SYNTHESIS ROMA 117DC PREAMPLIFIER REVIEW

Janine Elliot takes a listen to the €4900, Italian-made Synthesis Roma 117DC preamplifier.

When I was sent the €4,900 Roma 117DC preamp from Synthesis I was told it is a perfect match for use with the Roma 98DC mono-blocks. Just as well then that I happen to have a pair in my main set-up. That KT88 valve monoblock power amp was so good when I reviewed it that I bought it. The Roma 117DC preamp would therefore be a particularly interesting review for me, though, of course, this ECC88 based valve unit is also well suited for use with any power amp.

SYNTHESIS ART IN MUSIC BACKGROUND

This unit celebrates the 30^th anniversary of the Italian-based company. Synthesis Art in Music, to give it its full name, was founded by Luigi Lorenzon in 1992, with their first success being the Nimis dual-mono integrated. Each product is totally handmade within the company in Morrovalle, Italy, rather than being sent to China like so many products in order to keep costs down; this is quality Italian design and build at a very good price, and like all their products has a strong emphasis on valves. It seems electronics has always run in the family with Luigi’s father founding FASEL in 1961, a company making transformers for valve amplifiers, which rapidly became a significant manufacturer of output transformers, power transformers, chokes, and inductors for musical instruments. It is no surprise therefore that Luigi should combine his acquired technical knowledge from his father with his love for music to create Synthesis Art in Music. As Ludovica Merighi from Synthesis told me “The core of the [Roma 117DC] preamplifier is the output transformer. A lot of time was spent to get such a good result”. Indeed, this means a great frequency band and very low distortion and it is constructed using the very best high-grade steel.  Balanced and unbalanced output comes from the output transformer including the headphone output.

Luigi Lorenzon and his team are proposing to celebrate this 30^th year of production with even more new products and continued dedication to innovative design. This includes a 300B Integrated amplifier with a Parallel Single Ended configuration offering 25W power output into 4 and 8 ohm (per channel). Completely dual mono with tube power supply. I look forward to seeing this!

The Roma preamp has a very distinctive front in the red wood finish.

SYNTHESIS ROMA 117DC PREAMPLIFIER BUILD AND FEATURES

All Roma products are distinctive with their wooden or aluminium fronts, available in red, piano black or dark brown wood finishes, or black or silver aluminium. Other custom finishes are of course also available on request. The review sample arrived in red wood to match my Roma 98DC mono-blocks. The balanced circuitry Roma 117DC is a valve preamplifier using four ECC88/6DJ8/6922 double triodes, tubes that are often found in, and well suited, to preamplifiers. The main on-off switch is at the rear with a standby button at the front. On switching on at the rear the unit illuminates orange on the front button. When pressing this front button (or the accompanying remote control) this then flashes for 45 seconds whilst the valves heat up and then the light turns completely off when the unit is ready, which I did find a little alarming the first time. I should have read the excellent instruction guide. However, the 5 input selection buttons on the right of the large motorised volume control have accompanying indicators, so you will still know the unit is powered-up by looking here.

And is avaialble in different colours and finishes.

There are 4 RCA and 1 XLR inputs, and the unit comes with extensive output options including 1 balanced and two unbalanced outputs plus 1 unbalanced REC output. Very useful for things like powered sub or if you want to record onto reel to reel. This is a truly analogue amp with no digital nor indeed phono inputs. At €4,900 it is competitively priced and a beautiful-looking unit, that is very well made, both externally and also inside. The remote control is particularly good; a very heavy billet of aluminium with controls for volume, source, mute and standby. Even the buttons are made of metal, and mechanically isolated from the main unit with rubber rings. It also has control for CD play/pause and previous/next selection.

HEADPHONES 

The 117DC comes complete with a headphone output, delivering 300mW into a 32ohm impedance via the ¼ inch socket. The main and headphone outputs are 5-40,000kHz (-3dB), and in use I found the headphone output extremely musical and very quiet, working well with mid-to-efficient headphones such as my Sennheiser HD650 and Final D8000. Indeed, this headphone amp is no second thought. Using it during the review was a very positive experience, something that can’t even be said of all standalone headphone units. The headphone amp uses a hi-end op-amp, but the signal is fed from the output transformer (the OPA is used as a buffer). Bass was particularly dynamic and treble was clear and fast using the Final D8000, with an overall large soundstage. For the line output review, I used the balanced outputs to my Roma98DC, and sources included reel to reel, digital and phono.

SOUND QUALITY OF THE SYNTHESIS ROMA 117DC PREAMPLIFIER

This was a particularly enjoyable review with sound at its best after about 30 minutes. First on the platter was “Blue Bird” from Wings ‘Band on the Run’. This is an album taking me back to my teens. Indeed, this was the first album I bought, along with Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. Everything was as I expected; excellent vocals and guitars all appearing accurately and musically through my speakers. Only the soundstage wasn’t as great as I would like, but this was the fault of the sound engineers not Synthesis.

Listening to “Let me Roll It” improved things on this front. Phew. An excellent Hammond C3 organ, and a tight bass and tizzy cymbals rolled off the vinyl with aplomb. Everything was now opened up with a great valve warmth and power.

Turning to Jeff Lynne from ELO “When I was a Boy”, again had a good soundstage, excellent powerful bass guitar, fast transients more akin to solid-state preamps, and excellent musicality. The latter was taken a step higher when I moved to classical music and Benjamin Britten’s Passacaglia Op33B. I just wanted this great work to go on forever. This preamp was a positive step away from my own passive MFA; where that is very clinical and can sometimes make things sound a tad boring; with the Roma 117DC it just made everything sound so much more musical; it didn’t so much add to the music, rather it allowed it to speak and tell its story. Everything was more dynamic. Bass was powerful, mids were as you’d expect from valves and tops were precise and fast. The strings sounded lush with excellent dynamism when needed. If you want total neutrality and clinical music, look elsewhere. Think of this as a master Italian painting rather than a 2D copy.

