VINIUS VAS 1 STEP UP TRANSFORMER REVIEW

Vinius VAS 1 Step Up Transformer is a Step Up Transformer from the same company that makes the excellent TVC-05 preamplifier reviewed here . In one of the first reviews of this product, Stuart plumbs it into the HiFi PiG reference system for a listen.

VINIUS is a small, artisan Polish manufacturer, and they specialise in stripped-back TVC pre-amplifiers. I reviewed their TVC-05 preamplifier in this review back in June of 2023 and immediately ordered a bespoke version of it. It has stayed as a permanent fixture in our reference system ever since – it’s excellent, though the look of it will certainly divide opinion. 

When VINIUS got in touch to say they had built a step-up transformer my interest was immediately piqued, and I arranged for one of their first units to be sent over so I could have a listen. 

BUILD AND FEATURES OF THE VINIUS VAS 1 STEP UP TRANSFORMER

This is a new look for VINIUS, and the case work is much less ‘Fred in his shed” in appearance and much more akin to a product that will have wider aesthetic appeal. I’m guessing that VINIUS will change the look of future preamplifiers they make to match the VAS 1, as it’s a much better, though still massively stripped back design, and if they do make the change, I’d most likely send the pre we have back and have it re-cased. 

I’ll talk about what you get with the VAS 1 first of all, but in all honesty, apart from the huge weight of the pretty compact casework, there’s not a lot to say. The front panel is classy and has no controls, just the company name and the product name. Around the back, you have chunky controls for input impedance (one for each channel), inputs for attaching your turntable’s phono leads and ground, plus outputs that go to your chosen phono-preamplifier. As this is a transformer-based SUT there is no power input. You also get a pair of chunky earth leads that connects to the unit from your turntable and to your phonostage. 

Those two knobs control and match the input impedance of your cartridge, though VINIUS tell us that they strongly recommend you change these by ear to get the sound that you prefer – I love this approach as there is no “one-size-fits-all” in audio. 

A small point on the front and back panels – I prefer the back of the unit to be the front, even though this means having your cables attached to the front of the unit. Having it back to front on the rack allows for easier adjustment of the input impedance, and I do change cartridges a fair bit…obviously. I’d have preferred to have the knobs on the front of the unit and the ins and outs on the back but I’m assuming this decision was made because of form following function considerations. However, I do think this is something that VINIUS should consider. 

At this point, I think it’s wise for me to hand over to Zdzisław Ejsmont, who is the man behind VINIUS to explain his thinking behind the new SUT. 

“The idea, as it often happens, came about by accident. I tested SUTs from many different manufacturers, and each one seemed better than its predecessor – they were also more expensive. One day I thought I could connect the TVC 05 (the preamplifier that Stuart owns and tested) in reverse and it should work! Of course, I did so; the hum and rum were huge, but amidst all this an incredibly realistic sound emerged. That is what I am all about in audio. Using the TVC-5 turned out to be ideal, because thanks to the 24 scale (the volume knob) I could precisely match the SUT transformer ratios not based on calculations but by ear! I managed to achieve a huge scale of realism. I never consider sound in categories – springy or extended bass, bright treble or beautiful midrange, I am only interested in the most realistic sound. The kind that if you hear it, you will never forget. You have to be sure that the musicians are standing there and playing, not just the impression. I listened to many active Step-ups, I always had the impression that what came out of them was “plastic”. Generally, most systems I have heard have a plastic sound. Recently, I asked a certain salon to turn on The Cure’s album “Songs Of A Lost World”, the system cost a mountain of gold. The salesman said “this album is badly recorded” and when I heard the sound I agreed with him, if I heard such a sound I would say the same, but unfortunately I know what this album really sounds like and it is made brilliantly, in such a thicket of guitar sounds with lots of effects, each guitar is 100% real, when I listen to this album I get shivers. Everything is perfectly placed in space, and nothing overlaps.

“To construct VAS 01 I used the experience from constructing TVC -03/05 without it it would not have been possible to create this SUT. It is about the system of winding and manufacturing the transformers.”

I thought it an interesting point that Zdzisław suggested on the phone that the settings for input impedance should be done by ear, and when sending out the quote above he added, “The descriptions are informative, you always have to set them by ear.

“But the device behind the SUT is also of great importance. The same cartridge with the same VAS1 SUT with a different phono pre can play better on a different setting, you have to listen!!”

So there you have it. The VAS 01 is a heavy, though compact beast and came in its own specially created wooden box and I think the industrial design is excellent, though I do hope they listen to my comments about where the knobs for changing input impedance values should be placed – it just makes more sense for me and will likely make the unit more attractive to potential buyers.

SOUND OF THE VINIUS VAS 1

The VAS 1 slotted into our system between the Technics 1200G using our HANA UMAMI RED and our Music First phonostage. The rest of the system is the usual Electrocompaniet AW 800M amps and a pair of Audiovector R6 speakers. The review process follows the usual path of slotting the review unit in and out of the existing system and comparing and noting down my thoughts before writing them up. 

I’ll be honest and say now that I’m not expecting much of an improvement over our current SUT, though the VINIUS unit does look well over-specified. 

After a good deal of knob-twiddling, sitting down, listening, and then more of the same, I came to the conclusion pretty quickly that my preferred setting for input impedance was the 3.5 setting on both left and right channels. The other settings still work, but the sound seemed to open up a little more on this setting. I think the advice that comes from VINIUS to set this by ear is a very good one, and it’s something I already did with our reference SUT, anyway. 

