PHONO PREAMPLIFIER

MM/MC Phono preamplifier
Made by: Aurorasound Inc, Japan
Supplied by: Pure Sound, UK
Telephone: 01822 612449
Web: http://aurorasound.jp/english; www.puresound.info
Price: £1000

Aurorasound VIDA Prima
The most affordable product from one of Japan’s renowned phono stage specialists, its
quirky retro looks won’t be to every Western taste – but its musical potential will
Review: Nick Tate Lab: Paul Miller

In Japan, long-playing vinyl records havenever really gone away – they just went
underground, becoming cool artefacts
that sat defiantly away from themainstream music market. As the country
churned out millions of shiny new Compact
Disc players in the 1980s and ’90s, thehumble LP stood its ground, cherished byrecord collectors who thought CD to be
the replacement for pre-recorded Compact
Cassette, rather than vinyl.
Even in the mid ’90s, Japanesesubsidiaries of major Western labels likeEMI and Blue Note continued to releasenew records, while UK music retailers
couldn’t kill off the black plastic fastenough. Japanese vinyl ‘otaku’ – record
collectors – had a dedication that arguably
surpassed any others in the world. As
foreign manufacturers were dropping
turntables from their product lineups,
Japanese brands like Technics continued tosell theirs well into the new millennium.

HOMAGE TO THE PAST?
This sense of specialness, of otherness, of
breaking away from the fray, is a big part of
the Japanese analogue scene. In a way, it
explains why Aurorasound’s products don’t
look anything like those of the country’s
vast consumer electronics giants. While thelatter are often gaudy and shiny, with lotsof bells and whistles, the former are wilfully
quirky and rather retro in a timeless sort ofway. Stylistically the brand’s phono stages
could pay homage to the ’50s, ’60s or ’70s
– one is never quite sure.
Aurorasound’s brand aesthetic signalsthat vinyl isn’t part of the rat race, andfounder Shinobu Karaki knows this very
well, having made a living catering for thisniche market for many years [see boxout,p65]. His company is now a respected
specialist hi-fi brand in his home market,
and the VIDA Prima ‘Phono Equaliser
RIGHT: Active/passive RIAA network [clusterin right-hand corner] is based around low-noise
op-amps from Linear Technology and a dualchannel op-amp from Burr-Brown driving theoutput. The remainder is largely its PSU

Reprinted from Hi-Fi News | www.hifinews.co.uk

Amplifier’ is his most affordable product,selling in the UK for £1000.
It’s dramatically pared down comparedto the impressive mid-market VIDA [HFN
Jul ’13] even though the Prima’s dark woodcase and plain, unadorned aluminium
fascia with its large orangey-yellow mutebutton are clearly fashioned after its bigger
brother. In the VIDA Prima’s defence, it
is surprisingly well made and finished,considering its relatively modest price. The
2.2kg, 250x69x246mm (whd) casework
is sturdy and the rear panel rugged, as
are the gold-plated connectors. These
include single-ended RCA phono inputs
and outputs and a ground terminal. There
are also two small toggle switches, one
for load impedance that offers improved
compatibility with MC cartridges having a

sub-15ohm coil impedance (MC-Low) ora >15ohm impedance (MC-High). The two
gain options are rated at +40dB for MM
pick-ups and +64dB for MCs.

SILKY RESPONSE
Look inside the case and you’ll see thatthings are very cleanly laid out. It’s basicallya single circuit-board with short andbroadly symmetrical signal paths. The core
RIAA equalisation is achieved through apart-active/part-passive network – using
negative feedback for low frequency
compensation and a capacitor/resistor
network for the treble. Karaki-san says thiscombination yields wider headroom andlower distortion [see PM’s Lab Report, p65].
High quality components are used,
including Linear Technology and Texas

Instruments regulators/op-amps along with
WIMA film capacitors and high precisionresistors. The power supply uses a small RS
toroidal transformer and sports Schottky
barrier diodes, FineMet beads and – says
Aurorasound – high quality smoothing
capacitors. The fascia switchgear has a silky
action, especially that big front panel mutebutton which was enormously handy whenchanging records and cleaning the stylus.
Those rear switches are fiddly to use but
you’re unlikely to be changing them much,and they do seem to be quality items.

