Several weeks ago, on a cold and snowy spring evening, I treked up north to visit the headquarters of Krolo Design with a bunch of audiophiles belonging to the Greater Toronto Audio Audiophile club. Krolo Design is the Canadian distributor for Vitus Audio, Triangle Art, Venture Audio as well as Skogrand Cables.
My first encounter with Venture Audio speakers was at the home of Lincoln Cheng (大草), chief editor of Audiotechnique Magazine in Hongkong. The detailed, fast paced and rhythmic musicality of the Venture Audio system, driven by Esoteric and Krell Evolution front end equipment, remain as vivid in my mind as it did in 2005. The Grand Excellence Diamone SE which cost nearly US$ 87,000 at the time, is no longer a stratospheric number in 2017 terms when top of the line speakers seems to have an added an extra zero across the board.
The photo below was taken back in 2005 with an early generation Sony P3 Digital Camera with only 3 megapixels, which was considered high resolution at the time.
As much as I am a fan of Venture Audio Speakers, they never had Canadian representation until now. So goes for Triangle Art as well as Vitus Audio, albeit hugely popular in Asia and USA, they finally made their inroads to Canada in 2016, thanks to Mirko Korlo, owner of Krolo Design.
(Krolo Design’s Showroom)
Mirko originally entered into the business manufacturing his own brand of equipment racks and isolation devices. Mirko is a strong believer in the benefits of mechanical isolation, his equipment are designed with this single purpose in mind. Components inside equipment generate micro-vibrations, which interact with natural vibrations of the listening environment. Krolo Design spent countless numbers of hours experimenting with different materials and design configurations to enhance isolation. Two racks are shown in the photos:
Krolo Design Tomo Wood Rack in black 29” height, 3 shelf, $4,100 USD
Krolo Design Tomo Aluminum Rack 34 ½” Height, 4 shelves, $6,400 USD
(Krolo Enhancers for equipment isolation: $ 250 for a set of 3)
The sexy Triangle Art Signature turntable in Ferrari red with it’s matching Osiris MK2 Tonearm and Zeus Cartridge, stole a lot of attention away from the Vitus SIA-025 Integrated amplifier . The Vitus delivered 25W per channel of Class A power into the 6 ohm 87 dB sensitivity Venture Audio Encore. To the tune of Hugh Masekela’s Stimela (45 rpm), we weren’t expecting earth shattering bass from 25 Watts, but it gave us enough of dose of the Vitus house sound to make us wanting to come back for more. There was no grain or edginess, and enough of a live presence to keep our wine loving group away from the spread which Mirko had generously prepared for us.
The full system details are as follows:
- Venture Ultimate Series Encore speakers $48,000
- Venture Phono Stage VP100P $32,000
- Venture Grand reference Power Cable $15,000
- Triangle Art Signature SE turntable in red $19,990
- Triangle Art Osiris 12†Tonearm $5,800
- Triangle Art Zeus MC Cartridge $3,995
- Vitus Audio Signature SIA-025 Integrated Amplifier $25,200
- Weiss Man-301 music server $9,000
- Skogrand Cables Tchaikovsky Speaker cables 2.5m $8,750
- Skogrand Cables Tchaikovsky RCA $6,950
- Skogrand Cables Wagner Power Cables 1.5m $2,300 x2
- Krolo Enhansers $250 for a set of three
Total Price: US 179,445-
Given it was a week night and we all had to work the next day, our visit was a short one. But stay tuned, the Vitus sound has enticed me to ask for the Vitus Master Reference phono stage, which will be coming to Mono & Stereo in the coming months. Stay tuned indeed !
Photos & Video: Courtesy of Anson Hon, Mezmer Media Canada
(Left: Mirko Krolo, Krolo Design Right: Richard H. Mak, Mono & Stereo)
Krolo Design’s custom sound diffusers.