VTL TL-7.5 series iii

[tdotson41]

Hi,

Does anyone know how to reset the TL-7.5 preamp to factory default? I believe my inputs and main outputs are disabled. Any help would be greatly appreciate. Current status no sound from the preamp. Bea told me to read manual but I can’t figure it out.. my dealer is not available and Im trying to avoid shipping it to VTL. Thanks a bunch Tony.

 

[marty]

I've owned this unit for many years some time ago and I assure you that the likelihood of it needing to go back to VTL is extremely low. It should be the responsibility of the dealer to help you figure out how to play the darned thing! Is the dealer simply out of town or permanently unavailable?

 

[Kcin]

That's a nice unit. True enough the dealer should help- however, dismissing a client when they get to the mfr. and directing them to read the manual is really not a great customer experience.

I've had occasion to deal with Bea the customer experience officer and you don't want to catch her on a bad day.

It honestly baffles me on how she gets away with it.

I hope you get sorted quickly.

 

[tdotson41]

That's a nice unit. True enough the dealer should help- however, dismissing a client when they get to the mfr. and directing them to read the manual is really not a great customer experience.

I've had occasion to deal with Bea the customer experience officer and you don't want to catch her on a bad day.

It honestly baffles me on how she gets away with it.

I hope you get sorted quickly.

Hi All, it was total operator error on my part. I forgot to hookup the left and right scuzzy cables. I take full responsibility for being such a dumbass but it’s all good. I figured it out and now I have a wall of glorious sound.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I am glad you figured it out!

I’ll be taking delivery of a TL-7.5 Series III in the near future. Just so I do not have the same problem, what is a “scuzzy” cable?

 

[marty]

FWIW, Bea has always been fantastic with me, going well above and beyond by measuring the full freq response S/N in about a half dozen tubes I sent her to evaluate.Always available for serious discussion. Same for Luke.

 

[tdotson41]

I am glad you figured it out!

I’ll be taking delivery of a TL-7.5 Series III in the near future. Just so I do not have the same problem, what is a “scuzzy” cable?

HI Ron, the 7.5 iii comes with 2 scuzzy cables for the L and R channel. They look like computer cables and are essential for volume to be produced.

 

[Kcin]

Hi All, it was total operator error on my part. I forgot to hookup the left and right scuzzy cables. I take full responsibility for being such a dumbass but it’s all good. I figured it out and now I have a wall of glorious sound.

Welcome to audio,

We've all done the equivalent at some point- glad you are up and running

 

[microstrip]

I am glad you figured it out!

I’ll be taking delivery of a TL-7.5 Series III in the near future. Just so I do not have the same problem, what is a “scuzzy” cable?

They are data cables that control the relays of the VTL 7.5 amplifier. In order to avoid noise and interference the IR remote receiver and preamplifier controller are located at the power supply box. It connects to the tube/FET amplifying box by a the DC power supply cables and two wide connector Centronics cables transmitting just DC signals to control the volume and switching relay coils. All this information is sent in parallel, avoiding any noise due to decoders or digital circuits. In this aspect, the 7.5 is textbook!

 

[XV-1]

That's a nice unit. True enough the dealer should help- however, dismissing a client when they get to the mfr. and directing them to read the manual is really not a great customer experience.

I've had occasion to deal with Bea the customer experience officer and you don't want to catch her on a bad day.

It honestly baffles me on how she gets away with it.

I hope you get sorted quickly.

that sounds like my experience with both Luke when I owned the flawed 7.5 series 1. they refused to acknowledge my issues and told me to get a better amp with " industry standard of 26db gain".

Yet they changed the pre amp's design for series 2 to try and fix the noise issue I experienced and no doubt others using any amp higher than 26db gain.

I will never be a customer of that company again.

 

[tdotson41]

I’ve been a few months without music and I swear I forgot how great VTL sound. The fact is it really has no sound or shall I say coloration. You simply get unfiltered music the way recording was intended to be. I’m in music heaven.

