"Now some words on the Vintage Oslo project. Each creator has a secret stubborn dream. Someone means to compose the most monumental of symphonies. Somebody else sees a computer in every home, another a car for the masses. You already know much about my audio craziness from past reviews. Like all designers, I want to scale to the top of Mount Everest. I want to design and make the best components like my SET monos, the big Wing speakers, the Lektor Grand flagship CDP/pre.
"But there's another dream. That is to share my joy of music with less affluent people who won't ruin their budget and family relations for this playback hobby of ours. So I wanted to distill my experience of many long years designing flagship product down to more ordinary price points.
"You had opportunity to listen to my Studio Oslo. It was the first small speaker to market which could handle all musical aspects. The concept was a hit.
"Exploiting my proprietary digital speaker processor enabled a small good-sounding speaker that was easy to manufacture. It led to the formation of a new company called Digital Speaker Manufacture. With many features packaged into perfectly executed aluminium enclosures, we created the Fram Audio brand which garnered much attention in the market already.
"So you might ask, why yet another small speaker now back under the Ancient Audio banner?
"The simple answer is still price. How low could I really go?"
"I approached the Vintage Oslo similar to how Sir Alec Issignonis designed his famous Mini. That car was really petite and inexpensive for its time but gave a lot of pleasure with daily drives. Sir Alec eliminated all non-essentials to focus instead on a comfortable neat interior and a perfect easy ride. Similarly, Vintage Oslo has no digital inputs, no remote, no army of socketry, smartphone app, endless switches or display. The focus is dead-simple operation, a nice look and very high sound quality."
"The RCA input can take a CD player, DAC, phono stage or streamer. The 3.5mm mini jack will take anything with a headphone output like a computer, phone, tablet TV or musical instrument."
"The optional €25 Bluetooth or WiFi receiver is powered by the USB-A socket and allows plug-in upgrades when more advanced future receivers drop. Already the latest Bluetooth 5.0 is far superior to earlier such devices on sound quality, ease of pairing and connection stability."
"Now Vintage Oslo has become the most affordable Ancient Audio product I've ever made even when compared to the original Studio Oslo. I think of it as the least expensive true high-end system to market."
