What to put under my VAC AMP/ PREAMP??

SRA Ohio XL+

A late follow-up here, and not on the original topic...

Arthur, when I recieved my 300.1, the switches were in the Ultralinear position. It sounded great and I never tinkered with it...until last night that is.

I switched to triode before powering up and after listening for a while, trying a few different cd's, I found that I was not "getting into it" as I do in ultralinear. There definitely was a fatigue factor going on.

In triode, to my ears, the music sounded much "thinner" and lost some of its "sparkle."

I certainly would not say that triode sounded bad. But, it just did not sound as good as ultralinear, as my ears are very accustommed to.

I switched them back to ultra, and suspect that it may be a while before I feel the need to try triode again.

Thanks for the follow up Bchief! I have come to the same conclusion myself. I have been in Ultralinear for awhile now and have found just as you said Triode, while it still sounds great, seems just a bit thinner and less involving by comparison...happy listening!

BTW, on the topic of the thread, I have a few different types of footers coming in over the next couple weeks for under my Phi 300.1's...I'll report back on what I hear...

I recommend the Marigo Audio Mystery feet. They are better and less expensive than the Shun-Mook feet. I use them under all of my electronics and speakers.

I prefer Ultralinear with my Vac Phi 300.1 as well. This seems to be the concensus. That said, I got a different opinion from another party last week. His speaker was quite efficient. I believe in the 94DB range. I don't want to give any details, to respect his privacy. Anyway, he preferred Triode operation, and Balanced as well. This may have had much to do with the preamp he was using, as it may have been optimized for balance operation. My speakers are 87db, and Ultralinear is clearly better. However, if my speaker was more efficient, I would check out Triode again. Barrelchief, I would be curious as to the efficiency of your speaker.