Sitting down to listen to Solid Air (Half-Speed Master), my immediate reaction was that the sound was a little more relaxed than with our usual SUT in place. This is a very difficult kind of thing to put into words, and the sound being more relaxed and unforced is as close as I’m going to be able to get to describe this ‘sensation’. It’s music, it’s about feeling, it’s about sensations and with the VAS 1 in place, the sensation I got was of this track (and subsequently the rest of the record) somehow sounding more easygoing. The other thing I noted was the soundstage was a little more pronounced in its imaging – nothing that is going to make you stop in your tracks and go “WOW”, but it was there and worth commenting on. However, my biggest takeaway here was the sensation of relaxing into the music being heightened – Linette commented the same from the other side of the room.

Relaxed is an OK attribute if the music you are listening to is relaxed, but not all music is relaxed, and so I pop on Kraftwerk’s Tour De France album. There is texture and a hollowness to the synthesised bass-kick sound on Aero Dynamik, and the analogue nature of the instruments being used comes through in spades, which I found interesting. The human brain seems to like analogue sounds (for whatever reason), and in some way, the VINIUS SUT manages to enhance this music/listener connection. Is the music more separated in the soundstage, perhaps? You know what, I do think it is, but not in a way that is false or pushed to extremes. Even on this very electronic album, there is an organic feeling to the music I’m hearing. Yeh, this is an improvement over the SUT we were using, but I’m finding it difficult to pinpoint in words exactly why – it’s more of a physical/mental reaction to the way I’m sensing the music! If all this sounds a little hippy-dippy then I apologise, but that’s how I’m reacting to the music I’m hearing. Elektro Kardiogramm fills the room and envelops me in the music in a way that I don’t think I’ve experienced with this album before. Discussing this with Linette whilst music was playing, the word we both used, though we both had to think about it, was “spacious”. There’s nothing false-sounding about this spaciousness, and I reckon were you to measure the sound with whatever it is folk measure these things with, you’d not see differences in measurements, but there is something “different” and “better” about the sound with the VAS 1 in place. 

From The Revolutionaries dub sounds to techno tunes, the feeling this SUT brought to the music was indefinable, but very much there. It sounds like a bit of a reviewers’ cliche, but I did feel I was listening to well-loved records with new ears. 

QUIBBLES

If you set this up in the conventional way, the control knobs are on the back and I think they should be on the front. Set up back to front like I had it (so I could mess with the impedance knobs) makes it look like some kind of thing out of a science lab. 

It’s far from cheap!

CONCLUSION

Organic, relaxed, and spacious are not words that really cut it in audio reviewing circles, but I genuinely do not know how else to describe what adding this unit into our existing setup brought other table. It was a case of it just sounding “right”…or more right. 

Yes, everything was there with our reference SUT, but the VINIUS VAS 1 just added an extra dimension to the music I played through it. I’ve given detractors plenty of scope for ridiculing this review given the words I’ve used, but sometimes it’s nigh on impossible to put your finger on why or how something sounds as it does, but, for me, the sensation was that I felt more connected and part of the listening experience. More relaxed but without losing any definition or detail. The same bus attack and bite but somehow “enhanced”. 

I do hope that VINIUS bring the VAS 1 to market as it deserves to be heard and appreciated by a wider audience than the handful of folk that it’s been passed around so far. If you are well invested in your vinyl playback system already and you want to add that last last bit “je ne sais quoi”, then I urge you to get a home review of this SUT in your system! 

I’m giving this product the highest award I can give it because it just does something wholly indefinable and wonderful to the music you listen to when it is in the system. It’s just very “right” sounding.

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality:

Tank-like

Controls for input impedance should be on the front

Weighs a ton

Nice packaging box

Sound Quality:

It does something to the music you listen to that your brain likes

More organic and more relaxed but without altering the dynamics or detail

Value For Money:

If you are already well invested in your vinyl playback system, then this is worth your attention. It’s not going to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, but on a top-flight system, it makes the very good even better

We Loved:

The new casework

The feeling of the music 

We Didn’t Love So Much:

The layout of the knobs for impedance 

It’s pretty expensive, but then so are top-flight cartridges

Price: 5500 Euros

Elevator Pitch Review: The VINIUS VAS 1 is a step up transformer (SUT) using two substantial and very heavy transformers in steel casework. It sits between your turntable with a Moving Coil cartridge and your standard phonostage, pushing the voltage output of the MC cartridge to a level that the MM phonostage can make use of. The effects of the VAS 1 in our system was obvious, but also quite subtle. It’s not going to suddenly make a 200 quid cartridge sound like a 5000 quid cartridge, but if you are at that higher end of the analogue playback ladder, then it adds a rung of connection with the music that is immediate and very real. Well worth the audition, though the price will be prohibitive to many. 

Stuart Smith

SUPPLIED BY VINIUS

SUPPLIED SPECIFICATIONS

Phono pre MM setting: 70dB, 5mV

Input resistance: 47KInput capacitance: 47pF, 100pF, 150pF, 220pF depends on the cartridge.

Phono pre

Input/output impedance 100K/600 ohms.

Dimensions

Height 140mm

Width 354mm

Depth 223mm

Weight 22kg

Housing made of 3mm thick steel sheet. Cups in which the transformers are enclosed are made of 3mm steel sheet.

Transformer type EI 105mm with 6 outputs.

Copper CMC outputs