Предусилители — Vinnie Rossi BRAMA Preamplifier

The BRAMA Preamplifier is a valve line preamplifier from Vinnie Rossi, founded in 2004 by the engineer Vinnie Rossi, who studied electrical engineering and designed test equipment for high-speed optics at Lucent and Bell Labs before starting the company. The second-generation BRAMA range, to which this preamplifier belongs, was announced in April 2024, and the price is USD 38,995.

Key specs that matter

The circuit is fully balanced and dual mono, with a pure Class A line stage built around a matched pair of Western Electric WE300B triodes. The rear panel has five balanced XLR inputs at 20 kOhm, with RCA to XLR adapters included, and three independent volume-controlled XLR outputs with an output impedance below 100 ohm and up to 10 V RMS. Gain can be set to 0, 6 or 12 dB. THD+N is below 0.1%, frequency response is 5 Hz to 100 kHz within 0.5 dB, and the noise floor lies over 100 dB down. Idle consumption is 45 W, and the fuse is rated at 4 A. The preamplifier measures 475 x 381 x 140 mm and weighs 20.9 kg.

Engineering and use context

The whole circuit, including the 300B valves, is mounted directly on the rear-panel sockets, which keeps the signal path to a few centimetres. The 300B is a directly heated triode normally used in power amplifiers, and here it drives the outputs directly. Power comes from a switch-mode supply with Belleson linear super-regulated outputs. Its case is cut from one piece of 6063 aircraft-grade aluminium. Volume is set by a 100-step resistor ladder and balance in 12 steps, with settings stored for each input. The left knob is a 24-position Swiss rotary encoder that also switches the unit on and off, and the right knob is a 48-position encoder for mute, volume and the VU display mode. A custom analogue VU gauge behind a sapphire lens replaces a screen on the front panel. A USB-C port handles firmware updates, a Brama Link output triggers connected amplifiers and a Home Theater Bypass setting hands level control for one input to a surround processor. The Bluetooth remote is milled aluminium with a 61 mm LCD under sapphire glass and a rechargeable battery. A travel case is supplied, and the shipping weight is 36 kg.

Pairing

The BRAMA Monoblock Power Amplifier is the matching partner, and the three outputs can feed a pair of monoblocks and a subwoofer or a second pair of amplifiers for bi-amping.

Alternatives

The Vinnie Rossi L2 Signature Preamplifier is the earlier dual-mono directly heated triode preamplifier with optional DAC and phono modules.