the practical consequence for me was that not all phono stages I tried or were looking at had high enough output to match Protos, meaning I had to more or less max out the volume. but as I wrote in the other thread my decision was to build my system around Protos, everything else was interchangeable. no regrets regarding this. everything sounds better than before Protos.
bias as already mentioned is displayed on the front, but more subtle than input and volume. this cannot be turned off, while input and volume can.
the front and display is very simple and I love it! especially that I can turn off the volume and input. I was following a discussion a local manufacturer had about his new front panel and digital display with touch controls and soo much icons and information all over the place. simply not for me, I love this back to basics and pure minimalistic approach of Aries Cerat. I also love the remote control, it's one of the best I've had. both of these can seem trivial, but it affects how you're living with your amplifier every day and my relation to my Protos is still in the fluffy cloud phase.
if you're thinking about buying a Protos, let me put it this way. would I recommend it to others? hell yeah!! is it for everyone? maybe not. it always depends what you're looking for and a ton of different aspects. For example I have no doubt that separate pre and amp is likely better and not to mention monoblocks, but for me a great integrated is the way, I prefer to have a minimal system in the living room, this way I can listen to more music than if I had a dedicated room somewhere, and I'm also super happy to just be on this level, even if it is only the entry level of Aries Cerat.
it would be fantastic nice to have a Hermés phono stage and a Heléne DAC to go all-in on Aries Cerat, but I currently have no place to put them, so it's not really worth even thinking about at this point.
Last edited:
