VAC preamps - too expensive?


VAC makes great products so i hear.  The Linestage Master lists for $28k and next one down is Signature, for $22k.  Add $12k for a phonostage.

anybody have experience with these units?

its a marketing strategy.  Yeah the $22k Signature is very nice but for just $6k more u get a much better unit. Might as well get the Master.  Pretty clever.  Oh and they offer a line stage called the Statement for $80k and it comes with chrome and a skylight so u can view whats inside.  The Master has most of what the $80k Statement has (no skylight) so i guess the $28k Master seems a great deal.  Pretty clever.






jumia
VAC has been in business for many, many years, so if they are taking advantage of people then they wouldn’t have lasted this long. Never heard their equipment personally but they tend to gather great press. I’m sure much of the cost is the quality of their cabinets. I recall sometime back they built reissues of vintage Marantz tube pieces. Marantz could have chose any company to build these pieces, which apparently they couldn’t as well, but they chose VAC. 

http://www.vac-amps.com/Marantz_Classics.htm
'Some folks will chime in and say that a $100 pre will sound 95% of anything in that price point. How dare someone spend their own money like that.' 
@rocray,  well stated and on the bullseye. 
Charles 
People that really enjoy well reproduced music do not generally hear a law of diminishing returns. They hear and are rewarded with a much more emotionally involving experience. The closer and more involving is worth the increasing cost to get there. Last year with a some reservations purchased a $22K streamer, replacing my $4K streamer. Within a few minutes the price went from ridiculously high to a bargain as the performance increase was so profound and exceeded my expectation.

I have heard VAC equipment periodically throughout the decades I have pursued high end audio. Whenever I have it was always priced appropriately for its amazing level of performance. Also, yes, you cannot play a marketing trick on high end audiophiles and stay in business for a few years let alone decades.

Those of us who have pursued this for most of our adult lives are pretty familiar with this phenomenon. It is what keeps us enthusiastic about the pursuit and enjoying the music. The performance of Etta James in Canada from 1975 that is currently playing is truly amazing and with a realism I never imagined I would experience… and from Qobuz, the streaming service. Amazing.
Some units are highly recomended regardless of cost. I have no experience with VAC, but if you have the cash go for it.
I would, after listening lately to a Kondo G70 and what a preamp of that kind could do to a system.