Charles,
Thanks for your response. It definitely has me excited about my trip to Montreal at the end of this month. I have demoed some of the gear you mentioned. The MF integrateds (3.2 & 308) had a gorgeous midrange but were a little slow in orchestral and rock music. The B60 was way too harsh on some pieces. I tried some separates like the McCormacks (RLD1 & DNA-125) - they had good soundstaging, detail, imaging etc. but to me were simply not musical enough - for one they lost a lot of the glorious midrange voicing which the MFs had and so didn't quite draw me in. I auditioned a VTL IT-85 - it was very musical, but rolled off detail in the high and low frequencies, couldn't keep up with large scale orchestral pieces. I also auditioned Krell KAV400 (sounded like icepicks with the B&Ws), the Levinson 383(way too cold and analytical) and the Classe CAP 151(somewhat nice sounding but too recessed and dark) - again these didn't draw me into the music either.
I am planning to audition a tube preamp and a ss power - something like a VTL 2.5 and a McCormack or a Bryston.
I guess I am kind of looking for the VTL's musicality, the MF's rich midrange and the McCormacks' speed, bass slam, sounstaging and detail. All of that put together may seem a lot to ask for and ~$3-4K may not seem like much dough (to me it is a lot though). I am trying to find a single integrated amp that will do all of this for me and hopefully the Vecteur will be it.
I am a little amazed at the dearth of integrated components that are well put together in the above areas or even separates for that matter in my price range. Equally amazing is how some assume in the audio world that to gain reasonable performance (not perfection mind you) in all these areas require upwards of $5k or even five figures. I always look for exceptional value for the money and I thought the NAD was by far the best value, given its price. Hopefully, the Vecteur 6.2 is such a value standout at its price point.
This is a long post and before I ramble on too much, could you give me an idea of how the 6.2 does with human voices (with your system+speakers ofcourse).
I am also surprised that there don't seem to be too many Vecteur integrated owners out there. Glad to see you are one and that you seem to be floored by it.
I will be sure to post on the Vecteur once I've heard it and made my decision.
Chelillingworth,
thanks for the offer to listen to your Vecteur CD player. I may take you up on it, at a later point. I've been demoing a ton of amplifiers recently and its sucked up any free time I may have.
Cheers
Thanks for your response. It definitely has me excited about my trip to Montreal at the end of this month. I have demoed some of the gear you mentioned. The MF integrateds (3.2 & 308) had a gorgeous midrange but were a little slow in orchestral and rock music. The B60 was way too harsh on some pieces. I tried some separates like the McCormacks (RLD1 & DNA-125) - they had good soundstaging, detail, imaging etc. but to me were simply not musical enough - for one they lost a lot of the glorious midrange voicing which the MFs had and so didn't quite draw me in. I auditioned a VTL IT-85 - it was very musical, but rolled off detail in the high and low frequencies, couldn't keep up with large scale orchestral pieces. I also auditioned Krell KAV400 (sounded like icepicks with the B&Ws), the Levinson 383(way too cold and analytical) and the Classe CAP 151(somewhat nice sounding but too recessed and dark) - again these didn't draw me into the music either.
I am planning to audition a tube preamp and a ss power - something like a VTL 2.5 and a McCormack or a Bryston.
I guess I am kind of looking for the VTL's musicality, the MF's rich midrange and the McCormacks' speed, bass slam, sounstaging and detail. All of that put together may seem a lot to ask for and ~$3-4K may not seem like much dough (to me it is a lot though). I am trying to find a single integrated amp that will do all of this for me and hopefully the Vecteur will be it.
I am a little amazed at the dearth of integrated components that are well put together in the above areas or even separates for that matter in my price range. Equally amazing is how some assume in the audio world that to gain reasonable performance (not perfection mind you) in all these areas require upwards of $5k or even five figures. I always look for exceptional value for the money and I thought the NAD was by far the best value, given its price. Hopefully, the Vecteur 6.2 is such a value standout at its price point.
This is a long post and before I ramble on too much, could you give me an idea of how the 6.2 does with human voices (with your system+speakers ofcourse).
I am also surprised that there don't seem to be too many Vecteur integrated owners out there. Glad to see you are one and that you seem to be floored by it.
I will be sure to post on the Vecteur once I've heard it and made my decision.
Chelillingworth,
thanks for the offer to listen to your Vecteur CD player. I may take you up on it, at a later point. I've been demoing a ton of amplifiers recently and its sucked up any free time I may have.
Cheers