DIGGING DEEP
Most ‘affordable’ phono stages are decent
enough sounding, even if they don’t reallydig deep into what’s at the bottom of therecord groove. The VIDA Prima does better,
however, with a particularly smooth tone
and an open and detailed nature that’s
a serious step up from a budget design.
Typically, it delivers wide soundstages thatare well proportioned front-to-back and,alongside its jaunty rhythmic gait, allows
the music to come alive.
Although its grip is not the world’s
most vice-like, it still keeps a firm handon the stops and starts of the music, andendeavours to deliver them in a pleasingly
believable way. At the same time it has acalm and easy feel, so never makes thingssound forced. Last but not least, it’s alow-noise design that turns in fine soundwhether you’re running a moving-magnet
cartridge or a moving-coil. During thereview period I used a range of pick-ups on
my Michell GyroDec/Rega RB301 turntable/
arm combination, majoring on an AudioTechnica VM530EN MM and an AT33PTG/II
MC, both of which are ‘medium output’ intheir respective categories.
The VIDA Prima has a pleasant tonalitythat veers ever so slightly
towards sweetness.
Whereas some solid-statephono stages can soundjust a little too ‘tinselly’ fortheir own good, injecting
a rather brittle chromiumplated sheen to the music,
this little box steers clear.
Rather, it gives a pretty matter-of-factreading of the recording it’s tasked toplay, which is why the post-punk of The
Jam’s ‘Strange Town’ [Setting Sons; Polydor
PD-1-6249] comes over as the slightly
grey, lifeless and dour recording that it is,while Randy Crawford’s soulful early ’80s
classic ‘You Might Need Somebody’ [Secret
Combination; Warner Bros Records BSK3541] is the exact opposite.
So the VIDA Prima is usefully transparent– being revealing of the less wonderful

ABOVE: Traditional ‘metal box in wooden
sleeve’ industrial design is a hallmark of thisartisan brand. Fascia is dominated by a huge,
illuminated mute button – perfect before cueing
or switching connections at the rearrecordings without being too unforgiving,while letting the better ones shine. There’s
a welcome even-handedness and insight
here, blended with a subtle smoothness.
It’s as if someone has slipped a few
grains of sugar into yourgreen tea, so you’re notquite sure if it’s been
sweetened but it tastes
nice all the same!
Its open and detailed
sound goes a lot deeper
into recordings than you
might expect given its
price. Rush’s ‘The Camera Eye’ [Moving
Pictures; Mercury 6337 160] was shown tohave a dry and clinical sound – very muchthe fashion in ‘serious’ rock recordings
back in the early ’80s – with oodles ofdetail courtesy of its sophisticated multitrack production. This little box seemed
to delight in delving in and having a goodlook around, successfully capturing theambient feel of this track.

‘It’s like slippinga few grains ofsugar into yourgreen tea’

CAREER CHANGE
After 28 years of working as a manager for the Japanese subsidiary of Texas
Instruments – as well as playing and teaching guitar – VIDA’s president, Shinobu
Karaki, took early retirement to make phono stages for a living. He launched
Aurorasound in 2010 ‘to make my hobby my business’, adding that ‘this is what
we call self-actualisation’. He says that DACs ‘cannot make people happy or
make money, because of the short life cycle’. Instead, he believes that, ‘mostpeople believe vinyl has the better sound’. The philosophy of his company is to,‘combine good old technology with new technology to make unique products forreproducing music’. He says that the VIDA, or ‘Vinyl Disk Amplifier’, came out at
the right time for the vinyl revival. ‘The VIDA Prima is for newcomers to analogue,
perhaps who have come from computer audio. They know serious sound, andwant to get into vinyl as the next step up the hi-fi ladder.’BEHIND THE SCENESThe realistic texture of the synthesisers,
for example, was a joy to hear, as was thecrispness of the lead guitar and the sinewy
thwack of the snare drum. Indeed, the
VIDA Prima is better at communicating
this sort of information than most phono
stages at this price level, and this pays
dividends with a really good recording.
With the Rush LP there was a sense that it
had been ‘unlocked’, and the listener had
been allowed behind the scenes access.
Everything from the tautness of the bass
guitar to the smooth swish of the ridecymbal was a sonic pleasure.
This album also showcased the VIDA
Prima’s fine soundstaging, but things
www.hifinews.co.uk | Reprinted from Hi-Fi NewsLABREPORT
PHONO PREAMPLIFIERAURORASOUND VIDA PRIMAABOVE: Everything you need for a no-nonsense vinyl system – single inputs andoutputs on RCAs with switchable gain for MM and MC pick-ups and a choice ofloading for MCs with low and high coil impedances. No DIP switches here!

really flew with a less over-produced,
classic jazz recording from the mid’60s. Lou Donaldson’s ‘Alligator
Bogaloo’ [Alligator Bogaloo; Blue
Note 7842631] is typically postbop with a modern jazz feel, buttraditional production values include
its pair of crossed microphones
and tape recorder. Here the
VIDA Prima set up some reallypowerful stereo imaging inside therecorded acoustic, giving a bold‘out of the box’ feel to the various
instrumentalists on stage.

