"The Ferrari Enzo of Tube Amplifiers"...

GordonW

Speakerfixer
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You definitely won't find THIS at your local thrift store. :D

The new VAC Phi Beta Integrated Tube Amplifier. In fact, this is one of the VERY FIRST ones off the production line, according to Kevin Hayes of VAC.

This is one substantial amp... besides the main chassis, there is a SEPERATE power supply chassis, that's as big as SOME small bookshelf speakers. The main chassis weighs nearly 60 lbs, while the power supply is close to 40 lbs, itself.

Tube complement is: 6- 6189 (JAN) input tubes, 6- 6SN7 preamp tubes, and 4 KT88 output tubes, for an output of 100w/ch. It's also remote controlled, naturally. :banana:

Oh, in case the picture isn't obvious... the "VAC" logo on the front, is "bottom lit" by a string of white LEDs, which shine upwards through the bottom edge of the glass plate, onto the engraved VAC logo itself. Makes for a "ghost lighting" appearance that's quite remarkable.

As for sound- we've just gotten it, but at first listen, it's ALREADY better than any of the VAC stuff we've had betore.

Of course, for $18000, we'd expect it to be good. But, so far, it's holding its own against anything I've personally heard in that price range...
 
Very pretty amp. Price is just a tad outrageous though. Seems as if form won out over function.


Mike
 
Nice

As a former VAC owner that get's my approval! Sure miss talking to Mr. Hayes, what a gentlemen. MikE
 
yeah but Audio note tube amps are made at the Ferrari plant!! LOL well a few are using the machinery apparently -- so that's the Ferrari of tube amps no?

That looks sweet --- Audio Note really should contract out to people who could pretty them up a bit...the Ongaku is pretty ugly and it's $60k or $90K??
 
ProAc_Fan said:
Very pretty amp. Price is just a tad outrageous though. Seems as if form won out over function.


Mike

Oh, I don't know. Given that there are $50000 (and even $400000) tube amps available out there, and that this one is likely to STOMP all over those...

As for function- the proof is in the pudding. So far, it's been the best-sounding tube amp I've encountered. It's up to the individual to determine how much having the very best, is worth...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
very attractive!! i'm sure it sounds as good as it looks. i know it would make a nice centerpiece for my system! did you say this was going to be the next AK raffle item? cool!!
 
This is a COMMENT, not a criticism...

...but the thing looks like the VAC people took a styling cue from analytical balances, i.e. Mettler, Sartorius, etc.

Laz
 
I'm with Laz on this.

Personally, I prefer a more subdued look and don't care for the lettering billboarded across the front; I'd rather have a clear shot at the tubes!
 
Ditto on not like the Giant lettering. Of couse I would'nt complain one bit if one of those DID show up at a trift store. :D


Nice looking and I'm sure sounding piece of equpment Gordon.
 
Lazarus Short said:
...but the thing looks like the VAC people took a styling cue from analytical balances, i.e. Mettler, Sartorius, etc.

Laz

You know, we were making a comment somewhere along this vein, this afternoon. This amp makes a "visual analogy" to its purported sonic virtues- it's very "transparent" on top, and very "solid and hefty" on the bottom. :banana:

That's exactly how it sounds...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
I kinda like the 'look' you get with steel boxes, Greenly punches, potted transformers and grey hammer tone paint :)
 
They don't believe in the KISS approach do they? I guess the more tubes they have the more justified the price may seem. I can't help but think how that signal has changed by the time it leaves the outputs. Now if you took VAC, and changed it with VORX...I'd imagine seeing it in GW. It's gaudy enough to look like one of those fake tube radio's I've seen.
 
Amps that play the outrageous styling card - some might say to help justify the outrageous price - always seem to be controversial from an ascetics point of view. Personally, I don't like it but hey, that's just my taste and I can see how some might eat this up - kind of like a 'highest-end' amp in the Shanling styling vein.

I guess the thing that matters is the sound and anyone laying out this kind of coin would have to be pretty damn sure they feel it's "the very best" as Gordon suggested.

