VAC 160i, any experiences

Good to hear you have a stocking dealer near you. Please take a picture so you can capture this rare creature in the wild while you still can: a bricks and mortar dealer who stocks excellent high end gear!

I am very impressed with the phono stage but i can not stress enough how wonderful the NOS Mullards are. One caveat I forgot to mention, the remote is for volume only....no input selection, power, mute or otherwise....it is for volume only! No big deal to me but it may be important to you. Does your dealer also have Wilson so you can hear them together? Most Wilson dealers will demo with Transparent cabling but i can't tell you how impressed i am with the Cardas Clear, depending on your budget and what you currently have.

Good luck and i hope you enjoy the demo. also, don't hesitate to call VAC directly. Kevin Hayes is one of the truly great guys in our hobby....he will actually talk to you and furthermore, he will tell you when he doesn't think something will apply for your situation.

Ghasley,

The dealer is 2 hours away, but that is not bad. He does not have Wilson. He carries Theils which are somewhat simular. The volume remote is all I want.

All my interconnects and speaker cables are reference Transparent cables. My TT has a Cardas reference cable that i like alot. You are making me feel better about my future purchase.

I have already talked to Kevin. I just like to hear some customer input.

Now i want be able to sleep well with anticipation.

How long did it take to burn in. I will probably run it 24/7 through my Mac mini and my Tranquillity Dac to burn it in initially.

Thanks again

Matt

Matt,
Let me first say that the burn in time was kindof a joke. I have had plenty of gear that needed significant break in time to settle down. This amp is NOT one of those. If nothing had changed from initial plug in, i would still be quite happy so, out of the box, it was terrific! The additional hours have simply revealed a more "luxurious" presentation. My experience may not be applicable to your situation due to the fact that about 400 hours in is when I swapped in the Mullards. I do believe the amp has gotten more dynamic and snappy. The only ones I saw were silver face w/chrome knobs....mine is the black face w/gold knobs.

Ghasley,

Did you get the balanced option. My cd player is hooked up through the balanced outs and it would be cheaper cable wise to upgrade than to buy new reference cables?

Matt

I did not, i got rca only with mm phono stage......wishing I had asked for balanced, MC phono AND i wish instead of pre amp outs I had asked for a fixed output (to use as a record out).