 

[microstrip]

that sounds like my experience with both Luke when I owned the flawed 7.5 series 1. they refused to acknowledge my issues and told me to get a better amp with " industry standard of 26db gain".

Yet they changed the pre amp's design for series 2 to try and fix the noise issue I experienced and no doubt others using any amp higher than 26db gain.

I will never be a customer of that company again.

Although I currently own the 7.5 mk3 that has a better noise specification, a good friend owned the original 7.5 and I spent long and enjoyable times listening to it connected to a high gain amplifier - the cj premier 350. It was a very large room and the speakers were not very efficient, but I never noticed any noise that could affect listening. Stereophile measured the noise of the 7.5 and although not exceptional, it was typical of a tube preamplifier and much better, for example, than the cj ART I owned at that time. In fact, as expected, the noise depended on the quality of the 12ax7 tubes being used.

The 7.5 mk3 has two gain positions - the lower gain has lower tube noise and is said to be adequate for high gain systems. I prefer the sound in the Nornal Gain position.

 

[tdotson41]

Although I currently own the 7.5 mk3 that has a better noise specification, a good friend owned the original 7.5 and I spent long and enjoyable times listening to it connected to a high gain amplifier - the cj premier 350. It was a very large room and the speakers were not very efficient, but I never noticed any noise that could affect listening. Stereophile measured the noise of the 7.5 and although not exceptional, it was typical of a tube preamplifier and much better, for example, than the cj ART I owned at that time. In fact, as expected, the noise depended on the quality of the 12ax7 tubes being used.

The 7.5 mk3 has two gain positions - the lower gain has lower tube noise and is said to be adequate for high gain systems. I prefer the sound in the Nornal Gain position.

Same here as far as the normal gain position. I actually don’t think it sound like a tube preamp. I have it matched with the VTL s-400 amplifier and it’s one of the best sounding duos I’ve ever heard.

 

[XV-1]

Although I currently own the 7.5 mk3 that has a better noise specification, a good friend owned the original 7.5 and I spent long and enjoyable times listening to it connected to a high gain amplifier - the cj premier 350. It was a very large room and the speakers were not very efficient, but I never noticed any noise that could affect listening. Stereophile measured the noise of the 7.5 and although not exceptional, it was typical of a tube preamplifier and much better, for example, than the cj ART I owned at that time. In fact, as expected, the noise depended on the quality of the 12ax7 tubes being used.

The 7.5 mk3 has two gain positions - the lower gain has lower tube noise and is said to be adequate for high gain systems. I prefer the sound in the Nornal Gain position.

that is the exact same combo I was using and the tape hiss was there all the time ( zero tube hiss with the prem16 that preceded it) - I was running Vienna Mahlers - hardly high effciency . The design was to run the 12ax7's at full gain all the time and attenuate from the preamp - as I said BAD design. Sure once you started playing music it was fine - but in between tracks etc , it was a joke for a then 14K so called SOTApre amp. When you live with this day in day out, you realise how bad the design actually is and you cannot live with that.

Only Mark Mikelson had the balls or the ears to mention the tube hiss in his review - everyone else was deaf or on the pay roll.

SoundStage! Equipment Review - VTL TL-7.5 Reference Preamplifier (3/2005)

Luke said use 12au7's which lowered the noise but didn't really sound good or buy a amp with lower gain - around 26db.

My prem16 and ART I bought after the 7.5 were not noisy whatsoever compared to the 7.5. In fact while I was recovering from losing over 50% re-sale on the POS 7.5 - I bought a Cary 98L. great little pre amp and no noise. It was probably more musical than the poorly designed VTL 7.5 as well.

The proof really is Luke finally admitted his design fault when it was changed for subsequent versions of the 7.5 despite telling me it was my choice in amplifiers. as I said, I wouldn't trust Luke Manley as far as I could kick him.

