⌈ AURA, currently a Japanese company, was founded in 1989 in the UK. Its first and most famous device was the VA-40 integrated amplifier. In 1996 the brand was bought by the Japanese company Yukimu, which last year prepared a new version of the classic, the VA-40 Rebirth. ⌋

THE HISTORY OF THE AURA COMPANY in some ways resembles the adventures of another, now Japanese, brand - Marantz. For here it was founded in Worthing, England, was part of one of the most important speaker companies from the Isles, Bowers & Wilkins, and then was bought by a Japanese distributor.

What is it about this product that so many companies are interested in it? And that after so many years - thirty-five! - is back on sale? After all, it's not expensive, nor is it large, it's simply a mid-power integrated amplifier with a low profile of no more than 55 mm in height and whose chrome front contains only three controls. And yet...

Aura entered the audio stage in 1989 at the initiative of Michael Tu. This was the time “after the storm,” i.e., after the audio world had already been flooded by Japanese mass producers. Its creation was preceded by a brief episode in the form of another company, ITL (Independent Technology Ltd.), located in Portsmouth on the south coast of England. It was founded in 1986, and its “fathers” were, the aforementioned, Michael Tu and Andrew Hunt. It offered the small MA-80 integrated amplifier, almost identical to the later AV40.

Just a year after its founding, interest in its amplifier is expressed by Bowers & Wilkins, a loudspeaker specialist, then already a powerhouse, which then buys it. As a result, the amplifier's front panel is designed by Kenneth Grange, a famous industrial designer then working with B&W. The result was a chrome front and black knobs. Seemingly nothing, yet it gave a new quality.

FOR SOME, UNKNOWN, REASON B&W very soon abandoned the sale of the AV-40 amplifier. Aura's Japanese distributor, the Yukim Corporation, which had popularized the device in the Land of the Cherry Blossom, then began efforts to purchase the rights to the brand and the rights to its products, which finally happened only in 1997, resulting in the establishment of Aura Design Japan. We should add that Yukim was a distributor for many well-known European and American companies and remains one to this day.

Its first product was, of course, the VA-40 amplifier. But back in 1992, i.e. under the reign of Elizabeth II, a more powerful version, named VA-50, was added to the portfolio. We know that it was designed by one of Britain's best-known engineers and journalists, Martin Colloms, today writing for Stereophile magazine. The unit had a slightly different power stage layout, classic speaker connectors instead of “holes” in the chassis (as Naim and Cyrus devices used to have) and higher output of 2 x 50 watts (8 Ω). It was produced until 2006.

On the Japanese market, since only there the company's devices were available, the most beautiful Aura's product, the Note was introduced. It was an integrated amplifier with a top-loader Compact Disc player. But what a beauty it was! As it turns out, work on it began back in the company's “British” days, so Sir Kenneth Grange was also responsible for its design. Its design was ready in 1996, and the British launch was scheduled for 1997, but by then Aura was already a Japanese company. It went on sale only in 2006.

The company's portfolio at that time also included other products, such as the VA-80 and VA-80 SE-X integrated amplifiers, VA-100 Evolution and Mk II, VA-150, and finally the CA200 preamplifier and two power amplifiers, PA-100 and PA-200. There was also a TU-80 tuner and two CD players - CD-50 and CD-100. Somewhere around 2010 they introduced two new products, the Groove CD player and the Ayra integrated amplifier, equally aesthetically attractive.

The equipment of Aura's first “Japanese” period was manufactured by South Korean company April Music. Known for its, very good, well-thought-out products sold under the → STELLO brand. After some time it suspended operations, and thus Aura lost a subcontractor. The brand thus disappeared from the market for more than a decade.

Until, surprisingly, last year the news started spreading that the VA-40 was coming back into play, as VA-40 Rebirth

▌ VA-40 Rebirth

The VA-40 REBIRTH IS a medium-power integrated amplifier. It is a purist design, with three RCA line inputs, an MM phono input and a headphone output, driven by the power output section. It features no D/A converter, Bluetooth connectivity, or file player. Nor - a remote control.

