VAC owners, sound off

I have owned 2 fine pieces of audio gear by VAC. The Avatar SE and I presently own and use heavily the PA 100/100 amp. I have many high end pieces over the years but none seem to have both the mixture of elegance and sound quality that these pieces exhibit. You cannot do yourself wrong with VAC gear.

Keep listening to the music, Richard.

An update. Put the PS on some 1.5" butcher block, and that on a glass shelf off the floor. I honestly don't know if that made a difference vs just being on the floor. Whatever it was, it was subtle. I also reversed polarity at the amp, and that did seem to help things, though it wasn't quite the 'a ha' moment I was hoping for. The biggest difference? swapping out the stock Sovtek 12au7's and Chinese 12ax7's for a pair of black plate GE 5751's and RCA clear tops. Big difference. MUCH better bass and weight, dimensionality seems to have increased as well. Though I think the highs are a bit less extended with less decay. At any rate, the musicality has increased, which is what I was really missing.

A big shout out to Andr who turned me on to Joes lore and conversed w/me via email. Because of the tube hunt, I also met and did business with a wonderful tube seller here on the gon -- Aztubes. A relative newcomer here, but an honest, knowledgeable and helpful tube seller with reasonable prices and fast shipping. A class act and highly recommended.

Happy for you ! Amperexes in the 12au7 spot will bring you back some extension in the highs, decay maybe or maybe not. In my preamp, it did but it is a more subtle difference than changing the 12AX7 tubes. Remember to wait at least 50 hrs of running the new tubes in order to hear the best of them.

You say the preamp has a little less decay than with the original tubes. This means it is there somewhere but hidden since you heard it before. You have more bass and weight, obviously your hearing is rebalancing itself. You might just hear your decay back once you are accustomed to it.

Have trials with your speakers positionning and have a look at your acoustics. Don't forget to check your electronics isolation to vibration. Better quality electronics are more sensible to the surroundings. Doesn't cost anything and most of the time does a lot.

Have fun !

Glad you got the RCA Cleartops, they are excellent overall, and do remain a comparative bargain. I agree that Andy at VTS is beyond reproach, and I have also had good luck with Brent Jesse Recordings for NOS.

So I figure I'll just tack onto this thread rather then start a new one. After listening to the pre for about 2 weeks I think I've adjusted to the sound. My impression is that it's, in a word, unremarkable? I find the mids and bass light and lacking. Vocals -- which I think any good pre should do well, are also light and even sound a little boxy and compressed. Presentation is also bit flat. Basically the sound lacks dimensionality and fullness.

Reason I bring these observations up is they seem to fly in the face of the overwhelming kudos to the VAC sound. I'm not hearing it, or at least what I'm hearing isn't what I believe so many people would be raving about.

I do have the unit on brass cones into brass feet, underneath of which are iso-node pods. I do this primarily because the shelves on my custom rack are natural wood and not 100% flat, and the cones are height-adjustable. While the cones also help tighten focus, I do notice that they lighten the mids and bass to a degree (the iso-nodes help counteract that). But I tried the unit on its own feet, with only a slight improvement.

Maybe I'm looking for the wrong things? I listen to hard and classic rock, electronica, some solo acoustic. Maybe this pre sounds better with different music styles. Maybe there's a system dis-synergy. Don't know. At this point I'm ready to put it back up for sale, but thought I'd try here beforehand to see if anyone has any thoughts or troubleshooting ideas.