High-end audio has a rich history of husband-and-wife teams. In the case of Zesto Audio, head honcho George Counnas designs the circuitry, and his wife Carolyn creates the line’s distinctive, unmistakably artsy, curvaceous looks. She also does Zesto’s marketing.
George’s back story includes being part of a research and development team designing airborne navigational systems for the Royal Air Force and later as a recording engineer, musician, and producer. My man. Somewhere along the way, he must have become an audiophile. All Zesto products are vacuum-tube-based designs.
The Zesto Audio Eros 500 Select is Mr. Counnas’s all-out assault on a high-power tube power amp. Along with its less powerful brother, the Bia 200 Select, it has received much praise from audiophiles and the review community. I haven’t had the pleasure of hearing them, but when he reached out to me about a review of his latest entry-level phono stage, I couldn’t resist.