Ypsilon VPS-100SE Mk2

Description

The Ypsilon VPS-100 has set a new standard for phono pre-amplifier performance by implementing a circuit topology, design and materials quality that few manufacturers are prepared to deliver. This includes passive RIAA equalisation, a transformer driven LCR network, a split RIAA design using two gain stages based on the SIEMENS C3g tube and a power supply using the 6CA4 rectifier tube and a choke filter.

So how is it possible to improve it? Ypsilon released a SE (Silver Edition) version of the VPS-100 in which the signal path consists of the highest quality pure silver, including special in-house manufactured silver transformers, wiring, connectors, etc.

Creating a VPS-1000SE requires a special effort. The components required have to be hand made from rare and expensive materials. The manufacturing time is significant and the engineering know-how needed to create these transformers requires a degree of expertise and an uncompromising commitment to audio quality that is only found at the very pinnacle of audio engineering.

Is all this extraordinary effort worth it?

If you have ensured that the rest of your analogue system is of commensurate quality and are searching for a phono pre-amplifier that can give you an ultimate emotional connection to the musical experience… if you enjoy those ‘goose bump’ moments where you experience that total immersion in the music and have forgotten that you are even listening to a system, then we think that it is certainly worth it.

In late 2023, Ypsilon released the Mk2 version of the VPS-100SE. The changes were mainly component level:

• Different input and output tubes. Input tubes now are 6ZH11p and the output tube is an EC8010 (same tube as is used in the SET100 Ultimate and Aelius 2).
• The power supply capacitors now are 4-pole types. These weren’t available when the VPS-100 was originally designed.
• There has been a change from an aluminium foil interstage Jensen cap or copper foil in the SE version to a custom made Duelund copper or silver foil to standard and SE version respectively.
• Refined filtering in the power supply that better preserves operating points of the tubes.

How do you describe the sound of the VPS-100SE Mk2? What happens when you take what is already in its own right a reference level product and then bestow it with pure silver transformers, pure silver wiring and optimise it to its potential? The result is a stunning achievement of a phono stage that sonically disappears and allows the music to flow with energy and emotion. Crazy good.

Awards

Product Specification