 

[markramler]

that is the exact same combo I was using and the tape hiss was there all the time ( zero tube hiss with the prem16 that preceded it) - I was running Vienna Mahlers - hardly high effciency . The design was to run the 12ax7's at full gain all the time and attenuate from the preamp - as I said BAD design. Sure once you started playing music it was fine - but in between tracks etc , it was a joke for a then 14K so called SOTApre amp. When you live with this day in day out, you realise how bad the design actually is and you cannot live with that.

Only Mark Mikelson had the balls or the ears to mention the tube hiss in his review - everyone else was deaf or on the pay roll.

SoundStage! Equipment Review - VTL TL-7.5 Reference Preamplifier (3/2005)

Luke said use 12au7's which lowered the noise but didn't really sound good or buy a amp with lower gain - around 26db.

My prem16 and ART I bought after the 7.5 were not noisy whatsoever compared to the 7.5. In fact while I was recovering from losing over 50% re-sale on the POS 7.5 - I bought a Cary 98L. great little pre amp and no noise. It was probably more musical than the poorly designed VTL 7.5 as well.

as I said, I wouldn't trust Luke Manley as far as I could kick him.

I purchased the VTL 7.5 iii in 2012 and recently had it upgraded by VTL to the latest model. The noise has been lowered significantly. It is still audible when I am close to the tweeter with no music playing. I could never hear the noise with music playing. There is an internal switch to lower the gain which also makes a big difference. I use Telefunken 12AU7 NOS tubes which sound better than the Tesla tubes they currently use. I have found Bea to be responsive to questions and had no issues with the upgrade.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I purchased the VTL 7.5 iii in 2012 and recently had it upgraded by VTL to the latest model.

When you refer to the “latest model” what do you mean?

 

[Ron Resnick]

The proof really is Luke finally admitted his design fault when it was changed for subsequent versions of the 7.5 despite telling me it was my choice in amplifiers. as I said, I wouldn't trust Luke Manley as far as I could kick him.

So you did have a component mismatch. That’s what Mark warns about in his review.

The noise issue I understand, but the gain incompatibility was not Luke’s fault, it seems to me.

 

[markramler]

I purchased the VTL 7.5 iii in 2012 and recently had it upgraded by VTL to the latest model. The noise has been lowered significantly. It is still audible when I am close to the tweeter with no music playing. I could never hear the noise with music playing. There is an internal switch to lower the gain which also makes a big difference. I use Telefunken 12AU7 NOS tubes which sound better than the Tesla tubes they currently use. I have found Bea to be responsive to questions and had no issues with the upgrade.

When you refer to the “latest model” what do you mean?

VTL TL 7.5 iii has had several upgrades since 2012, usually each price increase is after an upgrade. My upgraded version is a total rebuild from 2012, except for the power supply. The new units have the latest power supply. The performance improvement is well worth the cost.

 

[markramler]

So you did have a component mismatch. That’s what Mark warns about in his review.

The noise issue I understand, but the gain incompatibility was not Luke’s fault, it seems to me.

I pair the VTL with LAMM M1.2 which have 31db gain using the single ended main output. I had to change the internal toggle switch on the VTL to low gain. After that the noise was not discernible from my listening position about 10 ft. from the speaker. After the upgrade you have to be within a foot or so of the tweeter to hear the noise when paired with the LAMMs. For my Pass Labs and Krell amps, which use the balanced main outs, you have to put your ear to the tweeter to hear the noise. I believe Luke has corrected the noise problem that was more evident in the Series ii. I never heard Series I.

 

[Ron Resnick]

VTL TL 7.5 iii has had several upgrades since 2012, usually each price increase is after an upgrade. My upgraded version is a total rebuild from 2012, except for the power supply. The new units have the latest power supply. The performance improvement is well worth the cost.

Thank you for your reply.

How would you describe the sonic improvements?