VAC preamps - too expensive?

Yes, I’ve just replaced the Purples in my Lampi dac and VAC preamp with the QSA. Extraordinary difference.

The "bump" I referred to is how sound is engineered, from what I read. True neutral is a perfectly flat response curve. Apparently, most people would not like the sound of that. So for a more palatable, "balanced" sound, a little bump is added on each side of the middle. If more gain is given to the bass, that means warmth. If more on the upper side, that means greater sense of presence and detail, as I understand it. For example, when the SR Orange came out, the initial review on Agon noted that instead of the Red’s "neutral" sound, which I didn’t like, the Orange seemed to include a mid bass bump, because it had gained a bit of warmth. That was continued with the Purple. One upshot of this is, as I understand it, that when audiophiles speak of neutral, what they’re unknowingly talking about is a frequency response that has been modified from flat, and not necessarily in a balanced way.

Thanks for the info, and it makes sense.  I wonder if anyone has run REW frequency response for a component with fuse swaps.

Going back to the many skeptics and sour grape guys in 2021.  Tell me.....how many companies are there where the CEO (Kevin Hayes) is highly likely to answer the phone when you contact the company??....and then he will speak with you for as long as necessary to thoroughly answer your question!! My Sig Mkii se with phono stage is an amazing piece of precision equipment that compliments my entire system. I can only dream as to "how much" the Master series could improve upon the sonic results I am so fortunate to experience.

Kevin is a stand up guy, he services EVERYTHING they ever sold, decades later. I had my Pre amp and Amp updated this year. When I visited a few weeks ago to pick up my amp, it wasn’t boxed up yet. So Kevin sat with me for 45 minutes in the shop while I waited and we talked about VAC stuff. He even went to find the record on my amp to find the manufacture date. He keeps files on everything ever sold. All their stuff is hand made, I’ve talked to Brent several times-they all are most friendly and helpful. You get what you pay for and the service after the sale is phenomenal. These are life time pieces. I’ve had mine for 20 years!

Going back to the many skeptics and sour grape guys in 2021.  Tell me.....how many companies are there where the CEO (Kevin Hayes) is highly likely to answer the phone when you contact the company??....and then he will speak with you for as long as necessary to thoroughly answer your question!! My Sig Mkii se with phono stage is an amazing piece of precision equipment that compliments my entire system. I can only dream as to "how much" the Master series could improve upon the sonic results I am so fortunate to experience.

This. And they also happily service all past products, which can't be understated. That's pride in your product.

Actually spoke to Kevin just last week. I'm having a Renaissance 3 preamp reconditioned - it's the perfect sonic match for my small office rig. In the main rig I'm now running a full VAC Master preamp + Master monoblocks stack, which far exceeds the performance of any other system version I've had. It's finally stopped the component swapping, and every single session since December has been bliss. Nowhere to go from here since I can't afford Statement, but no complaints :)

Find the right VAC to match your system, then sit back and enjoy. If you build your rig like you select car insurance, then why even bother?