Reviews & Awards by Brand: U-Z
VPI
Turntable and Tonearms made in the USA. Their mission is to breathe new life into your records to reacquaint yourself with them in a whole new way
VPI Scout-21 turntable
RRP - NZ$6,495
Taking the design cues of the Prime Scout, the new Scout 21 is an evolution of its predecessor with and improved 300 RPM motor housing, and improved isolation feet. Paired with a JMW 9 Tonearm!
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"If what you want is a turntable for under £3k which gives more than a hint of what a proper high-end ‘table can do, then the VPI Prime Scout -21 delivers a great deal of the important stuff, without apparent effort. And that’s a neat trick in itself. Recommended!" - Steve Dickinson, HiFi Plus
"The new model sounds like a clearer, tightened-up, altogether more engaging version of the old. If you liked the Scout, you'll really like the Prime Scout-21, which seems to offer good value, both comparatively and in and of itself." - Art Dudley, Stereophile Magazine
VPI turntables are some of the most reliable in the world: in terms of build quality, in terms of set-up but also in terms of sound quality. I feel that I can trust a VPI to perform. This Prime Scout certainly does that. It maintains the company’s supreme high quality and, for the price, offers incredible value…. The Audiophile Man
VPI Prime-21 turntable
RRP - NZ$10,995+
What HiFi Sound&Vision - 5 STARS
HiFi News - Outstanding Product
The Prime 21 takes the greatest aspects of the Prime turntable and upgrades and refence them with finer details from the customers, reviewers and more. Availablabe in black and walnut.
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To those for whom vinyl is a primary music source, this machine has a huge amount to offer. It feels reassuringly solid, and every detail has been meticulously designed. The Shyla takes an already excellent cartridge and embellishes it, and is very highly recommended. Despite my lack of confidence in set up, it was very reassuring to be able to get the help I required from the UK distributor. The Nordost cables that came with the Prime 21+ are also very well suited to the cartridge, and although I did briefly try a third party set I decided that the Nordost gave me the all that I needed. If I was in the market for a new turntable, I would feel compelled to put the VPI Prime 21+ on my shortlist, and I have a sneaking suspicion that its alround capabilities and its delightful musical character would push it to the front of the queue.
VPI Signature-21 turntable
RRP - NZ$15,995+
Luxury meets performance all in one package. A tasteful combination of aluminum, stainless steel and 3D printed technology. Over 40 years of refinement all leading up to this turntable.
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" Looks like VPI has another winner on its hands, and the Prime Signature comes very highly recommended indeed!" - Alan Sircom, HiFi +
"It takes everything the standard model does and builds on it. There’s more insight, stronger dynamics and a lovely stability" - What HiFi
There are several models of tank that would feel slightly uneasy standing next to the VPI Prime Signature, such is the sturdy build quality on show here. Despite the multi-part nature of the installation for this turntable, it’s a pretty straight-forward sequence that offers much that is friendly but it’s that sound quality that is the gold star element in the Signature Prime’s armoury. Solid as a rock, oozing detail but blended successfully with clarity. All I can advise, in my simple, innocent, yet hopeful way is to tell you to buy this deck or, if an angled entreatment is more attractive, buy this deck or if you are suffering from hearing difficulties BUY THIS DECK! Got that?…. The Audiophile Man
Yter
Unique, hand crafted, tempered Argentum alloy Audiophile Cables - from Italy
Yter interconnects - XLR
RRP - NZ$2,995
Yter offers a more organic and fluid presentation, while impressively still retain great clarity and timbre.
These cables are as light as feather, apparently there's a thin ribbon of palladium and silver inside the attractive woven covered plastic tubing. No need to sit down to hear the difference - an immediate massive increase in transparency, sound stage, tonal textures and speed. A real ear opener, everything now sounds 'right'. Vocals sound so real and I'm hearing stuff I've never heard before on familiar albums.
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To intervene at a metallurgic level to obtain order and homogeneity of the conductor's crystalline structure, thus providing greater compliance of the music signal within the signal path. Pairing Silver(Ag) and Palladium(Pd) using a new three-phase fusion process is the basic element of the alloy. The crystalline homogeneity of the special alloy is the basis for the metallurgic harmony found in our conductor, almost as if it were a metal "tune". It's all in the process:Well Tempered Argentum Alloy. The result of this development is a speaker cable (YTER) that ensures metallurgical coherence in the path from the amplifier to the drivers. All the processes from the melting, to the drawing, and finally the manufacture of the product, are exquisitely handcrafted at Laboratorium
Internal wiring Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage, Amati Anniversario, Guarneri Memento.
