best amp for vandersteen?

[antonkk]

Now there was a thread a couple of days ago - what Vandersteen to chose for my small (18 square meter) room. Now I must explain the drama behind it.
I had a SERIOUS problem with my system for a long time. Actually I could not listen to it more then 5 minutes. My old speakers were upgraded 5 times by a friend (who claimed to be a true sonic guru) up to a point when Ritchie Blackmore sounded like Carlos Santana and Miles Davis started to sound like John Coltrane. He promised that he will fix everything but I was afraid that after one more time Ritchie will end up sounding like Miles so I decided to change everything in my system. I spent a few months listening to different systems and to my shock learned what I was missing all this time. That's when I discovered Vandies at my buddie's place - they sounded like... Truth. A real True sound of music.
After a long thought I finally got my Vandersteen 1C today and I'm really, really impressed! Hard to find a better speaker for this room, but now I have to find some real good amp - as both of my amps turned out to be complete crap and a second serious reason why my system sucked so much. My gorgeous russian tube Natural A-7 looks great but sounds like a total mess, warm and sweet, but abstract and my Pioneer A-777 sounds like, you know, Pioneer - harsh and bright). Bought both of them when I just started my audiophile journey and knew nothing about good and bad sound.

So at the moment I have my Vandies, EAD 1000 CD player, Clearaudio Solution turntable with Audio Note IQ 2 cartridge, some Nordost cables and a burning lust for a GREAT amp to finally enjoy my 3000 CDs and 400 vinyls!

Shall I go for tubes or SS?

Integrated or separate?


:confused: :sigh: :confused:

And sorry for my English, gentlemen!

[Dave]

If it's in your budget WAVAC are incredible. http://www.tmhaudio.com/wavac.htm

[antonkk]

I don't think WAVAC are in my budget - I'm planning to spend around $1000-2000.

[Dave]

Originally posted by antonkk
I don't think WAVAC are in my budget - I'm planning to spend around $1000-2000.
Ok, my recommendation is to go with tube powered separates unless you like vintage tube powered receivers. Separates makes it easier to upgrade component by component rather than all at once.

If you have any disliking about puttering around with tubes then, and only then, I'd recommend a good SS system although you will then sacrifice the unbeatable realism of tube sound. I hear the Dynaco ST-70 is good and inexpensive as long as it's original and not modified.

I'll leave the tube system recommendations up to our more knowledgeable members. For SS I can personally recommend Classe. Very impressive and not over the budget price-wise. Unless you plan on having a separate phono-stage it can be a bit hard to find SS pre-amps with a decent phono-stage.

Hopefully some other members can chime in with some recommendations for your quest.

[antonkk]

I really think that tubes will sound nice with Vandies - the problem is getting an amp that will not cost me a fortune!

[visprashyana]

As a fellow Vandersteen owner, they are incredibly difficult to drive. As I also know, a tube amp will sound beautiful in the mid range, but it won't have enough power for the lows and highs. Of course you can buy a tube amp with enough power, but you won't be in your price class.

As I read your initial letter, I notice that you mention harsh sounds in your system. You might consider changing the Nordost to a more musical cable since that may sound bright combined with the Clearaudio table. A great solid-state amp within a reasonable price would be the McCormack DNA-125. I can say confidently that they handled the 3A's with no problem. They made it sound easy.