Предусилители — Aries Cerat VIRGO

The Virgo is a two-chassis tube preamplifier from the Legend Series of Aries Cerat, designed to be used with the company's Achilleas amplifier. It is priced at GBP 144,950 in the UK, or USD 144,000. The design uses a single single-ended gain stage with E280F tubes, xenon rectifiers and a transformer attenuator, built dual mono with film capacitors throughout.

Key specs that matter

The single gain stage is a single-ended circuit with two E280F tubes in parallel per channel, four in total, driving a bifilar output transformer with a nanocrystalline core. Rectification uses two 6AU4GTA tubes for the bias and four 3B28 xenon rectifiers for the high-voltage rails. Volume is set by a 26-step transformer attenuator on latching relays. Maximum output is 150 V RMS in the high-gain version, 30 V RMS in the medium-gain version and 15 V in the very-low-gain version, and output impedance is 12 to 300 ohms depending on configuration. There are four RCA inputs and one true balanced XLR input, and noise is below -120 dB unweighted. Each chassis measures 550 mm wide and 530 mm deep and weighs 70 kg, 140 kg in total.

Engineering and use context

The 3B28 is a rectifier tube filled with xenon gas, used here for the high-voltage supply, while the 6AU4GTA rectifiers supply the bias. A nanocrystalline core in the output transformer uses a material with very high magnetic permeability. The transformer attenuator uses latching relays that stay in position without holding current, and it selects taps on a transformer winding instead of resistors. Film capacitors are used throughout, with no electrolytic types anywhere in the circuit. With its dual mono construction, the Virgo keeps left and right channels apart from the supplies onward. Even the very-low-gain version delivers more than typical power amplifiers need for full output.

Pairing

The Virgo is intended for Aries Cerat's Achilleas amplifier in the Legend Series, and its range of gain versions and output impedances allows it to be configured for other power amplifiers. The four RCA inputs and the balanced input cover DACs and phono stages. The two heavy chassis need a very solid support and space around them.

Alternatives

The Aries Cerat Impera II Signature LE uses second-generation Inverted Triode tubes and ten independent supplies in a 110 kg limited edition.