Can you please tell us what you preferred in the big Vitus set up compared to the Dags especially on classical?
Hi,
Unfortunately classical music is not my first or even second choice. Sorry for that. I'm rather rock & jazz guy
But I preferred Vitus mainly because of more lifelike presentation. SS-101 has unique magic in midrange like good SET. Black background, fluidity and smoothness. But it's not only that - it has amazing dynamic potential and bass capability. More will tell you its weight - 85 kg. Kinda heavy for 50W amp
In comparison Momentum combo sounded brighter (but not bright in general), just more like nice, polite solid state with very good PRAT. Maybe bass was more punchy and better controlled, but for me Momentum combo lacks those addicting vocals and timbre of acoustic instruments.
Other thing is that there’s a giant difference in prices between two (around 2:1 in 2014).
Of course with D’Agostino you get two separate amazing looking, very expensive chassis and the preamp has multiple inputs. SS-101 has more minimalistic chassis though IMHO great looking, inputs are limited to a single pair of XLR and RCA and you have to pay extra for a remote if you want to use it as a convenient integrated amp , but still I found to be a way better value. I have not tried it yet with dedicated preamp like SL-102/101, but know people who prefer it with just this simple internal, relay based volume control.
To be precise all comparisons were made mainly with the DCS front-end (Puccini at the time), which is my first digital source recommendation for Vitus amps. I recently tried the newest Rossini player and the sound was even better. Hard to imagine what the Vivaldi stack can bring.
All the best,
Kamil