As was and is the case with the Raidho C 1.1, the secret to
the Viella 12’s success is not just the more it is supplying in the
way of information, but also the less it is adding while doing
so. Like the great Raidho, through most of the audio range
the V12 has the kind of grainless transparency that allows
you not just to see into but to almost see through the images of
instruments and vocalists—to the back of the stage and the
other instruments and vocalists behind and around them. There
is no opacity—no transparency-obscuring color cast or scrim-
like texture—blocking your view of the music-makers. So many
audio components subtly insert themselves between you and the
soundfield, adding just enough of their own electro-mechanical
emphases to let you know they’re there and thereby reduce the
transparency of the presentation (when the recording being
presented is transparent). The V12, for the most part, does not.
It has, through almost its entire range, the peerless, unobstructed,
see-through purity of the best sources, analog and digital.
In my previous experience, only the finest turntables and
tonearms have been consistently able to do what the AMG
V12 does (at least with the Ortofon MC A90 or Goldfinger
Statement in its ingenious tonearm)—and, let’s face it, you
have to be filthy-rich to afford a Walker or Da Vinci, and still
pretty damn well-heeled to opt for an Ascona. Obviously, this
feat of engineering smarts and manufacturing prowess earns my
warmest recommendation (and sincere applause). Like the $17k
Raidho C 1.1 (or the, alas, discontinued $4k Ortofon MC A90),
the Analog Manufaktur Germany Viella 12 is a relative rarity—a
truly first-rate (and truly original) audio component that, while
by no means cheap, is still within the financial reach of folks who
aren’t made out of money. The V12 may not give you everything
that a Walker, Da Vinci, or Acoustic Signature gives you, but
what it does supply on select recordings—the extended sense
that you are in the actual presence of real performers in a real
space—is more than enough to justify its price and this rave.
