Although I do not belong to those who believe that every word has Greek roots (like this indescribable guy in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”), “Andros” is indeed the name of the famous Greek island. Probably, a tribute to remote Greek roots of George Cunnas, the man behind Zesto Audio. Zesto is a relatively new company, which currently offers, in addition to Andros, a preamp named Leto and the BIA 120 power amplifier and appears to maintain a low profile policy which makes the whole endeavor more interesting, at least to my opinion.

I saw a picture of Andros PS1 for the first time about two and a half years ago and I must admit that I found it attractive. It was obvious that the company has made an effort to offer something that looks good, despite the fact that the price is not so high as to justify excessive stylistic choices. It seems that the Cunnas likes to pay attention to the details. The team for the chassis design includes two people (Carolyn Counnas and Musky Mistry) and the final product is the result of a rather laborious process. According to information published by Zesto themselves, the circuit was based on some RCA circuits of the '30s era but for its development all modern tools currently available to an engineer were used. Cunnas seems to know the tricks well as his resume includes involvement with Decca defense systems in Great Britain, before passing to the relatively more peaceful waters of high fidelity audio. The result of his efforts is what you see in the pictures: A phono preamplifier for moving magnet and moving coil cartridges with interesting looks and all the necessary features.

Dimitris Stamatakos

Text Data
Original Publilcation: 2013/06/18	Last Follow Up: 2014/06/25	Original Language: Greek (Translated)

Previous | Next