Reviewer: Marja & Henk
Financial Interests: click here
Sources: PS Audio PWT; Dr. Feickert Blackbird MKII/DFA 1o5/Zu DL-103; Phasure XX-PC;
DAC: Phasure NOS1 DAC; PS Audio Direct Stream DAC [loaner]; PS Audio NuWave DAC [loaner]
Streaming sources: XXHighEnd; iTunes; Devialet AIR; La Rosita Beta; Qobuz Desktop, Tidal Desktop
Preamp/integrated/power: Audio Note Meishu with WE 300B (or AVVT, JJ, KR Audio 300B output tubes); dual Devialet D-Premier; Hypex Ncore 1200 based monoblocks; Trafomatic Kaivalya; Trafomatic Reference One; Trafomatic Reference Phono One; Music First Passive Magnetic; NVO ISA-2 [in for review]
Speakers: Avantgarde Acoustic Duo Omega; Arcadian Audio Pnoe; Podium Sound One; WLM Sub 12; Sounddeco Alpha F3; dual Zu Submission MKI; Soltanus Virtuoso ESL
Cables: complete loom of ASI LiveLine cables; full loom of Crystal Cable cables; full loom of Nanotec Golden Strada; Audiomica Pearl Consequence interconnect; Audiomica Pebble Consequence;
Power line conditioning: PS Audio Powerplant Premier; PS Audio Humbuster III; IsoTek Evo 3 Syncro; AudioMica Allbit Consequence
Equipment racks: Solid Tech and ASI amplifier and TT shelf
Indispensable accessories: Furutech DeMag; ClearAudio Double Matrix; Franc Audio Ceramic Disc Classic; Shakti Stones; Akiko Audio sticks; Kemp polarity checker
Online Music purveyors: qobuz.com, tidal.com, bandcamp.com, amazon.co.uk  
Room treatment: Acoustic System International resonators, sugar cubes, diffusers
Room size: ~14.50 x 7.50m with a ceiling height of 3.50m, brick walls, wooden flooring upstairs, ca 7 x 5m with a ceiling height of 3.50m, brick walls and concrete floor downstairs.
Price of review item: €4'950


Our editor did a great job introducing Japanese audio company Aurorasound and owner Karaki-san in his review of the Aurorasound Preda preamplifier. That enables us to cut right to the chase. We received for degustation the solid-state Vida which is short for Vinyl Disk Amplifier, in our case from Western European distributor Musikae of France. Packed so as to embarrass even the most elaborate Russian Matryoshka doll maker, we had to work our way through a large amount of box-in-a-box boxes to get at the phono stage and its separate power supply.




The amplifier is a 25 x 24.5 x 8.5cm (WxDxH) construction inside a beautiful dark wooden wrap. Its aluminium front sits in a little recess free from the slanted edge of the wrap. This enhances the visual airiness of the design which is breached somewhat by a large orange button though it coordinates perfectly with the blue Aurora logo at the other side of the front plate. Together with five tiny toggle switches, there’s a strong retro feeling to these looks.