How are VTL's power amp ?

Desmondjim is right on. I once tried a ARC vt-100 mk2, it
sounded too much like a transistor amp to my ears. The VTL's
seem to have a much warmer midrange and a nice top end. My
300 mono blocs do have real bass, again alittle warmer than
competing arc's. The bottom line for me is the VTL's sound
more real and less like hifi than the ARC did. I am using Apogee stages, so your results might be different.
Hope this helps Bob

I agree with Bobspeak here..Before I purchased my VTL rig I listened to mucho ARC products. And none of them sounded like Tubes to my ear. Once you listen to VTL you really look at ARC alot differently. Not that they are bad, just much closer to a transistor amp/preamp tonality than a VTL reproduces.

For my ear, its VTL all the way, and the only thing I have heard that is more musical is Shindo. The buck stops there for tubes IMO.

I heard a VTL ST-150 driving a pair of Wilson Sophias at my dealer's and the sound was fabulous. I could hear pinpoint imaging of instruments, even separation of a bass guitar and bass drum on the direct-to-disc LP that was playing. I also heard some VTL S-400 amps driving some Wilson MAXX2's to great effect. I certainly wouldn't call VTL's latest amps' sound a classic tube sound like that of Cary Audio or older C-J, but more neutral like that of neutral-sounding solid state amps with more dimensionality. I had an ARC VT-100 Mark III amp, and I would agree with the above posters that it was probably less romantic in the mids and a little quicker than the VTL, but IMO the newer VTL designs are state-of-the-art sonically.

"I certainly wouldn't call VTL's latest amps' sound a classic tube sound like that of Cary Audio or older C-J, but more neutral like that of neutral-sounding solid state amps with more dimensionality."

Spot on!

You are getting accurate response descriptions of each brand. If you want a little more tubey, the CJ's have been doing it well for a long time although their newer stuff is much less so than their classic/vintage equipment.I can't speak about ARC due to limited experience there but personally I love my VTL 125 monoblocs for all the reasons described above; musical, natural, very dynamic, reliable... I could go on. Bottom line is there are a lot of very satisfied VTL owners, for good reason. Good luck.