These types of designs coexisted on the British audio scene with and were the answer to the burgeoning, omnivorous devices from Japan. The most famous of these are the Cambridge Audio P40 from 1968 (!) and a decade later the 3020 from NAD, followed by the Naim NAIT from 1983 and the Musical Fidelity A1 from 1985. And still a year later the MA-80 from ITL was developed. So I think we won't be too far from the truth if we say that all of them were known to the designers of the AV-40 and that they were their reference.

In the press materials of the Polish distributor, Nautilus Dystrybucja, we read:

Looking at the sleek, flat chassis, we are sure to ask the question, is it Class D amplifier? Well, no. The VA-40 Rebirth is a minimalist analog design, devoid of digital circuitry, display and other electronic gadgets that may hurt the sound quality, thus providing purist sound combined with the joy of old-school manual operation of the device. The Aura VA-40 Rebirth harnesses a single push-pull circuit built with British Exicon ECX10P20/ECX10N20 MOS-FETs, known and loved among fans of good hi-fi, and also used by renowned high-end manufacturers such as Goldmund and Nagra.

The Japanese amplifier is small, but looks very nice, mainly due to its proportions and chrome front panel. On it we find only two, black aluminum knobs, a button and a headphone output. The knobs are used to adjust volume and select between four inputs - three line-level and one for a phono preamp for MM cartridges. One of the inputs is labeled “CD,” as in the original VA-40.

The new version of the amplifier offers an output of 50 watts per channel into an 8 ohm load, and features a toroidal transformer in its power supply section. The high current output is achieved, as the manufacturer explains, thanks to ‘an innovative method of cooling the output stage’. This is because it is attached with brackets to two horizontal heat sinks, occupying half of the chassis, which are located directly under the top cover, equipped with ventilation slots. Such a solution is said to give the transistors ‘optimal working conditions’ without their ‘excessive overheating and degradation of performance over time’, in addition to ‘much more effectively dampening vibrations’.

The amplifier also features high-end components, which is also how it differs from the original: Vishay metallized resistors, Nichicon Muse capacitors, gold-plated contactors and more. The chassis and front panel of the unit are made by Japanese metallurgy specialists, and vinyl record fans will be pleased to know that in addition to the three standard RCA line inputs, the amplifier also features a phono input supporting MM cartridges.

Although the manufacturer called the device VA-40 Rebirth, it is actually closer to the Martin Colloms’ design, not only because of the higher power, but also the circuit itself. In the latter there have been only minor changes, mainly involving the use of better components, and the main difference can be seen in the power supply section, where there is now a large 200W toroidal transformer. The manufacturer says it was ‘custom-made’.

logo Made in Japan. The previous ones, let's recall, were made in England and then in Korea. The front panel and chassis are manufactured in Tsubame-Sanjo City, a well-known - as we read - ‘worldwide’ metalworking facility, which is supposed, as the manufacturer writes, ‘to ensure high precision and quality workmanship’.

▌ SOUND

HOW WE LISTENED • The Aura VA-40 Rebirth integrated amplifier was tested in the “High Fidelity” reference system. It was compared to a split reference amplifier, i.e. an Ayon Audio Spheris III preamplifier and a Soulution 710 solid-state power amplifier. During the test, the unit stood on its three feet on the top carbon shelf of a Finite Elemente Pagode Edition Mk II rack.

During the test, I used an Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition SACD player and a Lumin T3 file player as sources. The signal between the player and amplifier was sent via Crystal Cable Absolute Dream RCA interconnect. The amplifier was powered by Harmonix X-DC350M2R Improved-Version cable, and the signal to the speakers was supplied by Crystal Cable Da Vinci speaker cable. The amplifier was driving Harbeth M40.1 speakers, and I should add that I connected a Nordost QKore artificial ground to the ground terminal.

