The Viva Audio Numerico DAC & CD Transport is a one-box, tube DAC with a built in transport. My review sample came in Ferrari Yellow. It can be used as a stand alone, front-loading transport or DAC. It can also be used as a CD player that has USB, coaxial and optical inputs.
On their website, Viva Audio says, “It is encased in solid aluminum for stability and mechanical vibration control. It is painted with a special high-tech color with the inherit ability to absorb laser emissions, thus limiting its interference with the DAC’s performance.” They also say that all of the internal connections are hand-soldered using their special high-purity copper litz wire wrapped in natural silk. The analogue output stage uses a short signal path topology with select custom output transformers like other Viva Audio products.
Amedeo Schembri founded Viva Audio in 1996 with a passion for great music brought to life by tubes. One of Viva’s design goals is to make your digital experience emotionally interactive. They want to achieve this by combining the strengths of both digital and analogue sound. They have certainly made some truly musical amps over the years, and I am excited to have the Numerico DAC in for review.
