be built into a complete solution from end to end, streamer to DAC, amplification, cables and of course loudspeakers, everything perfectly sympathetic to everything else and designed by the same people in the same factory with the exact same principles, philosophies and know how. Consider also the “Tidal for Bugatti” single box system, commisioned by the Bugatti Motor Company, which was recently hailed by many professionals at the 2023 Munich High End show as not just the best in show but the best in the world right now, and it’s easy to understand why the company is simply out on its own, competing really with nobody else but itself.

Other brands have of course also tried to achieve a complete in house top to tail system, but being fair to the team from Koln, none even remotely near the level of a Tidal system. Then you get to the build quality, component choice and craftsmanship of this brand, recently aptly described by Jeff Fritz of Soundstage Ultra: “Their build and finish qualities, inside and outside the speaker, are the best I’ve seen on any audio product of any type.” Tidal is not only an ultra high-end product but also a true luxury product, in the same mould as say a Patek watch, a Leica M camera or indeed, a Bugatti hypercar.

Andrew Quint from the Absolute Sound magazine recently stated during last years 2023 Awards that “Transparency is an independent variable when it comes to perceived sound quality, and no one does it better than Tidal”. Tidal lifts all seven veils from signal. It offers you the very highest levels of performance available in this industry of ours but in a package that is possibly unequalled for its liquidity, naturalness and feeling of sonic invisibility or “equipment not being there”. A “pure glass of water” is the phrase managing director Jorn Janczak likes to employ. We like to tell customers that it is shockingly dynamic and resolving yet also spookily easy and calm to listen to; sessions with a Tidal system will last many many hours or even days .