SM-100

Why it is renowned

The SM-100 was the first power amplifier from Vitus Audio, and the maker credited it with showing what a mono power amplifier should give its owner.¹ It was reviewed in Hong Kong's Hifi Review in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and in Japan's Stereo Sound in 2005.¹ Writing in 2012, SoundStage! Global recalled it as one of only two amplifiers of its day that could drive a pair of Sound-Lab Ultimate 1 speakers at concert levels.²

The story

The SM-100 was one of the company's first three products, shown alongside the RP-100 phono stage and the RL-100 line stage, at the Stockholm show in February 2003, then in Copenhagen and at the Frankfurt show that May, where Hans-Ole Vitus stood with the prototype.³ Vitus brought it to the United States at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2004.²

It was a balanced design built in two chassis, though the plan from the start was a four-chassis amplifier that kept the power supply apart from the audio circuits.¹ Its input stage became the basis of the SL-100 line stage of 2004.³ The SM-101 replaced it, dropping its battery supply for a split-rail one, and the line continued in the SM-103.³¹