New Vandersteen oil cooled hybrid amplifiers


Heard Vandersteen liquid cooled amplifiers over the weekend. Richard Vandersteen introduced them himself at NY Audio Show. The Amps have built in oil pumps that pump oil around a solid copper block that the transistors are bolted to. The oil is then recirculated across large external heatsinks that transfer heat out into the room. The transistors are said to stay within +- 2% of optimal operating temperature range. 6H30 tube driving solid state output. Interesting design if not overkill at the low power levels being achieved. Anyone else see or hear these amps? Thoughts or feedback appreciated.
wwchange
That's my thoughts as well meblguy1, you already have a limited market trying to sell an amp, now you have a super high dollar amp that only really works with certain speakers.
My take is its a unique product targeting Vandersteen speaker owners seeking no holds barred ultimate performance from Vandersteen rather than mixing or matching.

It might well work great with other speakers as well, but it seems the group most likely to pounce are wealthy Vandersteen owners. Lots of competition in teh SOTA amp market otherwise.

Its a win/win for Vandersteen and their customers, assuming there are enough out there willing to shell out the $$$s.

Not to say other really good amps might not work as well or better, but those will not come from Vandersteen.
"A speaker manufacturer who starts making amplifiers tends to damage relations with amplifier manufacturers with whom they have worked in the past, hurting themselves. "

How do you know that Richard was working WITH the amplifier manufacturers on the design?
eventually i will demo them at home vs. Twenty series Ayre..i hear from people i trust that they both sound great.
what I do know is Richard collaborates with a pretty tight circle of like minded and innovative people in the industry. He shares a patent w Bill at AQ, etc..no mystery that many a Steen dealer carry ARC, AYRE, Aesthetix, etc.
The guy from PSE directly helped with the amp.
will it have limited appeal? Sure.
I just saw this old thread and laughed.  I just got done hearing the production amps with mk2 7's a couple of weekends ago at Audio Connection. Doug Gordon from ARC, Garth Powell and Steve from AQ were also in attendance.  WE all had a great time and there sure didn't seem to be problems between ARC and Richard over amps, lol.  Richard uses technology from the new AQ Niagara power filtering and you can tell.  These amps are just rocks and typical over engineering like most amps costing this much.  It makes the 7's a powered speaker.  What most folks who don't fully understand is that the reason you rarely if ever see used Vandersteen 7's or even 5CT's on the used market is because folks keep them. They upgrade them when Richard has upgrades for them.  If someone is going to get rid of this amp, they are probably selling the speakers with them and then it's a powered mega speaker that will most probably keep their value in the same way all his other products do.  Richard has made some business mistakes in the past like everyone, but he gave us and continues to give us great value at all price ranges.  I have yet to hear anyone say anything bad about this amp who have spent time with it.  Richard love the SET sound in the mid bass up and with powering the 100k down with SS amps it gives you the best of both worlds.  Some may still prefer the Ayre MXR/20's or the ARC Ref 150's or the Aesthetix Atlas Eclipse Mono's, but they have choices and that's a good thing for all audiophiles in the end isn't it?  Interesting to read a two year old thread and see how the amp has progressed and how the production model sounds.