Laboratorium is dedicated to the entire manufacturing process for this new project. First, there is the melting of Silver and Palladium to create our alloy.We then cold extrude our special alloy in a water bath to form an electrostatic balanced, Gaussian shaped conductor.The component connectors are then realized using our same special alloy.Finally, conductor and connector are cold fused with a mechanical weld where solder is neither desired nor required. With the finished speaker cable product, the music signal passes through YTER and only YTER. The result is a Reference speaker cable fit not only for Stradivari Homage, but all other fine loudspeakers of the world.
Yter interconnects - RCA
RRP - NZ$2,250/pr
Yter offers a more organic and fluid presentation, while impressively still retain great clarity and timbre.
These cables are as light as feather, apparently there's a thin ribbon of palladium and silver inside the attractive woven covered plastic tubing. No need to sit down to hear the difference - an immediate massive increase in transparency, sound stage, tonal textures and speed. A real ear opener, everything now sounds 'right'. Vocals sound so real and I'm hearing stuff I've never heard before on familiar albums.
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To intervene at a metallurgic level to obtain order and homogeneity of the conductor's crystalline structure, thus providing greater compliance of the music signal within the signal path. Pairing Silver(Ag) and Palladium(Pd) using a new three-phase fusion process is the basic element of the alloy. The crystalline homogeneity of the special alloy is the basis for the metallurgic harmony found in our conductor, almost as if it were a metal "tune". It's all in the process:Well Tempered Argentum Alloy. The result of this development is a speaker cable (YTER) that ensures metallurgical coherence in the path from the amplifier to the drivers. All the processes from the melting, to the drawing, and finally the manufacture of the product, are exquisitely handcrafted at Laboratorium
Internal wiring Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage, Amati Anniversario, Guarneri Memento.
Laboratorium is dedicated to the entire manufacturing process for this new project. First, there is the melting of Silver and Palladium to create our alloy.We then cold extrude our special alloy in a water bath to form an electrostatic balanced, Gaussian shaped conductor.The component connectors are then realized using our same special alloy.Finally, conductor and connector are cold fused with a mechanical weld where solder is neither desired nor required. With the finished speaker cable product, the music signal passes through YTER and only YTER. The result is a Reference speaker cable fit not only for Stradivari Homage, but all other fine loudspeakers of the world.
Yter Speaker cables - Banana
RRP NZ$2,750/3m - NZ$3,500/5m
Yter offers a more organic and fluid presentation, while impressively still retain great clarity and timbre.
These cables are as light as feather, apparently there's a thin ribbon of palladium and silver inside the attractive woven covered plastic tubing. No need to sit down to hear the difference - an immediate massive increase in transparency, sound stage, tonal textures and speed. A real ear opener, everything now sounds 'right'. Vocals sound so real and I'm hearing stuff I've never heard before on familiar albums.
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To intervene at a metallurgic level to obtain order and homogeneity of the conductor's crystalline structure, thus providing greater compliance of the music signal within the signal path. Pairing Silver(Ag) and Palladium(Pd) using a new three-phase fusion process is the basic element of the alloy. The crystalline homogeneity of the special alloy is the basis for the metallurgic harmony found in our conductor, almost as if it were a metal "tune". It's all in the process:Well Tempered Argentum Alloy. The result of this development is a speaker cable (YTER) that ensures metallurgical coherence in the path from the amplifier to the drivers. All the processes from the melting, to the drawing, and finally the manufacture of the product, are exquisitely handcrafted at Laboratorium
Internal wiring Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage, Amati Anniversario, Guarneri Memento.
Laboratorium is dedicated to the entire manufacturing process for this new project. First, there is the melting of Silver and Palladium to create our alloy.We then cold extrude our special alloy in a water bath to form an electrostatic balanced, Gaussian shaped conductor.The component connectors are then realized using our same special alloy.Finally, conductor and connector are cold fused with a mechanical weld where solder is neither desired nor required. With the finished speaker cable product, the music signal passes through YTER and only YTER. The result is a Reference speaker cable fit not only for Stradivari Homage, but all other fine loudspeakers of the world.
Zesto Audio
The Audio Connoisseur faithfully bringing warmth and harmonic tonality like nothing else to. Tube Amplifiers - from California
ZESTO Leto Ultra II preamplifier
RRP NZ$22,995 incl GST
"With a presentation so convincingly and musically right while remaining totally neutral, the Leto Ultra II Preamplifier is the best tube preamp I have ever heard or reviewed."
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"With a presentation so convincingly and musically right while remaining totally neutral, the Leto Ultra II Preamplifier is the best tube preamp I have ever heard or reviewed.""I am so totally sure about the extraordinary performance of the Leto Ultra II that I bought the review sample. It will now be used in my reference system to judge all future preamplifier designs. As far as I am concerned, the Zesto Audio Leto II Preamplifier is the best of the best, and most highly recommended.""I was stunned to hear a tube preamplifier as quiet and musically adept as any great solid-state piece. The Leto's fantastic imaging and wonderful sound staging are just state-of-the-art and the production of depth without distortion is shocking. It is, without a doubt, the quietest tube preamplifier on the market I know of today." …….Robert H. Levi - Positive Feedback - Issue 130
ZESTO Bia 200 Select stereo amp
RRP NZ$29,995
“Big, bold, but not brutish, we're all wired for the particular sounds that make our particular hearts sing. The Bia 200 is wired in a way that, for the right person, can make that happen."