» RECORDINGS USED FOR THE TEST ⸜ a selection

⸜ SARAH VAUGHAN, Sarah Vaughan, EmArcy/UMG Recordings UCGQ-9053, „Acoustic Sounds SACD Series”, SHM-SACD (1955/2004).
⸜ TSUYOSHI YAMAMOTO TRIO, What A Wonderful Trio!, First Impression Music FIM DXD 079, Silver-CD (2008).
⸜ EVA CASSIDY, Songbird, Blixstreet Records | Didgeridoo Records/JVC VICJ-010-0045, XRCD24 (1998/2008).
⸜ ROBERT KANAAN, Evening Soothing, Robert Kanaan/Tidal, FLAC 16/44,1 (2024).
⸜ SANTANA, Santana, Columbia/Sony Records Int'l SICP-10134, „7-inch papersleeve”, SACD/CD (1969/2020).
⸜ THE POLICE, Synchronicity, A&M Records/Polydor UICY-16234, „40th Anniversary”, 2 x SHM-CD (1981/2024).
⸜ MEGADETH, Countdown to Extinction, Capitol Records/Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDCD 765, „Original Master Recording”, Gold-CD (1992/2006).

DID MY EXPECTATIONS ABOUT the VA-40 come true? Did the amplifier play as I imagined it would by reading its history and referring to my own experiences with this type of product? Was it finally something that could be mentioned alongside the → LEBEN CS-300, followed by the → CS-300F and the → AURORASOUND HFSA-01? Oooo, yes - it's exactly this class of sound.

What is its magic? Well, in the fact that you listen to music with it as if there were no device in front of you. Not in the sense that you hear everything as if it were ‘live’, because it doesn't work that way. It's about a kind of, as if by magic, disappearance of mechanics. I invoke this category from time to time, and this is because it is, on the one hand, handy, and, on the other hand, encapsulates, in this short statement, long and detailed descriptions.

This is because Aura's presentation is smooth. It is fluid. It is also warm. The unit sounds denser and warmer than all three of the tube amplifiers from Japan I just recalled. The very difficult-to-please CD by SARAH VAUGHN, recorded with trumpeter Clifford Brown and released in Japan this May on SHM-SACD, sounded thus uncommonly pleasant. The term ‘dazzlingly’ comes to mind, but I don't think that's what it's all about, not about ‘slaying with love’, but calm, unhurried, professional playing.

I don't know if you have already been able to read it between the lines, but I have this impression that the VA-40 Rebirth plays more ‘tube-like’ than many tube amplifiers. The album in question was recorded in 1955, and the singer sings on it to an RCA 44-B ribbon microphone, which was originally conceived for radio in the US at the time. As I wrote on the occasion of my test of the Phonia Gravis 400 speakers, its hallmark is a strong boost of the narrow upper midrange.

When cutting the lacquer for the LP, this was put out, and the AM radio did not show it at all, so everyone thought that recordings of this type sounded warm and low. However, modern direct transfers from tape “master” to digital do not correct this shortcoming. And Aura played this album as it was from vinyl. And it was a really interesting experience, because I did not at all have the impression that the device warms the treble, let alone minimizes them. Nor does it reduce the energy of this range.

Instead, it does something that I usually have to do with high-end. Namely, it smooths out the problematic elements of the sound, and shows the ones that are fine, that are good, in all their fullness. I don't know how this works, but I know it from a lot of listening sessions. Aura, if memory serves me correctly, is the cheapest product that can do something like this. Even the ‘small’ Leben and Aurorasound point a little harder to emphasize in the upper midrange.

Here it's a kind of delicate smoothing of texture. But only up to the point where anything in the sound stops bothering us. Because already, the very open, incredibly dynamic playing from the TSUYOSHI YAMAMOTO TRIO What A Wonderful Trio! album was shown with dynamics, fullness and saturation. And with a strong treble. As I say, it's amazing how good products ‘translate’ the electrical signal to us, how wonderfully they convey the content of the recordings.

You might think, then, that this is an amplifier just perfect for vocal music. If you did, then - no surprise here - you are right. In the sense that it is with vocal music, but not only jazz, but also with classical music, that the amplifier enchants most strongly. It enchants because it owes such a smooth, dense sound to a slight emphasis in the lower midrange. Seemingly small, we don't perceive it as ‘coloration’, but nevertheless effective enough that even EVA CASSIDY's rather bright vocals from the Songbird compilation were ‘tuned’ and pleasant.

But it's also not the case that everything with the Aura sounds the same. This is another clue, after the ability to convey even poorly recorded music in an enjoyable way, that sends us back to good, expensive designs. I'm referring to differentiation. On the one hand, everything we play with this amplifier sounds cool, pleasant, and on the other hand, we can perfectly hear how these recordings differ from each other. Even within a single album, as with Cassidy.

