Viva Solista MkIII integrated tube amplifier
Italians have a real passion for tube amplifiers and a flair for design so it’s not surprising that the Viva amplifiers come from that part of the world, specifically Camisano near Padua. The company was started by brothers Amadeo and Giampietro Schembri in the mid nineties and builds a range of electronics and horn loudspeakers by hand.
The Solista MkII is one of three integrated amplifiers in the Viva range, they share the distinctive V shaped cut-out in the middle and three controls on the front panel but differ in the choice of output tubes. The Solista is the most substantial at 35kg (77 lbs) and runs the biggest tubes, four 845s which alongside 211s are the largest triodes seen on the majority of such amplifiers. Four is a lot and can mean that the amp is running in push-pull for extra power and linearity but the Solista is a parallel single ended, fully Class A design that sacrifices power for purity of sound.
Like many single ended amplifiers its power rating does not reflect the size and weight of the product, the Solista is specified to deliver only 22 Watts per channel but when you consider that many single ended designs are specced in single figures you get an inkling as to how misleading such figures can be.
Despite its radical appearance the Solista is built along classic lines with point to point circuitry, which is generally considered a good thing as it avoids the shortcomings of PCBs, and a zero negative feedback circuit which is also preferred in tube electronics of the Class A persuasion. The amp has four inputs on RCA connections alongside a direct input on the same socket type, this being for the use of a separate preamplifier and effectively converts the Solista into a power amp. The speaker terminals are made of palladium plated solid copper which should ensure good signal transmission. No mention is made of the iron work, the mains and output transformers underneath the flanks of this amp, but I can vouch for the fact that they are heavy which is a good start. The fact that this amplifier will drive loudspeakers that are traditionally not tube friendly is also a good indication of quality.
The Solista is supplied with the simplest of remote handsets albeit an attractive example of the breed with just two buttons, one to raise volume and the other to reduce it, which is all that you need 99% of the time. Build and finish quality appear to be of a very high quality, the paintwork being as good as you will find on the best loudspeakers, this is a distinctly luxurious piece of kit.
Sound quality
In the first instance I hooked the Solista up to Living Voice R80 speakers that were in the system for a separate review, presuming that their high sensitivity and easy load would suit the amplifier. As it turned out this was not entirely the case, the R80s were developed with much more laid-back amplifiers than the Viva which meant that the pairing while phenomenally powerful and dynamic did err on the aggressive side. The level of detail and speed was very high and the sense of energy in live recordings distinctly palpable but it felt like the amplifier had too much gain for the source and speakers. The source was an Auralic Altair G2.2 streaming DAC with its output set to the minimum 2V so that couldn’t be changed, in the end I contacted Viva who said that unlike the majority of tube amps the Solista does not need high sensitivity speakers, in fact it has been developed to work with more typical designs with more challenging loads.
That was all the incentive I needed to change the speakers over to the B&W 802 D2s that I keep for ambitious amplifiers, they are unwieldy but can be schlepped into place with a good sack barrow (an essential part of the high end reviewer’s armoury). With these atop Townshend Seismic Podiums and hooked up to the Solista the fireworks could begin, and they did not disappoint with an extremely open, dynamic and solid sound that delivered double bass with an energy that is rarely encountered. Detail is very high on both the 802 and Viva so it came through in abundance on Sun Kil Moon’s rambling Garden of Lavender, a track that showed plenty of scale and depth with this pairing, thankfully it also timed well. Bill Frisell’s Pipe Down from the excellent East/West album displayed real torque, there was a sense that it could flip from calm to intense in a nanosecond. It’s a good recording and this system revelled in the energy of the live event, with a strong sense of presence and a speed of attack that you rarely hear.
A completely different live release in Nils Frahm’s Paris ends with an old favourite called Hammers, the Solista rendered this with full intensity, in fact intensity squared and the emotional impact was powerful. The sound being more physical and in the room than is usually possible, the 802s like to be played at higher levels and the Viva is clearly of the same inclination.
I haven’t had the pleasure of using many 845 tube equipped amps at home but those that come to mind tended to be fairly soft and billowy by comparison with the Solista, here the engineer has clearly chosen to make the most of the power available from this chunky tube. It revels in great recordings of which Tord Gustavsen’s Seeing is one of the finest released in the last year, on this the Viva brings out the timbre of his piano; the richness and power of the instrument are very clear as is the radiance of the high notes and the depth of the low ones.
For a contrast I set up my most regular reference speakers the PMC twenty5.26i floorstanders, these have low sensitivity but a relatively benign impedance. They let the Solista demonstrate its imaging abilities rather well which were precise and full scaled, they also allowed the amp to show that it worked well at lower levels without compromising dynamics, a result that always enhances engagement in my experience. In this instance I used the William Eikos cables that gave me good results in every system I tried, their combination of transparency and silkiness proved to be a great match for the Viva as well.
The Solista is clearly highly sensitive to recording quality, you don’t have to play audiophile acoustica all the time either, Joan As Policewoman could hardly be described thus but her Long For Ruin sounded good in its distinctly studio manipulated form. You can usually rely on ECM to make a good noise and Arild Andersen’s Svev (If You Look Far Enough) worked particularly well, there is a slight emphasis on the percussion but Andersen’s bass has plenty of shape while Ralph Towner’s guitar is superb. With heavier mixes the grip that this amp exerts on the bass is palpable, it really buries the notion that you need hundreds of watts to control a loudspeaker, even a tough one like the 802.
I played a lot of vinyl through the Solista as well and enjoyed a vivacious sound from the Andrea Hauge Trio where the level of detail produced by the Vertere Calon phono stage was off the scale. Tracks with lots of reverb are a real treat as a result, they seem to expand the limits of the room with sound totally engulfing the speakers, the B&Ws are good in this regard but they need a decent amplifier to really excel. The snap of the snare is also particularly immediate which gives the tune real impetus and engagement. I decided that now was the time to bring in the heavy artillery and put on Kraftwerk’s live version of Radioactivity, this has a lot of low frequency energy and an electric atmosphere which the Solista really dug into. It managed to do this without the bludgeoning effect found with a lot of high power amplifiers, but instead delivers the steely precision of the performance in dynamic fashion.
Conclusion
This substantial amplifier lives up to its build and finish with a notably more powerful and dynamic sound than most of its ilk, if you find most tube amps to smooth and polite the Solista could be right up your alley. It makes an interesting halfway house between the power of a transistor design with the dynamics and immediacy of a good tube one. Delivering maximum thrill-power per watt and making live recordings sound more real and atmospheric than the competition.
Loudspeaker choice is of course crucial if the best results are to be achieved and I would avoid speakers that are typically considered tube friendly, which of course opens up a much wider range of options than is usually the case. The Viva Solista is not inexpensive but you get a lot of serious amplifier for the money and the results it can produce are frequently breath taking.