Tubed, Battery-Powered Analog from Red Wine Audio

by The Audio Beat | February 3, 2011

ed Wine Audio's Ginevra LFP-V Edition phono stage ($3000) exploits the company's central tenets of battery power and minimalist design. The Ginevra is said to be the only high-end phono stage featuring discrete, class-A FET gain stages, a vacuum-tube output stage, and lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4 or LFP) battery technology. This power technology boasts several practical and technical advantages, including reasonable cost, non-toxicity, excellent thermal stability and safety, good electrochemical performance, and high capacity.

The Ginevra supports both moving-magnet and moving-coil cartridges, offering 40 or 60dB of gain. Owners of moving-coil cartridges can select from a number of load settings, and the unit has user-accessible resistor sockets for adding custom loads. The Ginevra uses a single 6922/E88CC tube and will play for eight hours before requiring charging. It can also run directly from AC.

According to Red Wine Audio, "In Ginevra, customers will find a natural and organic sound signature, the perfect balance of delicacy and dynamics, and a holographic soundstage that draws the listener deep into the performance."