Well connected around the back of the Syntheis pre.

Continuing the classical theme, I listened to Brahms Variation on a Theme by Haydn (Bernard Haitink Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra). This was powerful, detailed and equally musical, especially as this wasn’t even my favourite version of the piece.

Sister Drum’s “Home Without Shadows”, has a deep bass drum crescendo that was perfectly timed and excellently controlled. The bass extension was excellent on my LS5/9s even without my added Torus subwoofer, though I was careful to protect my drivers and my relationship with the neighbours! That bass power and control was also evident in Jennifer Warnes’ “Bird on a Wire”. Played from my Krell CD player I didn’t think the sound could get any better! This was punchy and exciting especially with excellent percussion including triangles.

Time for the brilliantly re-engineered Beatles ‘Love’ album. The opening bees and birds in “Because” were fluid and the general musicality in this excellently re-mastered album was second to none. This work has lots of detailed orchestration that can be somewhat lost if not played on the best equipment. The Roma duo had no problem performing. The only slight observations I had were of very slightly raised mid frequencies on a few occasions, such as Donald Fagan’s I.G.Y. Whilst the trumpets were brilliantly precise and extended, the mid frequencies were more profound than on my MFA preamp. I also connected the preamp to my Krell KAV250a power amp. I hadn’t heard that amplifier sound so good as it did now. The Roma 117DC worked as well with the Krell as it did my Roma 98DC for which it was partnered. So don’t feel this pre-amplifier won’t work with your own amplifier!

Turning to Focus ‘Hocus Pocus’ , I wanted to hear all the wonderful flute playing and miles of charisma and character. I was always confused with Focus and Jethro Tull as a child as they both had flutes and offered lots of entertainment (in the case of the latter it was from the unique Ian Anderson). Would the sound here be too complicated and scrappy? No, the guitars were clear, the drums precise and piano/organ clearly positioned and musical, oh, and the flute flowed like treacle.

CONCLUSION

This is a very musical preamp, not only sounding sweet and fluid, but it could also be fast and neutral where required. It works well with either valve or solid state power-amps. Instruments gave a tight and fast performance with plenty of decay at end of phrases. Vocals were lush and with typical valve musicality. There are more detailed preamps out there but not all are as musical as this product and cost considerably more. I was honoured to be offered a chance to listen to this product so soon after release, and I thoroughly enjoyed every second.

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality:

Absolutely unquestionably good build quality both external and internal

A lovely remote control

Sound Quality:

Warmth as only valves can give, but with a fast and accurate performance of all types of music

Value For Money:

For features, build and sound quality this is excellent value at €4,900

We Loved:

Mid frequency warmth, and lots of detail and speed

Bass extension

soundstage

Build quality

We Didn’t Love So Much:

Power indicator can be confusing at first

Price: €4,900

Elevator Pitch Review: Synthesis is an Italian brand producing excellent valve-based products that I just love, though I had to be totally unbiased when I started to listen to their Roma 117DC preamp, as I already own a Synthesis power-amp. Would their reputation live on with this preamp, their first for a long time? I was quick to come up with my conclusion. If you want a warm and fluid performer, then yes this is pretty amazing. Timing was great and bass superb. Your €4,900 will be well spent.

SUPPLIED BY SYNTHESIS

Janine Elliot

Review Equipment: Pre-Audio GL-1102N/AT33sa (turntable); Manley Steelhead (phono stage); Krell KPS20i (CD); Ferrograph Logic7 (reel to reel); Astell and Kern SE180/iFi xDSD (DAP/streamer) Synthesis Roma 98DC and Krell KAV250a (amplification); Graham Audio LS5/9 plus Townshend Supertweeter (speakers); Esprit and Townshend cables

SPECIFICATIONS

Tubes complement: 4 x 6922/6DJ8/ECC88

Inputs: 1 × unbalanced (XLR)

4 × balanced (RCA)

Input Impedance: 100 kΩ balanced (XLR)

47 kΩ unbalanced (RCA)

Output (Transformer): 1 × balanced (XLR)

2 × unbalanced (RCA)

1 × unbalanced REC OUT (RCA)

Frequency Response: 5 – 40 KHz (– 3 dB)

THD + N: < 0,1% (20 Hz – 20 kHz) 1VRMS

Signal/Noise Ratio: > 90 dB (Weighted A)

Crosstalk: > 80dB

Gain: + 22,5 dB balanced (XLR)

+ 16,5 dB unbalanced (RCA)

Output Polarity: Non-inverting

Output Impedance: 1KΩ balanced (XLR)

500Ω unbalanced (RCA)

Output Voltage: 36 V RMS V (XLR)

18 V RMS unbalanced (RCA)

Headphone output:

Power Output: 300mW (32 Ohm)

Gain: + 22,5 dB

Frequency Response: 5 – 40 KHz (– 3 dB)

THD + N: (Rated Power) < 0,1% (20 Hz – 20 kHz)

Signal/Noise Ratio: > 90 dB (Weighted A)

Power Supply: 220 – 245 V (50 – 60 Hz)

100 – 120 V (50 – 60 Hz)

Power supplies: Electronically regulated low and high voltage supplies.

Automatic 45 sec. warm-up

Power Consumption: < 0,5 W in standby

60 W max power

Dimensions: 480 × 167 × 450 mm

Weight ca.: 10 kg – 12Kg Shipping