TACTILE PLEASURES
While no match for true high-end
solid-state or tube designs, thepresentation here still sounded more
expansive than you might expect.
The VIDA Prima never failed toserve up a big and visceral recorded
acoustic with plenty of air and spaceinside. Everything was carefully
positioned, from the brass section
and the Hammond organ to thedrums and the double-bass.
Each was smartly delineated fromthe other, and you could clearly
discern the space between them.
Things had a pleasingly tactile
quality, a sense of ‘being there’ rightin the middle of the action.
The VIDA Prima’s ability tonail a rhythm also never failed toimpress. It’s not one of those showy
performers that are all about ‘pace,rhythm and timing’, yet it still
manages to slot everything together
really nicely. As The Human League’s‘The Things That Dreams Are MadeOf’ [Dare; Virgin V2192] showed, it
has an easy yet intricate style.
This early ’80s synth pop track
can sound a little deadpan andmechanical, but here its beats werebeautifully syncopated with thelead vocals, and this gave the songa true sense of purpose. The VIDA
Prima doesn’t regiment everything
into a metronomic rhythm with theresult that you hear a false sense of
speed and drive. Instead, it is supple
and responsive without being overly
controlled, and the overall effect is
to bring a song to life.
So while this phono preamp may
not be the grandest or punchiestof the breed, it still convincingly
tracks the music’s small accents andinflections. Whether I used MM or
MC pick-ups, the VIDA Prima seemed
particularly adept at simply stepping
aside and letting me get on withenjoying the music.
And because it has such goodmanners – with a conspicuous lackof noise or hum – there’s little senseof strain, regardless of the gain
selected (the moving-magnet having
only a slight advantage over themoving-coil input here). Either way,
the VIDA Prima’s insight, grip andevenness means that whatever
front-end you use or recording you
play, the music will be offered up
with a spirit of joyfulness.

Similar in name only to the original VIDA [HFN Jul ’13], the VIDA
Prima employs a far simpler, part-active (low frequency)/partpassive (high frequency) RIAA network. The headline differencesin performance between the two are as follows: the costlier
Vida offers superior input overload margins, a higher output
and lower noise via MC, while the VIDA Prima trades this for awider MM S/N ratio, a much flatter and extended HF response
and lower overall distortion. Talking of distortion, this is indeed
exceptionally low at ~0.0002% through the midrange, increasingslightly to ~0.001% at the bass/treble frequency extremes [Graph2, below]. In practice this is of academic interest only as the
typical pick-up’s distortion will be 1000x higher (re. 5cm/sec).
Its equalised response is also comfortably beyond that ofany pick-up, albeit very slightly ‘flatter’ on the left than rightchannel, at ±0.4dB from 100Hz-100kHz and with a subsonic
filter of –0.5dB/20Hz down to –6dB/4Hz [see Graph 1, below].
The output impedance is usefully low at 45ohm through mid
and treble, increasing to 100ohm/75Hz and 715ohm/20Hz [blueinfill, Graph 1]. In its MM setting, the VIDA Prima offers +40.5dB
gain (47kohm loading) and a generous 90.5dB A-wtd S/N ratio.
So this is a very quiet MM stage with an input overload
margin of 89mV – this represents a headroom of +25dB
to accommodate the wildest of vinyl grooves (re. 5mV at
1kHz/5cm/sec). The MC input includes an additional +23.9dB,
realising a total gain of +64.4dB, but the A-wtd S/N ratio of
71.3dB is slightly reduced (re. 500µV) and the 5.6mV overload
margin is less generous. With a headroom of +21dB (or +19.4dB
re. its 0.6mV sensitivity), the VIDA Prima’s MC input is best suited
to medium- rather than high- or low-output MCs. PM

ABOVE: RIAA-corrected freq. response (L/R, black/red;
5Hz-100kHz) versus output impedance (cyan trace)

HI-FI NEWS VERDICT
Once you look past the curious
styling of Aurorasound’s VIDA
Prima, you’ll not be able to stop
yourself enjoying its sound. Thisquirky phono stage is a more
exotic performer than mostprice rivals, with a sophisticatedyet agile character that neverintrudes on the music being
played. As such, it’s a pleasure to
audition across a very wide rangeof vinyl. Full of eastern promise –so hear it if you possibly can.

Sound Quality: 80%
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ABOVE: Distortion versus extended frequency (5Hz40kHz) via MM input, re. 0dBV output

HI-FI NEWS SPECIFICATIONS
Input loading (MM/MC)

47kohm / 75ohm & 900ohm

Input sensitivity (re. 0dBV balanced out)

9.39mV / 603µV

Input overload (re. 1% THD)

89mV / 5.6mVMax. output (re. 1% THD) / Impedance

9.0V / 45-713ohm

A-wtd S/N ratio (re. 0dBV balanced out)

90.5dB / 71.3dB

Frequency resp. (20Hz-20kHz/100kHz)–0.48dB to –0.07dB / +0.12dB

Distortion (20Hz-20kHz, re. 0dBV)

0.00021–0.0011%

Power consumption

4W

Dimensions (WHD) / Weight

250x69x246mm / 2.3kg

www.hifinews.co.uk | Reprinted from Hi-Fi News