LAVARDIN ITx / amplificateur intégré

Amplificateur intégré de référence mondiale

Lavardin IT x

Prix public : 6300 €

Prix de l'option télécommande chez les revendeurs, comprise dans cette vente : 330 €

Soit total prix public : 6600 €

Parfait état, livré dans l'emballage d'origine ; mais télécommande a reçu un coup (voir photo)

En vente pour 4490 €

Frais d'envoi de 45 € par Colissimo en France

Spécifications :

Le Lavardin IT X a été le premier intégré à proposer la technologie à faible distorsion de mémoire. Salué par la presse internationale, l’IT X est un intégré exceptionnel qui distille une grande puissance musicale. Avec lui, la reproduction musicale prend une nouvelle dimension. Dynamisme, détails, subtilités et émotions se répondent pour le plus grand bonheur de la musique. Une grande référence française qui a su dépasser toutes les frontières.

Capable d’alimenter pratiquement toutes les enceintes, il offre une réserve de puissance et une musicalité jamais prises à défaut. A associer avec les meilleures sources et les meilleures enceintes, il ne déçoit jamais. Finalement très polyvalent, il sait aussi sublimer des systèmes plus modestes. Aucun propriétaire de cet ampli ne l’a jamais regretté…

En résumé : un amplificateur totalement hors du commun, unique et incomparable, qui surpasse aisément et de très loin tous les amplificateurs intégrés même à des tarifs bien plus élevés. Une écoute sublime , ressentie et c'est assez exceptionnel pour le noter, par 100% des critiques français ou mondiaux depuis plus de 25 ans !

La version IT x est la plus récente, la plus perfectionnée...

Les Plus Produit :

Musicalité hors normes

Réalisme de l’écoute

Sobriété et qualité de fabrication

Puissance infaillible

Entrées	4 sur connecteurs cinch dorés montés individuellement
Impédance d'entrée	10Kohms
Sensibilité	330 millivolts
Sortie ligne "tape"	sur connecteurs cinch dorés montés individuellement
Entrée phono	aucune
Sélection d'entrée	commutation masse et signal par relais scellés avec temporisation
Contacts	alliage or, argent, palladium
Puissance de sortie	2x55W RMS sous 8 Ohms / maximum 2x110W sous 2 Ohms
Impédance	nominale 8 Ohms
Distorsion harmonique	inférieure à 0,001% à la puissance nominale
Technologie	Circuits à faible distorsion de mémoire exclusivité Lavardin Technologies
Dimensions	H 120 L 430 P 300 (mm)
Encombrement	H 135 L 430 P 340 (mm)
Matériaux	alliages d'aluminium non magnétique usinés, anodisés et laqués
Masse	12 Kg
Consommation	Continue 35W ; Maximum 400W

https://youtu.be/D9LU91KAaTI

Les bancs d'essai :

récapitulatif du fabricant : www.lavardin.com/lavardin-itF.html

autre site :

DIAPASON

Qualité musicale 6/6 : *** ***
par J.M. Piel

40 étoiles sur 42

... A la différence de la quasi-totalité des amplificateurs à transistors, la sonorité de ce Lavardin se stabilise vite. Quinze minutes suffisent. C'est une écoute de laboratoire, musicale et expressive, qui permet d'entendre sans effort des détails instrumentaux noyés par les autres électroniques. La définition allie au plus haut degré la précision et la finesse, sans raideur, sans sécheresse ni dureté. Sur ces points, le Lavardin semble sans concurrent, même à des prix beaucoup plus élevés. Nous sommes sûr que ce Lavardin atteint des sommets de transparence rarement - ou même JAMAIS - atteints."

Le temps retrouvé par Jean-Marie Piel

Depuis la venue du transistor, la HiFi de haut de gamme se cherche. Elle s'éparpille et fait feu de tout bois. Elle saute d'une explication théorique à une autre, pour s'en remettre finalement à un empirisme qui tient plus de l'art culinaire que de la science. Un ingénieur français a essayé de comprendre les raisons majeures d'une telle dérive. Le moins qu'on puisse dire est que, depuis quelques années, le HiFi louvoie (la Hifi de haut de gamme, celle qui court après une certaine perfection). Jamais elle n'a été aussi tiraillée entre la subjectivité et l'objectivité. Jamais elle n'a paru aussi partagée entre ceux qui écoutent et ceux qui mesurent. Résultat : une instabilité galopante qui prend la forme d'un facheux pied de nez pour les scientifiques. Après vingt ans bien sonnés d'utilisation du transistor la voici qui retourne aux tubes! Car il faut se rendre à l'évidence. Le phénomène s'amplifie... Un tel retour aux techniques du passé est pour le moins troublant. D'autant plus que les partisans ne semblent d'accord que sur un point ; les tubes "sonnent" mieux que les transistors. Quant à savoir pourquoi... Sony a pourtant pris la chose très au sérieux. Quelques-uns de ses meilleurs ingénieurs ont travaillé sur le sujet durant des années avec d'énormes moyens et sans résultats. De quoi désespérer! Fautes d'explications, d'autres japonais ont joué à fond la carte de l'empirisme : "tentons de faire des transistors (les Mosfets) dont les modes de fonctionnement s'apparentent à ceux des tubes". Ainsi au fil des années on a vu apparaitre une multitude de nouveaux circuits vite tombés aux oubliettes mais cherchant à approcher le son tube....

