VAC 160i, any experiences

Never mind, I found out it does not have mute capability. This is a deal-breaker for me. I'll look for an Avatar instead.

Did you read the Avatar review in Stereophile? The noise, S/N and THD figures are not great at all and it's preamp short circuited plus the 4ohm tap had problems...VAC obviously has serious problems. So many quality choices exist...look around!

I've owned two Avatar's Dave, they were dead quiet and extremely musical. VAC must not have paid Stereophile enough $$$. Who cares what some glossy review says?

Stereophile's John Atkinson loved Mark Levinson gear, which I thought sounded dreadful. It's MY money, I'll buy what I want, not what some glossy rag tool tells me to want.

Fair enough....go with your ears. I geuss it was the S/N of 69db that stood out to me...really old school, high noise design. Good luck!

I do understand that some folks let pictures or specifications or ideology determine what they think will sound best. Many companies will even employ 'tricks', like using negative feedback loops, to make specs more attractive for their spec buyers. That's never been Kevin's game. He is much more interested in how it sounds to human ears then how it's sound as measured by test instruments.

I just looked at my VAC preamps specs, and it also has listed residual noise at 69 dB. I've owned preamps from BAT, CJ, ARC, Krell, ML, Jeff Rowland, Cary, etc. And while I won't say that this is the quietest preamp I've ever heard, it's noise is a none issue in the real world. I have owned preamps that were dead quiet with the volume knob turned all the way up and no music playing, unfortunately, they did not sound as good when music was playing.

So should we buy equipment for how good it sounds when music is NOT playing? I think not.
Of course, YMMV.