Well guys, last week I took the plunge and got into tubes in a big way, and I do mean
big. I picked up an Audio Research VT-200 power amp.
19"x 10.5" x 23.6" - 118 lbs
200 WPC
(16) 6550C Power Tubes and (10) 6922 Input & Driver Tubes
Looks and specs are one thing, but more importantly, how does it sound? In a word, outstanding.
I had a friend stop over during the week (in fact the guy who got me hooked on all this silly stuff) and his comment was that he thought the amp sounded effortless. No matter what it was asked to do it did it gracefully and never sounded strained or hard. I would have to agree. It has less than half the wattage of my Classe Twenty Five, yet still sounds cleaner and more dynamic on large peaks. The amp just never sounds like it is breaking a sweat. (although with the amount of heat it throws on some nights it caused me to.
) The other thing that struck me is how dead quiet it is. Both the Classe and my Moscode 600 put out more background noise than the VT-200. Not that the noise either amp produces is than objectionable, but I really noticed it when the noise was gone. When I first turned it on I thought something was broken in the protection circuitry and the amp wasn't coming out of mute, only to find that it was unmuted and the amp as just that quiet.
As compared to my other amps, neither of which were slouches, the VT-200 has a good amount more low level detail without ever sounding overdone or etched. (Could this simply be a matter of the lower noise floor allowing more of the details to become audible?) On Cantate Domino I have never before heard such a clear sense of the hall before. The side walls now have a much more apparent and defined location. The choir also has a better sense of individual voices and is wider and deeper as well.
On the Eagles Hell Freezes Over the initial drum whacks on Hotel California don't have the same slam that they did worth the solid state amp, but are faster in rise time and have a more definite snap to then. Interestingly that initial drum beat is a thre hit repeating pattern and the third hit is of a higher pitch than the first two. For the first time I could actually hear that the third hit was on a separate drum that was physically standing next to the other one. Nor only could I hear the change in pitch, but also the change in space as well. On Jacintha's Here's to Ben the tube's silky smooth midrange really shined. and gave everything that added dose of reality. I frequently use the track Danny Boy from this album to test for depth and detail by listening to the placement of the echo return on her voice. On a better tuned system you can hear the echo emanate from a specific point in space as opposed to just somewhere in the back. On the VT-200 that point was clearer and pushed further back than I had ever heard before.
I have to leave for work now. I'll write more later toninght
