Lavardin Technologies designs and manufactures high end audio amplifiers using exclusive and revolutionary design concepts which radically reduce what we have named the "Memory distortion" of components.

The memory distortion (1) of components is the greatest discovery in analog audio design over the last twenty years . It clearly demonstrates the reasons why a good valve amplifier can beat its solid state counterpart hands down for sheer musical enjoyment. Memory distortion is the property that is the dominent factor in causing solid state amplifiers to sound shrill and mechanical. Tube technology allows electrons to travel through a vacuum which causes no storage or memory effect, but solid-state amplifiers use silicon components which keeps the trace of electrons flux that have gone through . New electron flux will be affected by the fact that other electrons preceded them. As soon as memory effect of solid state circuits is reduced, all the improvements that transistor technology handles like unlimited power, accuracy, very low harmonic distortion and extended and linear frequency response can be added to the most alive and silky musical rendition of the best single-ended monotriode design. This may not sound very new : some manufacturers claim to combine valve smoothness with the muscle of solid state power by using hybrid designs. As a result, they only combine the memory distortion of solid state with the limited bandwidth and distortion capability of valves. This discovery which we made at Lavardin Technologies demonstrate that the classic measurements made all over the world for the last decade are meaningless when considering the musical quality of an amplifier. In fact, as fixed frequency or fixed level test signals are used, it is not possible to detect remanent signals of memory. Fixed frequencies or fixed levels signals may occur for less than 0.01% of the duration of any classical peace of music !! We do not believe that good sounding audio amplifiers should be designed to be perfect for 100% of the test time and only for 0.01% of the actual time they are reproducing music !!! Model IT

The Lavardin Technologies integrated amplifier Model IT , considered by many to be the FINEST AMPLIFIER EVER MADE, irrespective of price or technology , is the result of more than 12 years of research on the memory effect of electronic components used in audio circuits designs.

Lavardin Technologies is proud to introduce it's innovative concept to push audio radically forward. It breaks new ground in music reproduction. "To hear a Lavardin once is a great experience : the music sounds natural, clear, fast and smooth and never mechanical. This means that no other amplifier can be considered the "standard" any more".

TECHNICAL CORNER What does memory distortion exactly mean? Memory distortion is a new concept for distortion process analysis. Usual concepts of distortion are based on a very simple distortion model which does not tally with the real behaviour of electronic circuits. In the classic theoretical model of distortion, distortion of a non selective circuit results from its band limitations for the linear distortion and from its non-linear transfer function for the non-linear distortion. This model is a good approximation for audio circuits. But for highest quality audio it is too simplistic. It results from a tonal approach of circuits for design and measurement. The tonal approach is very powerful and can be very accurate but it ignores the time. That means that it is critical only for time independent systems. Unfortunately, the main difference between noise and music IS their organisation in the time. Audio circuits are not time independent. A detailed analysis of their behaviour for non-stationary signals reveals many changes of their characteristics. The amplitude of these change is generally low, and this change remain hidden by stationary signals. This is the reason why they cannot be detected with classic (and tonal) measuring systems and are thus ignored by audio designers. The amplitude of this change is often high enough to be easily audible in high quality audio systems. That is the reason why listening tests of these systems do not tally with present measurements. This measurement are not able to characterise the behaviour of the circuits for all the signals. They aim to measure THE transfer function, they only measure ONE of the transfer functions corresponding to stationary signals. Most audio system are designed to be perfect for sine waves which are a very limited part of real audio signals. These changes of circuits characteristics are linked to the signal itself but not in real time, which leads to our new and exclusive concept of memory distortion. Memory distortion occurs each time that the dynamic behaviour of a system is different of its static behaviour. If there is no memory distortion, then both static and dynamic behaviour are similar and classic (static) measurement is valid. This is the secret of "tube sound". We are proud, at Lavardin Technologies, to have full control on that which remains "The mystery of tube musicality" for previous audio designers.

(1) The memory distortion of components was discovered entirely by Lavardin Technologies engineersas are the procedure for measuring the very audible distortion which results from it.