When I unpacked the Levante, I noticed two pairs of boxed ECC81 tubes and thought oh nice, they sent spares. Not so: The pairs were different brands. The Mullard boxes were empty; the JJ tube boxes were full (footnote 2). Before turning on the Levante, I removed its top cover and verified that, yes, only two tubes are required, and the Mullard pair was installed.
Patiently, gently, and mindfully, I removed the Mullards, then, even more carefully, I inserted the JJ 12AT7s. Voila, a new amp was born.
The sound-character change was significant, as Luca had predicted. The Levante integrated was no longer "too lush" or even lush; it now had some third-harmonic ping, an occasional flash of glare and stronger drive.
When I played my favorite Rollin' & Tumblin' tracks, there was still plenty of juice in Burnside's voice and lots of bendy twang in his guitar. But the Levante's sound with the JJ tubes was now overtly direct, less misty and possessed of a more sharply focused, less-granular clarity than it had been with the Mullards. Vocal intelligibility was five-star.
With Magnepan .7s
The Levante's new brighter, more starkly clear persona inspired me to see what it would do powering Magnepan's .7 quasi-ribbon panel speakers. The .7s always please me, but I was not sure a no-feedback, low–damping factor amplifier would please them. With the Riviera Levante switched to class-A, the 4 ohm Magnepan .7s seemed pleased enough to generate a larger, more colorful but less dense Burnside than my Gold Badges. Their projected sound was quieter at its core, with blacker deep spaces and more voluminous bass. As I had anticipated, the JJ-tubed Levante vitalized the Maggie membranes, making recordings sound clearer and livelier.
On my anthem, Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross" from the album Wonderful World, Beautiful People (24/96 FLAC, A&M/Qobuz), the Riviera-Maggie combo presented Cliff's music in glowing, extremely rich, detailed sound, which showed me tons of background information I'd never heard before. If you want your 4 ohm Maggies to make shin-kicking bass, you're gonna need an amp with steel-toed boots and more feedback than none.
When I switched the Levante to class-AB, I observed no change, suggesting that even when set to class-AB, it was still operating in class-A. I tried switching again with the Magnepan .7s; I did hear some change, but it was too subtle to comment on.
With DeVore O/93s
With the Levante powering the 10 ohm DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93 loudspeakers, it took only a minute for me to change my mind about those made-in-Slovakia JJ 12AT7s. Now, playing The Four Quarters, a new release of contemporary classical music from the Solem Quartet (24/96 FLAC, Orchid Classics/Qobuz), the sound was tinfoil bright. Instruments were still luminous and clear, but now they were distinctly forward, with moments of ear-flashing brightness. I switched back to the Russian-made Mullards.
With the Mullards, the DeVore speakers did not sound too lush, or soft or fuzzy. They were just more textured and relaxed. To verify this observation and validate my final choice of tubes, I played this new LP I'm hooked on: Prince: Piano & a Microphone 1983 (LP, NPG/Warner R1 566557/603497861285). I've played this recording through enough different component groups to know it does not take much to make it squeal and glare brightly. But when it sounds right, it is a thriller and a stunner—very alive.
With the Mullards, the Prince recording sounded tamed, as a Bernie Grundman–mastered recording should. Coming off the Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum and its matching Koetsu SUT, Prince's voice and piano, via the Levante, made the DeVores sound like mastering-studio monitors: the opposite of dark, and high-resolution. On "Cold Coffee & Cocaine," the Levante did a remarkable job of showing the room echo that framed Prince's voice. Supervivid sound. Inspired performances. No glare.
With the Mullard-Levante and the O/93s, I felt like I was home with Mama. The sound was sweet, round, and voluptuous. I began repeat-playing La Guitarra dels Lleons, with Xavier Diaz-Latorre (guitar) and Pedro Estevan (percussion) playing Isaac Albéniz's "Preludio: Asturias (Leyenda)" (16/44.1 FLAC, L'Auditori/Tidal). With the Levante poering the O/93s, Xavier Diaz-Latorre's artful playing felt profound and exquisitely full, super-3D, and very naturally toned. I kept staring at the image on the album's cover, thinking, "that guitar is one of the most beautiful objects I've ever seen. Is Diaz-Latorre actually playing that guitar?" This recording was the Levante's Wow! moment.
What I noticed most about the sound was the uninhibited glow and flow. Just wood and strings vibrating, very naturally.
What the Falcons can't do that the DeVore O/93s do extremely well is play cello or viola da gamba recordings in a completely satisfying way. With the Levante, reproducing Jordi Savall performing Tobias Hume's Musicall Humors (Londres, 1605) on viola da gamba (16/44.1 FLAC, AliaVox/ Qobuz), the quantity and quality of deep, rich-toned harmonics held my attention. It seemed this Riviera amp and DeVore speaker were made to reproduce Tobias Hume's worldly poetics and Jordi Savall's incredibly sonorous gamba sound.