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I've owned a Shindo Haut Brion, a 6L6-powered stereo amplifier that is specified as putting out 20Wpc, for almost as long as I've been writing hi-fi reviews. Art Dudley, Stereophile's late, great, much-missed former deputy editor, also owned one, and they sounded different from each other. As an experiment, we traded Haut Brions in order to experience the other amplifier's point of view. He preferred the darker tone of mine; I preferred the superior resolution of his. He kept mine. I kept his. I still have his.The Haut Brion—both versions—is a wonderful, expressive amplifier. But it has nowhere near the sparkle, precision, resolution, or extension of the Bia 200. It also lacks the Bia 200's tight, well-controlled, tuneful low end. It compensates by seeming more immediate, organic, and natural than the Bia 200. Both exist to serve the music, but they do it in different ways. The Bia 200 is transparent, powerful, resolving, fun. Maybe it's the top end that seems to go out for miles, or the sonorous bass, or how it steps out of the way of recordings and lets them shine on their own terms. …….Ken Micallef - Stereophile
ZESTO Andros Deluxe II phonostage
RRP NZ$15,995
2022 Phonostage “Product of the Year” The Absolute Sound"The Andros Deluxe II is a dynamic, detailed, tonally extended, and super-quiet phono- stage.
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The Andros Deluxe II is a dynamic, detailed, tonally extended, and super-quiet phono- stage. I found it extracted information from some grooves I didn’t know was there, but with that it is not a forgiving or relaxed component. Bad recordings are not going to be able to hide with the Andros Deluxe II, though good recordings will be reproduced with exceptional quality. Unlike many tube products, the Andros does not emphasize the midrange. I found the Andros to be mostly neutral in tone with perhaps a little emphasis on the top octaves of the midrange and lower treble, which resulted in perceptibly more detail without any sense of fatiguing brightness. I could easily listen to this phonostage for hours on end and, in fact, did so during the review period. It was a pleasure to spend time with the Andros, and I was not happy to send it back. My compliments to Carolyn and George for producing such great sound in a fine-looking piece of audio gear at an attractive price. If a phonostage in this price range is of interest, do not pass up the opportunity to audition Zesto’s Andros Deluxe II. It is highly recommended. ………Rives Bird - The Absolute Sound
ZESTO EROS 500 Select, 250w class A monoblocks
RRP NZ$46,995/pr
State of the Art Tube Designs for Music Lovers!
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The Zesto Audio Eros 500 Select Class A monoblocks are a totally unique offering in today's high-end marketplace. Their topology in my estimation is a design that has never been done successfully before now. The Eros 500 monoblocks are unique and new, and I have not even mentioned the Selector that allows the user to dial in four current tube types making the Eros future-proof.The Eros 500s are the most neutral, realistic, and natural-sounding amplifiers that have graced my home in this century. They get out of the way of the musical flow and just exists. With 250 Watts of Class A power at the ready, they sound like 500 Watt amps. Weighing in at just 79 pounds each, they will not take over your studio space or heat up the house. The lights dimmed just a bit with turn-on but then ran perfectly on a 15-Ampere circuit. Over the entire review period, they performed exquisitely without quibbles. The fit and finish of these amplifiers are exceptional and the design elements all contribute to user satisfaction. I am at a loss for words to describe my excitement listening to the groundbreaking Eros 500 monoblocks. I was expecting excellence, but not ball-busting greatness.
ZESTO - Eros 500 Select class-A Monoblocks
RRP NZ$46,995/pr incl GST
PF WRITER’S CHOICE AWARD, 2023
The new Zesto Audio Eros 500 Select Class A Monoblocks are, in my judgment, the most advanced and powerful all-tube amplifiers with unique full-time class A operation on the market today.
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Zesto Audio Eros 500 Select Class A Monoblocks
Positive Feedback - Awarded by Robert H. Levi
I have grown tired of expensive tube amplifiers designed by committees utilizing ancient circuits like class AB and triode that are full of warmth and color when the sources are not. Well, guess what?
The new Zesto Audio Eros 500 Select Class A Monoblocks are, in my judgment, the most advanced and powerful all-tube amplifiers with unique full-time class A operation and zero feedback on the market today. Someone tell me who else does this? With a circuit exclusively designed by the award-winning George Counnas, these monoblocks are audiophile heaven able to drive any speakers on the planet to their fullest potential.