Anyone Know What VTL sounds like?

pls1 - i hear ya on the melos. my recently-acquired music-director yust came back from melos w/the rest of its updates completed (the previous owner had paid for a complete update, but it seems they left out some caps.) well, i have had it back for a week, the sound is unbelievably good, but yust tonite, i lost the right channel. :<( not looking forward to having to send it back to melos, even if it *is* on their dime. know anyone in the baltimore-dc area that is familiar w/working on these? doug

About reliability, I own a pair of VTL for 10 years, and no problem whatsoever.

The CJ gear is the most tubey of the three. I throught they were a bit too lush sounding. My favorite was the ARC VT100 MKII over the VTL but not by much and purchase price actually pushed me to the VTL (MB185 and 5.5).. Based on a fairly sistant memory The ARC is a bit more open sounding than the VTL with a great top end, maybe a bit more dynamic as well. I've heard the VTL in a number of systems and averall they give a great soundstage and a very neutral, balanced presentation...nothing seems to stand out. In my system the soundstage is very open and well defined, top end is smooth, bass is is tight but not all that outstanding in the real low end department.. i think the problem lies with other componants however.

Anyone compared the VTL 2.5 to ARC LS8/ LS16? I´ll use it with a DNA-1 dlx amp. Thanks.

I would agree that CJ products are very warm and lush in general. And AR is on the opposite end of tube sound, sometimes even sounding much more like ss. Maybe why some say that the best ss and tube products have been converging in sound. I don't really buy that, as I think a classic tube sound is the most endearing to me, even if it is not considered the most "accurate". I would say that VTL is more along the lines of the neutral, extended, open, detailed sound of the AR, but not as far in that direction. My worry about VTL was always the amount of tubes they put into an amp. Yes, you can control a low impedence loudspeaker better. But, does the music coming out of this product sound better than the other tube amps out there?