Tube Integrated Amp - Help Please
Pre owned Octave V70se or V110. Built like a tank and some great protection features in the event an output tube fails. If you want an even lower noise floor and a bit more headroom add a black or super black box. I had both and the V110 has a bit more 'control' of the music. The beauty of tubes you can change the sound from warm to linear to punchy just by swapping tubes. Good Luck |
I know the Verity sound quite well. Also, I wrote my first-ever Audiogon review back around 2002 and it is still available, to my suprise. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/review-verity-audio-parsifal-encore-speaker I went through a truckload of amplifiers of all types over my almost 30 years in this crazy hobby (it all started with the diminutive Naim Nait original amp) all of 18 watts but sounded like 100 ! I sold the Parsifals many years ago with that stupid way we have of finding "flaws" when we should just appreciate the sound. After a merry-go-round of speakers, I went back to Verity with a pair of Fidelio Encores. It was like finding an old friend. Back to your question. My absolute best sound ever was with a pair of Cary 572 monoblocks and Cary preamp. But they were unfortunately very, very unreliable, a real pain. And that 572 tube is rare and expensive. Cary wanted an unreasonable price for transforming my monos so that they could take a more accessible tube, no way, I felt stuck, so I sold them. The second best ever sound I ever got with Verity is my current integrated, a Pathos Logos. It comes very close to the Carys in soundstaging and transparency, and is absurdly more powerfull (110 a side) with an authoritative bass presence the Carys could never match. And no offence, but this a much better match than the Rogue, which I briefly owned but could never get it to make my Veritys come alive. In fact I feel that Pathos is the only manufacturer that "gets it" right as far as getting the best from SS and tubes in a hybrid design. You should look in to it. And know I am tempted to go up in the food chain and maybe putting my Pathos up for sale, but it may not be worth it after all. Good luck in finding what you need ! |
Forgot, for what it may be worth here are other some good and not-so-good amplifier pairings I experienced with Verity: Electrocompaniet EC 5- warm but not detailed Audiomat Preluge - a detail-retrieving machine, but overall thin Simaudio - Artificial bass, dry sound flat soundstage, way too dark too Musical Fidelity - pretty good actually but uninvolving Sonic Frontiers Power 2 - Line 2 - Very nice Yamaha AS 2000 - a real bargain, sound nice Anthem 225 - Big, brawny, entertaining sound, a nice unit Bel Canto REF1000 monos (class D) probably the worst of the bunch Pathos Logos MkI - Pretty much faultless, just beautiful. McIntosh 6450 integrated - second worst of the buch, sorry, old sound. I am stopping here before I start getting knives thrown at me ;) Everything is SOOO subjective here of course. |
