VTL TL2.5 Preamp

I used to have the 2.5 about 6 years ago, and I did the same thing, came from Rotel equipment. I remember the difference was astounding. This is an excellent step for you from where you were with Rotel, and it takes you in a completely different direction-in a good way. I eventually upgraded to the 5.5 brand new, which I have now and I couldn't be happier with it, well thats not completely true...I would be happier with a 6.5.

Enjoy this preamp, it is (as others have mentioned) an excellent bargain, and lots and lots of fun to own. I would disagree though with someone saying the difference between 2.5 and 5.5 is not worth the $$-it is The Caps are totally different and both pieces sound very different. A 2.5 is an excellent value and maybe best sounding in its class, a 5.5 on the other hand, can be the last Preamp you will ever need to own. Working in steps is the best thing to do and you made a great choice for this step. Enjoy!

I have owned mine for about a year and 1/2. About 6 months after having it I took it to Steve Huntley @ Great Northern Sound Co. and for $700 he transformed it. It certainly wasn't "bad" to begin with, he just said there was room for improvement, and he was right. I have not heard the 5.5, allthough may grab one just to try the balanced connections to compliment my new 185 signature MB's.
Through my local dealer there is about $1500 difference between the 2.5 vs 5.5 and if $700 worth of tweeks can get it sonically matched, I don't know if the balanced outs and phase reversal circuit is worth $800?
Time will tell as I am keeping my eyes peeled for a used 5.5.

What are the tweaks you did to the 2.5?

95% power supply.
Steve had some brackets machined that set where the phono stage would reside, and added 4 big caps.
All of the supply diodes were replaced with the high speed variety, and added extra filtering to the incoming ac.
Some of the critical signal caps were replaced with higher quality ones, and noise supressing tape was added at various points through out to help quiet it down.
The RCA greyplates I put in are a tad noisy, but the mods performed spread the noise accross the soundstage which became Much, Much larger, I would assume due to the power supply changes.