ProductReview
AudioControl
Rialto 600 and Bijou 600
Zone Amplifiers
BY DENNIS BURGER
Maybe it’s just my own skewed perspective here, but it seems that all too often,
the modern integrator has to make a choice between truly high-performance
audio gear and installation flexibility. Between components that make the
hairs on the back of your arms stand up, and those that are small, light, coolrunning enough, and that boast the sort of flexible connectivity one needs to
design and install a custom distributed audio system.
The
Rialto
600
The Bijou 600
I’m sure you can think of examples to the
contrary, but the fact that you have to really sit down
and think about it to rattle off more than a handful
kind of proves my point. However big your list may
be, though, it’s time to add two more products to
it. AudioControl’s new Rialto 600 and Bijou 600
Zone Amplifiers may not look like much. In fact,
aside from the undeniable Sonos-like aesthetic of
the Rialto, they’re pretty much just unassuming
little black boxes. But inside these diminutive beasts
you’ll find 200 watts (into 8 ohms; 400 watts into
4 ohms) of high-quality Class D amplification,
Wolfson digital-to-analog conversion, slick bass
management capabilities, and AudioControl’s
patented AccuBASS processing to boot.
All of which sounds reasonably impressive,
but it isn’t until you take a gander at the back
of these units that you really get a sense of just
how deliciously integration-focused they are. In
addition to their pair of digital audio inputs (with
your choice of coax or optical for each), there’s
also a stereo analog input, a 12-volt trigger,
RCA bridged mono and LFE outputs, and more
toggle dipswitches than you’ll likely ever need
on any given job. There’s also 3.5-millimeter IR
44 R E S I D E N T I A L
inputs and outputs, and an RS-232 connection.
(AudioControl provides drivers for Control4 and
RTI control systems on its website.)
Really, the only difference I can tell between
the Rialto 600 and Bijou 600, aside from their
form factors and intended installation locations,
is that the former features two sets of incredible,
fancy, five-way binding posts (which are not only
gorgeous, but also handled 12-gauge speaker wire
just fine in my testing) and a bottom-mounted
cooling fan, whereas the latter sports a phoenix
connector for its speaker-level outputs and a
mountable 1U half-rack design. (It can also be
mounted behind a TV or in a wall cavity box with
optional hardware, sold separately).
Because the two are so utterly similar, and
because the Rialto 600 aligns a little better with
my needs for such a product, I leaned on it for the
bulk of my testing, using it essentially as a preamp/
DAC/amplifier for my desktop-based two-channel
system in my home office. Both Zone Amplifiers
come with a handy optical digital audio cable,
which wasn’t quite long enough to reach from my
Maingear PC around to my pair of GoldenEar
Triton Ones, so I brought my own optical cable
to the party.
Is a pair of massive audiophile tower speakers
with 650-watt power handling capabilities really
the sort of setup that AudioControl intended
to be paired with the Rialto or Bijou 600? I
honestly can’t tell you. What I can say is this: the
amp didn’t flinch when driving the GoldenEars.
Not a bit. Nor did the speakers feel in any way
underpowered as I cranked out a slapdash variety
of tunes running the gamut from Grateful Dead
bootlegs to Ingrid Michaelson to Fatboy Slim.
There was a wonderfully satisfying punch with
S Y S T E M S | N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | residen tial sy stems.com
425.775.8461
www.audiocontrol.com
Kudos
Incredibly flexible, highperformance amps that
perfectly straddle the audiophile and custom installation
markets, with a wealth of
integration features
Concerns
No USB input; the headphone output jack is hard to
reach and isn’t auto-sensing
Product Specs
Both
4 2 Channels x 100 Watts at
8 Ohms
4 2 Channels x 200 Watts at
4 Ohms
4 Pre-amp Volume Control
Via Infra (IR) or RS 232
4 Stable Down to 4 Ohms
4 Bridgeable as Mono Block
400 Watts
4 2 x Digital Optical & COAX
inputs and Analog Stereo
Inputs
4 Subwoofer Output
4 Wolfson Digital Analog
Converter (DAC) For
Audiophile Performance
4 Source Switching Via IR or
RS 232
4 Patented AccuBASS ™
Bass Response
4 Crossover • 12v Trigger
Input • Bridgeable •
Headphone Input
4 Remote Control Included
(Remote Control Codes
Available on Bijou 600
Web Page)
all of it, not to mention a clarity that I wouldn’t
have expected from such a little amp. And while
this straight two-channel setup didn’t allow me to
experiment much with the Rialto 600’s different
configurations, it did give me a chance to test out
AudioControl’s AccuBASS processing in its purest
form.
AccuBASS is engaged via the included (ittybitty) remote, and can be dialed up or down much
the same way a standard bass control might be.
To my ears, though, it isn’t simply a bass boost.
It added not only volume, but also weight and
dynamics to the bass, and in most cases I found it
best used sparingly, if at all. Where it really helped
was with beloved but hard-to-listen-to albums like
the notoriously bright and thin Tesla album The
Great Radio Controversy.
With the Rialto 600/Triton One system still
hooked up, I also connected the Bijou 600 to a
pair of Paradigm Prestige 15B bookshelf speakers
and Artison’s little RCC Nano 1 subwoofer, which
gave me a chance to test out its bass management
capabilities. Given that bass management is
handled via back-panel dipswitches, you’ve
probably already guessed correctly that you can’t
adjust the crossover frequency. There’s one switch
The Rialto 600 features fancy five-way binding posts and, like the
Bijou 600, is packed with toggle dipswitches.
to engage an 80 Hz high-pass for the speaker-level
outputs, and another for an 80 Hz low-pass on
the LFE output. That turned out to be the perfect
crossover point for these speakers, though, and no
doubt for most any 2.1 speaker system you might tie
to the Bijou or Rialto.
The real fun began when I started digging
through AudioControl’s truly awesome instruction
manual for clues as to how to make use of the rest of
the dipswitches: Bridged Mode, Sleep Defeat, High
Gain, and individual Volume Defeat for each of the
three inputs.
Two of those in particular were crucial to
another setup, in which I used both the Rialto
600 and Bijou 600 in the same stereo system. I
used the Rialto to drive the main stereo speaker
(the Paradigm bookshelves again), with the highpass and low-pass filters flipped on. Instead of
running the LFE output to a sub, though, I ran it
to the Bijou 600’s analog input, with its Volume
Defeat engaged, Bridged Mode turned on, and the
speaker-level output routed to Beale Street Audio’s
excellent ICS8-MB passive subwoofer.
In this case, I had exactly the opposite concerns
that I did with the Triton One system: 400 watts of
amplification is way more than the Beale Street sub
is rated to handle. But a careful hand on the volume
control of the Rialto 600 kept things from getting
explodey at all, and quite frankly the system straight
up rocked my face off. And that’s just one of the
possible setups suggested in the (again, ridiculously
entertaining and informative) manual.
If I have one beef to pick with these incredible
little Zone Amps, it’s that they lack any sort of USB
audio input. That’s understandable, given that
they’re both positioned (and designed) as small
pieces in a much larger whole-home audio puzzle. In
fact, the back panel is so crowded with connectivity
and setup switches that I’m not sure there’s really
room for USB, even if it made sense for the amps’
intended functions. Maybe if AudioControl ditched
the headphone output? I dunno. What I do know,
though, is that I’m picking nits here. These amps
are absolutely incredible.