The main treat of the O/93 + Levante show was how the Riviera amp felt naturally coupled to the DeVore speakers. Their electromagnetic dance felt intimate and just right.
Vs the Pass Labs INT-25
I've used Pass Labs' $7250 INT-25 integrated since it came out in 2019. When it arrived, it immediately became my reference for everything good about solid state: firm control of low frequencies, a strong sense of well-sortedness (or the illusion thereof), and conspicuous clarity. In my amp herd, the INT-25 remains my clearest, most brightly lit, most dynamic solid state microscope for examining the inner workings of recordings. Powering the DeVore O/93 and the Falcon Gold Badges loudspeakers, the Riviera Levante presented itself as less water-clear and dynamically charged than the INT-25. Compared to the Pass Laboratories INT-25, the Riviera amplifier sounded thick and less sharply focused. But! The Levante "microscoped" even better than the Pass Labs did, exposing more and denser delicate sounds and nuanced tonal shadings in the depths behind and to the sides of the performers. It made the molecules of the soundspace feel juiced and activated. With the DeVores, the Pass Labs amp got out of the way of the music by virtue of its electrical invisibility. The Levante amp disappeared because it sucked my mind extra-deep into the richness of the music.
The headphone output
I cannot remember being impressed with the headphone feature on any integrated amplifier, but the Levante impressed me immediately. With HiFiMan's Susvara playing R.L. Burnside's composition "Fireman Ring the Bell" from Rollin' & Tumblin', I heard all the spark, bite, and electric twang of R.L.'s guitar. The fearful strangeness in Burnside's voice came through explicitly. The sound was luxurious and musically effective. However, mixed with these enjoyments, I noticed a slight roundness added to the sound of every recording, meaning the Levante probably struggled a little in powering the 83dB/mW, 60 ohm Susvara. Going to the other extreme, I connected my ZMF Vérité closed-backs, which, sonically, are on the same mountain of greatness as the Susvara, the JPS Labs Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC, and the Stax SR-009S. Driven by the Levante, the 300 ohm, 99dB/mW Vérité sounded unusually precise and vibrant; "pretty and fast" would be a good description. The Vérité has always played best with no-feedback tube amplifiers like Ampsandsound's Bigger Ben and ZMF's Pendant (both designed by Justin Weber). But here, almost unbelievably, playing Bahaman guitarist and singer Joseph Spence's Bahaman Folk Guitar: Music of the Bahamas, Vol.1 (24/96 FLAC, Smithsonian Folkways/Qobuz), I felt like I was experiencing an avalanche of previously unnoticed microdetails. Finally, I could make out the majority of the words in Spence's vocalizations. With the Burnside recording, the lyrics became completely clear. I never imagined there'd be an integrated amplifier with a headphone amplifier of this caliber. Conclusion
Every day I listened, I applauded Riviera Labs for their courage to make and market the exquisitely fashioned, extremely natural-sounding, all-analog, zero-feedback Levante integrated.
Bravo Luca Chiomenti and Silvio Delfino
Footnote 2: The JJ's come with the amplifier. The Mullards were NOS tubes that just happened to be inside the box; they're not supplied by Riviera Audio.—Jim Austin
The Levante's new brighter, more starkly clear persona inspired me to see what it would do powering Magnepan's .7 quasi-ribbon panel speakers. The .7s always please me, but I was not sure a no-feedback, low–damping factor amplifier would please them. With the Riviera Levante switched to class-A, the 4 ohm Magnepan .7s seemed pleased enough to generate a larger, more colorful but less dense Burnside than my Gold Badges. Their projected sound was quieter at its core, with blacker deep spaces and more voluminous bass. As I had anticipated, the JJ-tubed Levante vitalized the Maggie membranes, making recordings sound clearer and livelier.
On my anthem, Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross" from the album Wonderful World, Beautiful People (24/96 FLAC, A&M/Qobuz), the Riviera-Maggie combo presented Cliff's music in glowing, extremely rich, detailed sound, which showed me tons of background information I'd never heard before. If you want your 4 ohm Maggies to make shin-kicking bass, you're gonna need an amp with steel-toed boots and more feedback than none.
When I switched the Levante to class-AB, I observed no change, suggesting that even when set to class-AB, it was still operating in class-A. I tried switching again with the Magnepan .7s; I did hear some change, but it was too subtle to comment on.
With DeVore O/93sWith the Levante powering the 10 ohm DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93 loudspeakers, it took only a minute for me to change my mind about those made-in-Slovakia JJ 12AT7s. Now, playing The Four Quarters, a new release of contemporary classical music from the Solem Quartet (24/96 FLAC, Orchid Classics/Qobuz), the sound was tinfoil bright. Instruments were still luminous and clear, but now they were distinctly forward, with moments of ear-flashing brightness. I switched back to the Russian-made Mullards.
With the Mullards, the DeVore speakers did not sound too lush, or soft or fuzzy. They were just more textured and relaxed. To verify this observation and validate my final choice of tubes, I played this new LP I'm hooked on: Prince: Piano & a Microphone 1983 (LP, NPG/Warner R1 566557/603497861285). I've played this recording through enough different component groups to know it does not take much to make it squeal and glare brightly. But when it sounds right, it is a thriller and a stunner—very alive.