D'après un brillant ingénieur français connu sous le pseudonyme de Héphaistos et dont les découvertes pourraient bien révolutionner les techniques audio, la recherche en haute-fidélité s'est enfermée dans le même type d'erreurs fondamentales depuis la naissance du transistor . Pour tenter de reproduire la musique, on a pensé à tout sauf au temps. On a basé toutes les modélisations sur des mesures statiques, qui écartent le temps. On n'est pas sorti des théories de Fourrier : puisque tout signal audio peut se décomposer en sinusoides, autant concentrer les investigations sur ce type de signal . Il a le mérite d'être permanent, stable dans le temps, donc facile à analyser.
Malheureusement, la musique est une organisation temporelle de signaux audio. Elle n'existe que dans le temps. Or une analyse rigoureuse des circuits électroniques révèle des phénomènes de mémorisation parasite des signaux. A la différence de la mémoire de l'eau (!), cette mémorisation des circuits et des composants est parfaitement mesurable . On s'en doute, une telle découverte va bousculer beaucoup d'idées admises. Aussi, tout le travail a-t-il été ensuite de concevoir des circuits réduisants le plus possible ces phénomènes de mémoire. Des prototypes(*) fonctionnent et leur reproduction sonore nous a paru d'un naturel et d'une pureté jamais atteints à ce jour . Gageons qu'ils réconcilieront durablement techniciens et mélomanes et, qu'en conciliant les avantages du transistor (faible distorsion harmonique) et ceux du tube (faible distorsion de mémoire), ils permettront à la haute-fidélité musicale de sortir enfin de l'empirisme où elle s'enlisait.
(*)Lavardin Technologies

LE MONDE DE LA MUSIQUE

Une rigueur toute cartésienne, par P. Venturini

Appréciation globale : ****

4 étoiles sur 4

"Il ne faut pas bien longtemps pour vérifier le bien-fondé des théories du concepteur et ses incidences auditives.

Le "Model IT" restitue en effet la musique avec une précision, une clarté et une vigueur singulières".

Tout se passe comme si l'on avait ôté un voile de la face avant des enceintes.

La musique, comme éclairée de l'intérieur, présente alors un relief supérieur, des attaques tranchées, une aération plus nette, des contours plus visibles."

"Et quel plaisir d'entendre toutes les informations gravées dans un disque ! Rien n'échappe aux oreilles aiguisées du "Model IT" : ni les qualités ni les défauts d'une prise de son. Sans rien de démonstratif, car l'équilibre spectral est très neutre, cet amplificateur est un redoutable révélateur. Mais d'un disque à l'autre, l'environnement musical change complètement."

"Pas coloré dans le milieu et le bas du spectre, le Lavardin n'est pas de ces appareils qui enjolivent la réalité et la ouatent confortablement de sonorités moelleuses."

"Identifier tel ou tel interprète selon son toucher, son phrasé ou sa sonorité devient alors plus facile."

"Dynamique, raffiné, lucide, cet amplificateur satisfera aussi bien les amateurs de réalisme sonore que les professionnels du son."

HI-FI CHOICE

It's not often that our consultant Editor Paul Messenger gets all worked up about an amplifier. It would be even more extraodinary if he threatened to abandon the trusty stack of Naim amps that have kept him in watts for most of his long and illustrious career. However, like his saintly Biblical namesake, Paul has had a Road to Damascus experience Listening to the Lavardin Model IT integrated amp has caused scales to fall off his ears. But what on earth can a 40-Watt, four input integrated amp offer, that Naims finest cannot match?

According to Paul, the secret lies in Lavardin's claim that so called "memory distortion" is the problem with many audio components. Lavardin claims that electrons pass through solid-state silicon components, the latter retain a trace of their passing. Valve amps avoid this because they use electrons passing through a vacuum. Whatever the explanation, the valve-meets-transistor sound of the IT has knocked Paul for six. This is news indeed, and merely for the shock-factor alone, the Lavardin IT has been selected as this month's Editor's Choice.

Integrated amplifiers don't often make it into "Statements", but integrated amplifiers don't often cost ï¿½3,200.

