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Here Milorad surveys the final physical setting in which the Vilobhas would settle down.

Having until then only seen photos, I was utterly unprepared for the amps' sheer size in person. Bringing along the standard-sized Kaivalyas for comparison, I had them flank the Vilobhas. This drives home the latter's physical mass in a photo. These really are big amps. Weight without plinth is about 50kg/ea.

With ambient lighting dimmed, four 75TLs throw off enough illumination to substitute for a large number of candles.



Here we see what hides beneath the oval rear cover - the EZ81 rectifier and the two delay valves for the high-voltage rails.

Sasa was clearly happy to see that his babies had safely concluded their journey from Serbia to Switzerland.

Naturally he and his comrades were curious to audition their creations in an unfamiliar setting far larger than their own; and interfacing them with more upscale ancillaries. Here those would include an Esoteric/APL Hifi X01/NWO-M player, an AURALiC MX+ converter, a Kondo M-77 preamp, Voxativ Ampeggio 2012 speakers and one JL Audio subwoofer.

For further context, the reader should know that Dan's inventory of more active amplifiers at this time included Kondo Gakuohs, Colotube 300B monos, Devialet's D-Premier and David Berning's Siegfried. After auditioning my FirstWatt SIT2 review loaner he also placed an order for a pair of SIT1 monos. Prior to the Vilobhas' arrival his favorite pairing for Inès Adler's rear-hornloaded widebanders had been Kondo's M-77 preamp into a rare Berning Siegfried. Studying up on Dan's schematic for the latter, Sasa thought it a very clever and unusual circuit. It certainly didn't sound anything like a typical transformer-coupled 300B SET in this setting.

Here we see a 75TL in close-up against a vintage globe-type 45 to the left.

Enlarge!