VAC - any comments? Good or bad.

Count me in as another happy VAC owner. Before I bought the Standard PRE LE, I had a couple of conversations with Kevin and found him very sincere and pleasant. He didn't have that "salesman pitch"--I know 'cause I've been in retail for more than I can remember.
I can't say enough about the fit, finish and sound of my PRE.

Earlier this year I got the VAC PA100.100 and a Standard Preamp LE edition. Even though I bought these both used, Kevin emailed me to welcome me to the VAC family. He really is a great guy to talk to. The PA100.100 is near their lowest model in separates and is simply a great and underrated amp. I paired the VAC with the Merlin VSM-M and am loving every second of this wonderful pairing. I've always lusted after VAC because it just seemed like beautiful gear that had a great reputation for sounding excellent. I agree now that I'm in the family.

I too expected only good things from my first use of a VAC amp, and lugged home a well-broken in VAC Avatar a few years ago. The long story is somewhere else posted. Suffice it to say that it's horrendously high output impedence wreaked havoc with my newly-aquired Parsifal Encores (which are VERY easy to drive, btw), with disturbances as much as
+/- 5dB across the spectrum, as finally carefully measured
against two reference amps. Horribly overripe mid-bass, a giant low treble peak and no upper treble "air" made all discs unlistenable. I faxed curves to VAC and was finally told that the inexpensive AVATAR's output tubes were famous for nonlinearity and unpredictable results with real speakers, and that if I wanted really fine performance I had to get their bigger amps. Sad to say the Audio Refinement Complete ($995) I had on hand absolutely trounced
the $3800 Avatar in both triode and pentode modes.
I then came to look as Stereophiles "predicted plot" of real performance with an 8 ohm load with glass amps once in awhile in JA's reviews, but NEVER saw one with swings of the amplitude I measured (and many of us heard) through that Avatar. And yes, both channels were the same, the tubes were ok, power output was correct, etc.
Glad their higher end stuff is more linear, and that they've recently completely redesigned the 'tar.

I have had nothing but wonderful experinces with VAC. I can't imagine what this prior post is all about. What kind of measurements were they taking, and with what gear? Is this just proof that there is always someone????
Ten posts, now eleven, and, one crucifixion. Sounds about right; everyone loves VAC and Kevin then the expert steps up to the plate and just lays his product to waste. Strange, and not my experience. Except for that time that when my Radio Shack $99. receiver sounded better than the London Philharmonic...live!

Just a word I'm a happy Avatar owner...I purchased it used with Svetlana EL-34's as the output tubes. I'm running a pair of Green Mtn. Europa's which are tube friendly given their fairly flat impedance curve. Sounds great to me! Mid-range timbre and harmonic structure is right on, great upper end detail with no hardness. Bass is as one might expect from a monitor. If it's an indication of VAC products I wouldn't hesitate to purchase their other offerings.