And if that sounds like a lot of money to pay for a stripped-down, two-by 40 watter (even one as chunklly built as this) don't be tooled.

Lavardin's Model IT is actually one of the hi-fi's great bargains.

ï¿½ 3,000 is not a lot of money by serious high-end standards, yet this unassuming-looking black box is a genuine high-end contender, no question.

You've probably never heard of Lavardin Technologies. Neither had I until last summer, when I visited speaker manufacturer JM-Lab in France,wich used amplification from Lavardin Technologies to demonstrate its top-of-the-line Utopia models. I liked what I heard so much, I arranged to borrow one via UK distributor.

Now I'm even more impressed.

It took only a few seconds after switch-on to realise that this amplifier was something very special. The midband has the delicacy and transparency normally associated with valve-driven designs, while the bottom end has the sort of power and authority attributed to solid-state electronics. In a very sense, you can have your cake and eat it.

Ever since then I have been trying to find any significant thinks in its all-round performance. I don't fall in love with amplifiers very often, but Lavardin Technologies Model IT has inspired some unexpected passions. I even find myself prepared to suffer the loss of remote-control idleness for the sake of glorious sound quality.

According to the company, the technical basis of the Model IT arose from identification of new form of distortion, called "memory distortion". For example, in valve amps, the electrons pass through a vacuum, which retains no memory, whereas solid-state silicon components retain a trace of flux after the passage of electrons. By choosing engineering components to avoid this "memory distortion", the company claims it's possible to achieve the transparency of the best valve amps, alongside the low distortion and wide bandwidth of a high-feedback transistorised design. (See www.lavardin.com - technical corner- for more details).

This concept is difficult to prove objectively, if only because current test equipment is naturally subject to the same effect, and it's also the sort of claim that immediately raises the hackles of any long-in-the-tooth reviewer. Happily, Lavardin Technologies Model IT does live up to its billing. I can't prove the "memory effect", and don't have the know-how to analyse the internal circuitry, but it does carry a ring of truth, both philosophically and subjectively. If many components tend to show an unwanted "memory effect", for example, this would tend to explain why reducing the number of components tends to enhance sound quality.

It would also go some way towards explaining why the Model IT sounds so astonishingly "clean" and free from hash and artifice. I found this extraordinary "cleanliness" almost disconcerting at first, as it seemed to leave the music understated almost to the point of malnourishment. But the more time I spend exploring the high points of my very extensive record collection, the more I'm becoming convinced that this amplifier is actually more accurate than the competition

Its music making is not only uncommonly "tidy" and delicate, but also unusually informative.

Previously undeciphered lyrics on "parental advisory" rap albums became intelligible, while the usual unwanted intrusion of vinyl surface noise was notably diminished.

Timing is right on the button, the bottom end is deep, firm and even, while tonal colours sound uncannily "right", and the balance is reassuringly neutral. All these factors were further enhanced by using Lavardin Technologies interconnects.

The outline price-versus-power equation might not look too promising, the feature count is sparse in the extreme, and I'd certainly suggest that partnering loudspeakers ought to have above-average sensitivity. But in every important sonic respect the Model IT is a revelational experience, and I strongly recommend that all audiophiles should make the effort to give it a hearing.

HI-FI WORLD

This is certainly one of the most self-effacing, natural amplifiers I've heard, almost regardless of price.
But beware, once you've heard it, returning to run-of-the-mill solid-state which has a memory is a difficult task.

WORLD VERDICT : OUTSTANDING 4 out of 4 globes.
The IT has clarity in spades and an extremely rare tonal purity.
Outclasses transistor alternatives at the same price easily...

Jon Marks discovers transistors that sound like valves in Lavadin Technologies' Model IT Reference integrated amplifier.

On of the oldest questions to puzzle hi-fi designers is why valves and transistors sound so different. Glass bottles have a tonal sweetness and lack of artificiality which, at best, is a revelatory experience. Unfortunately, the circumstances for this revelatory experience tend to include silverwound output transformers the weight of a canon ball and horns the size of a potting shed. Speakers on a smaller scale which provide smoe of the speed and impact of such horns often don't fulfil their promise unless driven by a huge black box with enough heatsinking to cool the Gobi desert and a power output approaching the requirements of a small city. In the world of amps, it seems, you can have natural and sweet or grunt and control but not a combination of the two.
Despite the efforts of a legion of Hi-Fi designers, this riddle has remained unsolved. Until now, , thatis, if you believe the claims that Lavardin Technologies make for their IT Reference integrated amplifier. Naming a component "IT" is possibly not the brightest start in life from a nomenclature point of view, but this French company are rather confident of their large box. A brief rifle through the literature explains : "The elegant flagship of the Lavardin Technologies range, the IT is of minimalist design utilizing a highly accurate, high-performance Memory-free design... This is the secret of "tube sound". We are proud, at Lavardin Technologies, to have a full control on that which remains "the mystery of tube musicality" for previous audio designers (sic)."
Lavardin believe that "Memory Distortion" is what gives transistors their characteristic hard, mechanical edge. Like many others, LT suspected that the vacuum inside a valve's glass envelope, which allows electrons free passage, was at the root of the more fluid, relaxed presentation of thermionic amplification. In contrast, an audio signal has to battle its way through silicon, leaving behind an impression of its passage which affects the electrons which come after it.
The goal of eliminating Memory Distortion set LT on the path to 12 year's research which revolved around developing a measurement system which would permit them to quantify MD and thereby to eradicate it. The result is the S and Reference series, each of which includes an integrated, pre, stereo power and monobloc amplifiers.