With the Mullards, the Prince recording sounded tamed, as a Bernie Grundman–mastered recording should. Coming off the Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum and its matching Koetsu SUT, Prince's voice and piano, via the Levante, made the DeVores sound like mastering-studio monitors: the opposite of dark, and high-resolution. On "Cold Coffee & Cocaine," the Levante did a remarkable job of showing the room echo that framed Prince's voice. Supervivid sound. Inspired performances. No glare.
With the Mullard-Levante and the O/93s, I felt like I was home with Mama. The sound was sweet, round, and voluptuous. I began repeat-playing La Guitarra dels Lleons, with Xavier Diaz-Latorre (guitar) and Pedro Estevan (percussion) playing Isaac Albéniz's "Preludio: Asturias (Leyenda)" (16/44.1 FLAC, L'Auditori/Tidal). With the Levante poering the O/93s, Xavier Diaz-Latorre's artful playing felt profound and exquisitely full, super-3D, and very naturally toned. I kept staring at the image on the album's cover, thinking, "that guitar is one of the most beautiful objects I've ever seen. Is Diaz-Latorre actually playing that guitar?" This recording was the Levante's Wow! moment.
What the Falcons can't do that the DeVore O/93s do extremely well is play cello or viola da gamba recordings in a completely satisfying way. With the Levante, reproducing Jordi Savall performing Tobias Hume's Musicall Humors (Londres, 1605) on viola da gamba (16/44.1 FLAC, AliaVox/ Qobuz), the quantity and quality of deep, rich-toned harmonics held my attention. It seemed this Riviera amp and DeVore speaker were made to reproduce Tobias Hume's worldly poetics and Jordi Savall's incredibly sonorous gamba sound.
The main treat of the O/93 + Levante show was how the Riviera amp felt naturally coupled to the DeVore speakers. Their electromagnetic dance felt intimate and just right.
I've used Pass Labs' $7250 INT-25 integrated since it came out in 2019. When it arrived, it immediately became my reference for everything good about solid state: firm control of low frequencies, a strong sense of well-sortedness (or the illusion thereof), and conspicuous clarity. In my amp herd, the INT-25 remains my clearest, most brightly lit, most dynamic solid state microscope for examining the inner workings of recordings. Powering the DeVore O/93 and the Falcon Gold Badges loudspeakers, the Riviera Levante presented itself as less water-clear and dynamically charged than the INT-25. Compared to the Pass Laboratories INT-25, the Riviera amplifier sounded thick and less sharply focused. But! The Levante "microscoped" even better than the Pass Labs did, exposing more and denser delicate sounds and nuanced tonal shadings in the depths behind and to the sides of the performers. It made the molecules of the soundspace feel juiced and activated. With the DeVores, the Pass Labs amp got out of the way of the music by virtue of its electrical invisibility. The Levante amp disappeared because it sucked my mind extra-deep into the richness of the music.
The headphone outputI cannot remember being impressed with the headphone feature on any integrated amplifier, but the Levante impressed me immediately. With HiFiMan's Susvara playing R.L. Burnside's composition "Fireman Ring the Bell" from Rollin' & Tumblin', I heard all the spark, bite, and electric twang of R.L.'s guitar. The fearful strangeness in Burnside's voice came through explicitly. The sound was luxurious and musically effective. However, mixed with these enjoyments, I noticed a slight roundness added to the sound of every recording, meaning the Levante probably struggled a little in powering the 83dB/mW, 60 ohm Susvara. Going to the other extreme, I connected my ZMF Vérité closed-backs, which, sonically, are on the same mountain of greatness as the Susvara, the JPS Labs Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC, and the Stax SR-009S. Driven by the Levante, the 300 ohm, 99dB/mW Vérité sounded unusually precise and vibrant; "pretty and fast" would be a good description. The Vérité has always played best with no-feedback tube amplifiers like Ampsandsound's Bigger Ben and ZMF's Pendant (both designed by Justin Weber). But here, almost unbelievably, playing Bahaman guitarist and singer Joseph Spence's Bahaman Folk Guitar: Music of the Bahamas, Vol.1 (24/96 FLAC, Smithsonian Folkways/Qobuz), I felt like I was experiencing an avalanche of previously unnoticed microdetails. Finally, I could make out the majority of the words in Spence's vocalizations. With the Burnside recording, the lyrics became completely clear. I never imagined there'd be an integrated amplifier with a headphone amplifier of this caliber. Conclusion
Every day I listened, I applauded Riviera Labs for their courage to make and market the exquisitely fashioned, extremely natural-sounding, all-analog, zero-feedback Levante integrated.
Footnote 2: The JJ's come with the amplifier. The Mullards were NOS tubes that just happened to be inside the box; they're not supplied by Riviera Audio.—Jim Austin
