I was reading up about Vinnie Rossi's modular approach to audio components (http://vinnierossi.com) and the more I read about it, the more it made sense. The principle of the Lio, of course, isn't new. Many amps, for example, can take expansion cards with digital inputs, phono, etc. I'm not that familiar with Devialet, but I believe their products are also highly configurable.
But this is modularity on a whole new level.
The same box can be configured as a dac/headphone pre, a phono pre, an integrated with tube stage and mosfet power amp, etc. etc. You can even fit different kinds (quality levels) of volume controls. (The ultracapacitor-based power supply design deserves a thread of its own, btw. Sort of the natural evolution of his battery-based efforts at Red Wine Audio.)
And then it gets really interesting. They encourage owners (or potential owners) to generate ideas/suggestions about which modules to develop and introduce next. (http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=130693.0)
I think the next module in the works is a streaming/network module. A low power class A amp and a high power class D amp module are also on the cards (Either of which could be fitted instead of the mosfet one).
What I find so smart about all this is that the product recognises a core truth about the market - that we're always trying to improve our systems and take things up a notch. It's just refreshing that instead of always having to buy a whole new box, you can buy a new module to install (user installable btw) into your existing box. Or even potentially influencing what that module ends up being.
I think it's really smart.
Some write-ups:
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/vinnie-rossi-lio-modular-audio-system/
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/vinnierossi/1.html
But this is modularity on a whole new level.
The same box can be configured as a dac/headphone pre, a phono pre, an integrated with tube stage and mosfet power amp, etc. etc. You can even fit different kinds (quality levels) of volume controls. (The ultracapacitor-based power supply design deserves a thread of its own, btw. Sort of the natural evolution of his battery-based efforts at Red Wine Audio.)
And then it gets really interesting. They encourage owners (or potential owners) to generate ideas/suggestions about which modules to develop and introduce next. (http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=130693.0)
I think the next module in the works is a streaming/network module. A low power class A amp and a high power class D amp module are also on the cards (Either of which could be fitted instead of the mosfet one).
What I find so smart about all this is that the product recognises a core truth about the market - that we're always trying to improve our systems and take things up a notch. It's just refreshing that instead of always having to buy a whole new box, you can buy a new module to install (user installable btw) into your existing box. Or even potentially influencing what that module ends up being.
I think it's really smart.
Some write-ups:
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/vinnie-rossi-lio-modular-audio-system/
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/vinnierossi/1.html