˻ 2 ˺ Wave in the Water ? – Quite bright, little saturation, rather light and without clear texture. ˻ 3 ˺ Autumn Leaves ? – Warm, low, dense, smooth. ˻ 4 ˺ Wayfaring Stranger ? – strong, dense base without clear leading edge, but with wonderful timbre, plus stronger vocals with a long reverb. And I can go on like this until the very end. And when you need to, as in this last case, when the electric guitar plays hard, it hits us with its energy, it's sharper, it's stronger.

And when I played SANTANA's debut album, released in 2020, magnificently released, I might add, by Sony on SACD, a wall of sound hit me. Maybe not right away, not when the drummer only plays crash and the drums play on the left, but later, when the strong guitars come in. They were strong and biting, so to speak. It's not as if VA-40 Rebirth is just laying everything down as it goes. It does so selectively, as I wrote at the beginning. And, as I also mentioned, I have no idea how it does it.

The Japanese amplifier thus offers a powerful, big sound. It is really expansive, although it does not ‘jump’ in front of the speakers. The sound sources have a large volume and are therefore palpable, not by being ‘pushed’ in front of the speakers. Ultimate resolution is averaged out, it's ultimately not an ultra-expensive device, but we don't notice that, because there is enough information about tonality, dynamics and space.

Ohh, because there is also stereoscopy. It is above average with Aura. That is, there is a wide panorama and deep stage. The dimension in depth is limited, it's not the level of 50,000 PLN devices. But everything is so nicely put together, so well expressed, that we don't even know it. Only a direct comparison will show it. So much so that why would anyone want it? In this way we will lose some of the joy of listening to the tested amplifier with nice speakers and a good source, without comparisons, just for the music.

HEADPHONES • One of the important advantages of the Leben CS-300 amplifier, subsequently repeated in the Aurorasound HFSA-01, was the presence of a headphone output, which was not so much an add-on, but operated on equal footing with the speaker output. The Aura VA-40 Rebirth repeats this pattern. And yet none of these amplifiers had a separate section for headphones, since the signal to them was routed from a voltage divider placed before the speaker output.

The sound of the Aura with the HiFiMAN HE-1000 v2 headphones was similar to what I heard through the speakers. So dynamic and direct, but also a bit warm and very smooth. It's playing that sets us at rest. Because it doesn't irritate, we don't wait to see if one or another record will sound good or not. With the VA-40 Rebirth each one will sound good, really good. Also clearly realized recordings, such as - already cited - the album by The Police.

With it I got a presentation with a silky attack, but with enough selectivity that the instruments had their own space around them. There wasn’t more bass, but that's the kind of playing after all. And it wasn't until with heavily saturated recordings, like from the DOMINIC MILLER and NEIL STACEY’S New Dawn, when I wanted to play a ˻ 7 ˺ Rush Hours track to the max, that the amp hit the ceiling. On the other hand, with the Lime Ears Pneuma earbuds I was able to play with no volume limit, only that the tonal balance was a bit higher with them and I didn't get such saturated bass.

Because, as it happens, Aura will work best with classic headphones that were sold in the 1980s and their successors. Like the Beyerdynamic DT-990 and their ‘offspring’ ( for example, the DT-880), the AKG K241 and the like, along with the AKG K701 or Sennheiser, in my case the HD 800. It was with them that the timbre was most even and the sound most saturated. And it is with them that you will not need an external amplifier to enjoy this type of music listening.

▌ Summary

AURA VA-40 REBIRTH is a unique device. On the one hand, it is open to information from the source, on the other hand, it organizes and categorizes it, selecting those needed to build a satisfying, enjoyable, but also emotional presentation. It does it by slightly warming the sound, emphasizing the lower midrange and smoothing the upper treble.

It's no coincidence that these, or similar, terms are used when testing good tube amplifiers. Aura plays just like that. And at the same time it has a strong, nicely controlled bass. Warm, somewhat round, but also energetic and well defined. And even such ‘lightly’ recorded albums as Synchronicity by THE POLICE, as recently released in Japan on SHM-CD, will play just fine.