Not my cuppa on a bunch of levels but that's just me.
 
DanTana said:
They don't believe in the KISS approach do they? I guess the more tubes they have the more justified the price may seem. I can't help but think how that signal has changed by the time it leaves the outputs.
I'm probably as big a fan of SE design virtues as anyone, but I'd bet a large sum of money that you'd be hard-pressed to quantify/measure significant signal difference (aka distortion). I don't mean it's unmeasurable, I just mean that *significant* distortion is not likely to be found there. Kevin Hayes knows how to design a PP amp, and the VAC folks learned a lot about output transformer design, tertiary windings and feedback from the old masters.

Having said that, I'd LOVE it if one could magically appear at AK Fest, to compare with what I'm familiar with. I wouldn't even hazard a guess about how much I'd like it, except it would probably be somewhere between A WHOLE LOT and RAVING ENTHUSIASM, where I'm a raving enthusiast about deHavilland amplifiers.

I like the looks, but I like that laboratory look.
 
DanTana said:
They don't believe in the KISS approach do they? I guess the more tubes they have the more justified the price may seem. I can't help but think how that signal has changed by the time it leaves the outputs. Now if you took VAC, and changed it with VORX...I'd imagine seeing it in GW. It's gaudy enough to look like one of those fake tube radio's I've seen.

Well, if you do a run-down of the tubes in there:

The six front tubes are single-section triodes; those would be "equivalent" in basic function (ie, the same number of triode elements), as three common 12AX7s or other dual-section triode tubes... a total of 6 triode stages

The six next tubes are 6SN7s, which are dual-section triodes, same as a 12AX7... a total of 12 triode stages.

The last 4 tubes are the outputs, naturally... beam power tubes.

Basically, we've got the equivalent in there, of 9 dual section triodes, and the four output tubes (2 per channel)... 18 line-stage triode sections, and 4 output beam-power stages.

So, let's compare, the tube count, to a "standard" old-school tube preamp with a phono stage... most of those, the standard complement is 6 dual-section triodes, usually 12AX7s... which is 12 triode sections. That's 12 out of the 18 dual-section "virtual" tubes accounted for, doing NOTHING but what EVERYONE ELSE who builds a PROPERLY DESIGNED (as in, not cutting corners on the RIAA equalization or impedence-matching input and output buffers, like so many of the cheesy "minimalist" preamps do these days, which is the MAIN reason so many of the "minimalist" preamps are SO inordinately SENSITIVE to tube changes, way more than ANY properly designed amp should be) preamp would do.

Also, the preamp has a moving-coil input, which uses another 2 tube stages (one whole dual-triode) per channel, as an input gain stage to increase the MC output to levels appropriate to go into the main phono preamp. That's 4 more out of the 18, or 16 out of 18 triode stages accounted for.

Lastly, there has to be a phase-splitter/inverter, one stage per channel, for the PP outputs. That accounts for the last 2 stages.

Exactly where is something inordinate being done here, besides actually STICKING TO PROPER DESIGN PRINCIPLES, as opposed to cutting corners?

Regards,
Gordon.
 
Good points, Gordon. Also worth noting that the 6SN7 has low-mu low gain triodes, about equivalent in amplification factor to a 12AU7 or 12BH7. It's not a cost-cutting solution to use it. If a triode section is used as a cathode follower, there is no gain, but can be advantages in performance for the next stage.

I like KISS, but I have to recognize that there are some very good valid ways to use more than a couple of triodes between input and output.

Sneak one up to AK Fest!!!
 
There was no previous mention to it having a phono stage, that explains some of it. I have no qualms about it using the venerable 6SN7 either, I just saw an excess of extra tubes that didn't belong. Now if your going to split every function with a tube, ok, that's the designers option, ie phase, preamp, driver etc. I still see only see something that probably cost at the most $5,000.00, I don't think it looks any better than Wardsweb's Shanlings. I bet the number of those they sell you'd count on one hand.
 
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