Sonic difference between the CAT JL2 Sig & CAT JL3

Have any of you tried VTL 750's or 450's in this wonderful system? I am curious how these amps stack against the CAT's and essentially what are the differences? I have heard the 750's with Sound Labs and Kharma's with excellent results.

thanks. Louis

Brian, I spoke with Lucien (PR for Avalon) and he informed me that he had heard the Osiris driven effectively (not high spl's) by the twenty something watt Audio Note Ongaku.
The speakers are a very benign load. I should have spoke with Lucien before pouring through all the agon posts regarding the Osiris. I mistakenly thought the Osiris was a difficult load and rushed to buy something that could drive it so it could be positioned properly when delivered.
I bought a pair of Levinson 436's for sale on agon. This is the first ss amp I have used in over twenty years and not a very good one. After I spoke with Lucien I yanked the Levinson's and put the Manley 350's in. They drove the Osiris with much greater authority than the megawatt Levinson's. They bettered them in all parameters but especially in the bass (that really surprised me). I am trying to put my last system together and so far I have the speakers and cabling (John when you hear the Stealth Indras and Dreams you will know you have found your last set of cables, they are ORGANIC!). I will be trying the Nuforce 9 SE's in about a week. They come with a thirty day money back guarantee so why not. ultraaudio.com has just reviewed them check it out. They might be good summertime amps. If these 7.5 pound monos turn out to be as good as claimed they may save me twenty grand and massive electric bills. By the way they recommend Stealth cables for them. I'll post again when I hear them. If they are not world beaters I will try to pick up a JL2 Sig on agon. I think our sonic tastes are similar John. And since you have done the research I'll probably look for a used Aesthetix Callisto down the road (when funds permit).
I only use cd's (I am confident they will surpass lp's before I die). Louis, I have used several different VTL amps during the last decade and while they are good values, I don't think they will fare well against the CAT's and others. Thank you all for chiming in and I'll keep you posted on my progress. John thanks for the email and let me know how the Stealth audition goes.

Bart

Wow, roaming around on the Avalon site makes me feel like a kid in a candy store. These things are works of art.

Bart, there might be some value to further research the VTL 750 amps. Albert Porter has had these for a year or so, and after much tube experimentation, he is very excited with their performance. He uses two pairs in his system. And he is a heck of a nice guy here so he shuold be able to give you some insights as to pros/cons of these amps. I have pestered him to try a pair of JL-2s in his system just to get an idea of the CAT vs. VTL sound but getting a pair of CATs is not an easy task and again, he really likes the VTLs.

And concerning the Callisto, I love this thing. But it took me a year, and for the Io as well, to go through a lot of tube trials to really get this thing to perform like nobody's business. And a quick look under the hood by Steve Huntley of GNSC here in MN shows there is much to be improved in these units with significant parts updates, wiring changes, etc., that far exceeds their "Signature" updates. But before you lock yourself too tight on the Aesthetix train, I hope you can try other models in your system vs. the UII.

As for the Stealth, when the Io and Manley Ref DAC return from their GNSC updates, and the JL-3s back from their mods, I will be ready to try some of the Stealth Dream/Indra vs the Dominus throughout the system. I will certainly let you know how that all works out.

John

Bart, FWIW, I've been driving my JL-3 Sig's with an ARC Ref 3 for about a month, and I consider the match to be pure heaven. Earlier tried a C-J Act2, but I greatly prefer the Ref 3 with these amps.

Thanks for that comparison Klinerm. There was another poster, David Shapiro, who owned Osiris for four years and ended up with the Boulder 2060 amps driven by the ARC Ref3
which he said was a match made in heaven. I guess the Ref3
works well in different settings. It is definitely on my list of preamps to audition. I also haven't ruled out the VTL 750's for an amp audition. I bought the Tice Power Block and Titan combo from Albert Porter about 15 years ago. I agree he is a very nice guy. There must be some audiogoners out there that have compared the VTL 750/450 to the CAT JL2/JL3, maybe they will chime in, or do I need to start a new thread?