Lavardin Updates Model IS and IT Range of AmpliFiers
French manufacturer Lavardin Technlogies have been building some of the finest integrated and power amplifiers for more than 15 years. It's hard to improve on perfection, so you rarely see a Lavardin range update, but that's what has just happened with the announcement of an update to the Model IS and IT, signified by the letter 'X' appended to each model.
Before embarking on further development, Lavardin polled their existing customers and press. The results speak for themselves.
According to Lavardin's Australian distributor, Aleksandar Maksimovic of Audio Magic, a staggering 99.2% of respondents believed no sonic improvement could be found by further developing the Model IS and IT products. However, not surprisingly, like we found in our Model IS review in 2015, 95.4% of respondents wanted a remote control. Purist or not, not having a remote control is a deal-breaker these days.
Much to the joy of Lavardin fans, we're pleased to report that not only have the engineers managed to extract more from the range, they've also added a remote control.
Lavardin told StereoNET:
Our latest research on amplifier linearity allowed us to discover refined circuit design that procures a major step of additional transparency and micro dynamic. Instead of launching super high end components only, we decided to implement X circuits on all our integrated amplifiers.
Aside from the 'X' model circuitry upgrades, and the addition of a remote control, all else remains the same with the exception of a rectangular silver window on the front fascia.
At the same time we sorted out our remote volume control with zero sonic consequence. As a matter of fact, today's digital sources musical drama is the use of their digital volume control, remote controled or not. It simply destroys the musicality from the first dB of attenuation. We never ever heard any proper digital volume control on a DAC or computer at any price.
Now, simply set all DACs or computers to full output level and control the volume thanks to the Lavardin remote, for a much better sound.
The previous Model IS and IT will remain in Lavardin's product range.
Available now, the Lavardin X range includes Lavardin ISX ($4,025 RRP), Lavardin ISX Reference ($6,125 RRP), Lavardin ITX ($10,850 RRP), Lavardin ITX 20 ($17,325 RRP).
For more information visit Audio Magic.
Marc Rushton
StereoNET’s Founder and Publisher was born in England and raised on British Hi-Fi before moving to Australia. He developed an early love of music and playing bass guitar before discovering the studio and the other side of the mixing desk. After writing for print magazines, Marc saw the future in digital publishing and founded the first version of StereoNET in 1999.
Posted in: Hi-Fi
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