This is not to say that the VA-40 Rebirth is just a ‘cool’ amplifier. That too, is an important part of its characteristics, But it is first and foremost a ’sensual’ and ‘deep’ sounding amp. In the sense that this is the impression we get when listening to music with it, this is also how the music itself sounds. It is energetic, yet gently controls what reaches the speakers, preventing the sound from ‘overheating’ and becoming too forward. And yet we'll still get the impression of fullness and power - it's a really current-efficient device.

Therefore, if someone was looking for a Leben CS-300, or an amplifier of this type, they can safely choose the tested Aura VA-40 Rebirth amplifier for their system. It's unbelievable how a good idea overcomes time and technological changes. Add to it classic speakers like Harbeths, Spendors (A-series), Grahams, etc., and even speakers with a broadband drivers, and you’ll have a great system. This is a real ‘gem’ in the audio world. Therefore, from us, a well-deserved ˻ RED FINGERPRINT ˺.

▌ DESIGN

AURA AV-40 REBITRTH is a small integrated amplifier. Although the width of the front panel is the classic 430 mm, its height is only 55 mm. The front panel is made of chrome-plated steel, while the rest is made of bent stainless steel. The knobs are aluminum, while the power-off button is plastic The device stands on four feet made of several layers of metal, with silver inserts separating the black discs.

The speaker terminals on the rear panel are gold-plated and of a decent quality. The RCA jacks, on the other hand are soldered to the board, are not gold plated (only the ground is gold plated), and so are not of particularly high quality. The ground terminal is also not gold-plated.

The interior looks different from most amplifiers, as the PCBs are screwed upside down. There are companies that mount the electronics on the top cover, which seems a similar solution, but is not. Here they are mounted classically, to the bottom of the chassis. Aura's designer's idea was to dissipate heat as efficiently as possible without the need for heavy heatsinks and using them on the outside of the chassis.

Therefore, the heat sink is visible through cutouts in the top panel, and the transistors are screwed to it from underneath. In turn, in order not to expose the passive components to high temperatures, the board with the amplification circuit is also turned upside down. The nice board shows good quality components, the Dale metallized resistors mentioned in the introduction, and Nichicon Muse and Fine Gold capacitors, and, in the power supply, ones by Rubycon.

In the first version, the inputs were switched in a mechanical switch, albeit placed right next to the inputs. Here an IC from the Japanese company JRC was used in this role. The phono preamplifier was realized on two, classic, low noise NE5532 ICs, accompanied by very nice passive components, including the aforementioned precision resistors, as well as nice capacitors. The signal from the line inputs, when selected with the selector, goes straight to the potentiometer. Unfortunately, it is a simple open potentiometer, very similar to the one used in the original VA-40.

The signal is routed to it via cables from Japanese company Tatsuta Tachii Electric Cable. A similar interconnect runs the signal to the headphone output; when plugged in, large relays with gold-plated contacts switch the signal from the speaker output to the headphone output.

The output transistors, one pair per channel, in a push-pull, class AB arrangement, are EXICON ECX10P20/ECX10N20 MOSFETs. Such an arrangement, that is, with one pair, ensures significantly reduced distortion. Parallel transistors should be selected, and still their parameters will always be slightly different. Realizing this, some companies rely on just such an arrangement, as with, for example, Denon and its UHC-MOS Single Push-Pull circuit. The downside of such an arrangement is the limited power you can get using transistors designed for audio circuits. And if you go for high-power transistors, they will almost certainly be designed for other types of circuits.

We should add that the power supply is provided by a sizable, toroidal transformer of 200 W. It is screwed traditionally, to the bottom of the case. ●

▌ Technical specifications (according to the manufacturer)

Inputs: 3 x line RCA, 1 x phono MM
Max output: 2 x 50 W/8 Ω
Power consumption (no input signal): 16 W
Max power consumption: 210 W
Dimensions (W x H x D): 430 × 76 × 350 mm
Weight: 7.2 kg

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THIS TEST HAS BEEN DESIGNED ACCORDING TO THE GUIDELINES adopted by the Association of International Audiophile Publications, an international audio press association concerned with ethical and professional standards in our industry, of which HIGH FIDELITY is a founding member. More about the association and its constituent titles → HERE.

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