The absolute highlight of my AXPONA experience came from a somewhat expected source: Room 1427 featuring Vinnie Rossi and YG products. Vinnie was displaying the latest iteration of his Brama products, including the Brama preamp as well as two Brama monoblocks. He chose YG Acoustics Hailey 3 loudspeakers to complement his source and power products.
Words and Photos by Matthew Partrick
The second generation Brama preamp showcases Vinnie’s amazing tube linestage, using the new Western Electric 300B directly heated triodes. The linestage operates in pure Class A with a dual mono configuration, and provides an intensely holographic experience. It retails for $39k. Everything in this Vinnie Rossi and YG system was tied together with Nordost cables.
The VR Brama monoblocks powered the YG speakers, and provided a ton of baby-bottom smooth oomph. Using the same case design as the preamp and the integrated amp, the monoblocks provide 300 watts RMS into 8 Ohms/600-4 and continue to complete Vinnie’s current aesthetic with the wonderfully tactile solid aluminum milled casing and a sapphire crystal gauge glass. The gauges in general provide me with not a little bit of guilty pleasure. These run $60k/pair.
YG Acoustics’ Hailey 3 loudspeakers did a fantastic job of highlighting how insanely good source and power components are. They also feature solid milled aluminum casing as well as a lattice hybrid tweeter. They are rated at 87dB sensitive and offer an average resistance of 4 Ohms and retail for approximately $63k/pair. These speakers absolutely slam, and the massive 600 watts provided by the monoblocks certainly contribute significantly to the heft of the sound in this Vinnie Rossi and YG system.
Vinnie and I have been buddies for a long time, and he indulged me with a few of my favorite reference tracks to show off his show rig. The first was Jon Batiste’s “St. James Infirmary.” I’ve mentioned this in previous equipment reviews, and again I could hear the Tuberculosis and absinthe flowing out of an old Bourbon Street pub. Batiste is a true New Orleans hero, and his cover of this jazz classic will forever be associated with the Crescent City. After my indulgence, Vinnie played a bit of Infected Mushroom’s “Avratz.” If you haven’t heard this awesome track, put it on your new playlist. The Brama components and YG speakers really got me lost in the music.
Once again, Vinnie Rossi and YG was my best in show for AXPONA 2024.
If you would like to hear even more coverage from AXPONA 2024, check out our recap report and highlights from our audiophile-oriented show The Occasional Podcast. You can stream the episode direct from the embed below, or from your favorite podcast platform including iTunes, Android, Google, Deezer, Spotify, iHeartRadio and more.
Great looking room! What was the source for this system?