ACTIVELY SEEKING AMNESIA
Look inside the IT and it's obvious there's somethig a little out of the ordinary going on here electronically. For a start, many of the transistors and some of the ICs have had their numbers filed off to protect their identities. Then there are the parts potted inside the four mystery black boxes, each about 1.5in. square, a pair of which sits in each channel. The IT's internal have a look of purposeful high-quality akin to what you might find inside the pricier products from smaller japanese companies where the character of every single part is examined before its use is contemplated.

AMP ANONYMITY
To determine if Lavardin were either guilty of Gallic hyperbole or discoverers of a major step foward in transistor sound, I lined the IT up against a modified, battery-powered DPA 50S (which is on par with pres at around GBP 2000). Power amplification was provided by Musical Fidellity's X-A200 monoblocs. Loudspeakers were Magneplanar SMGas, refurbished Quad ESL 57s and Kelly KT3 floorstanders. Sources came from Trio (L-07D turntable with SME V arm) and Pioneer (tweaked DV-505 DVD player).

ANTI-POLLUTION SQUAD
Powering up the IT for the first time, I was greeted by a clean but not particularly earth-shattering rendition of Tori Amos'Boys For Pele CD. However, within 10 minutes the IT was beginning to unveil its true capabilities as the sound became ever clearer and more natural. After about half an hour it had evidently warmed though, judging from the outstanding clarity and purity of the music emerging from the Quads.
The ESL 57s are renowned for their pollution-free midrange and treble, which makes them a great yardstick of what an amplifier is doing to vocals especially. The answer with the LAvardin was very, very little indeed. When you compare what'normal'transistor amps do to the signal next to the impact of the IT, Lavardin's assertion that they've succeeded in eliminating transistor nastiness has a ring of truth to it.
Running from its four lead/acid batteries, the DPA 50S and the X-A200s are smooth, detailed performers by standards of most transistor amps, but the IT made them sound coarse, grainy and very coloured. These abberations stood out like sore thumbs on vocals, harpsichord and cymbals, which all had a tonal naturalness through the Lavardin which made sitting back and listening to the music an addictive activity.
On the other hand, switching back to the DPA and MFs in the wake of the French challenger was hard work, a husky nasality on vocals and a bright, spiky 'break-up' on percussion (neither obvious before listening to the IT) making it difficult to relax.
Other areas where this skilled integrated pulled well ahead of the pack were imaging and soundstaging. Where the DPA and MFs can produce an image of a vocalist which would cover about three pages of A4, the IT's focus was roughly twice as precise, as Tori Amos'head and shoulders hung lifesize between the Quads.
The same was true of orchestral pieces, the IT yielding a much more coherent and convincing overall picture. Strings and woodwind had a smoothness and harmonic richness close to valves are capable of, but I suspect the best of thermionic would still leave the Lavardin with some catching up to do. The tables would turn when it came to coloration, though, the IT sounding fabulously neutral without ever being clinical or mechanical. Heavyweight Dance albums like Johnny Magnetic's L, Asian Dub Foudation's Rafi's Revenge and Axiom Dub's Mysteries Of Creation benefited from what the IT had to offer as much as more acoustic recordings. The purity of hi-hats and synths had me reappraising the production quality of some of these discs, as did the crisp bass and effortless control of the IT.

Lavardin Technologies have made some bold claims for their IT amp, but on the basis of what flows from the 4mm binding posts on the rear panel, they're putting their Francs firmly where their mouth is.
This is certainly one of the most self-effacing, natural amplifiers I've heard, almost regardless of price.
But beware, once you've heard it, returning to run-of-the-mill solid-state which has a memory is a difficult task.

WORLD VERDICT : OUTSTANDING 4 globes out of 4.
The IT has clarity in spades and an extremely rare tonal purity.
Outclasses transistor alternatives at the same price easily...

Discussions

LAVARDIN ITx / amplificateur intégré

Réponses