I’ve just changed to a Kegon amp, so my LV Argento can go off to a new home.
It’s the original Living Voice spec, where Tom from Art made the amp 80% ready, then Definitive Audio did a bunch of mods to improve it. It has the single outboard heater with full Kondo SPz (red jacket) wiring. Rather than me explain, here’s the write up from 6moons:
It is a demand-led amplifier that has never really been advertised, reviewed or marketed. LV have been making them for long-term customers who have Kondo preamps but can’t stretch to the Kondo power amps’ prohibitive prices. It is an 18-watt parallel single ended 300B stereo amplifier with a 6H1π-eb input stage and 12BH7 driver stage. Solid state rectified, it comes with an enormous Souther mains transformer which provides the HT voltages and the negative grid supply. There are no windings in the mains transformer for the 300B heaters. Instead the filaments are supplied by a massively specified separate outboard supply with its own rectification and regulation, which is connected by Kondo SPZ silver umbilical cords directly to the 300B valve bases.
This is an area of amplifier design that is often disregarded but Living Voice feel that this part of the topology is just as important as the HT supply or the negative grid supply. There are also significant modifications to the negative grid and HT supplies. There is extensive use of Kondo silver wire in both the power supply and the audio circuit. Every aspect of the circuit has been developed and evolved over years using complex and demanding music to select component types and values, tolerance factors and so on. This is a specialized and particular recipe that is all about achieving the correct overall balance of virtues. These amps are complex and time consuming to make and LV do so reluctantly. But the results are spectacular. For me they have been a considerable discovery and for the first time I’ve heard a power amp that I could happily live with if for some reason the Kondo Gakuohs had to go. At £16,000 they are just over a quarter of the price.
I can supply the amp without 300b valves for 4,800 GBP, or with a 100ish hr use full quad of LV 300b’s (3k retail) for 6,000 GBP. The amp is in Notts, near junction 25 of the M1 and you are welcome to come and hear it. It will need collecting as this is a 40kg amp. I use a Kondo M7 as the preamp and it drive Audiovector R3 speakers. It really is a fabulous sounding amp, nice to my nears than others I’ve tried in my system including Vitus, Audia Flight, Triode, VTL etc. Beautiful 3D soundstage, very dynamic with plenty of slam and that wonderful emotional musical presentation that PSE amps give you. The only reason I’m letting it go is a windfall has allowed me to stretch to the Kegon, or this would be staying with me.
Can also supply with a Kondo KSL-SPc power cable, which I found was a nice match.
