Boys you have had me laughing out loud with your verbal jousting today. Long may it continue :b
To Cjfrbw, i believe i would describe myself as a sensualist, but only because I'm guessing at the definition of explicitist, in this context.
But i like hearing the music sound the way the performer meant it to, as opposed to listening critically to what they actually played.
Weirdly, in the context of my system, i would place both Boulder and Wavac at the euphonic end of the scale
Lol. I think the Wavac will defo seduce for a while but Gavin is a bass junky and listens almost exclusively to dance music with loads of deep bass. The Focal woofers like juice...
Yes the smart money deffo agrees. However the wild card is Alt-j....delicate, ethereal, dreamlike, quite the contrast to my usual fare and could make things interesting.
However as several have observed, my sine que non is bass- driven deep house, drum and bass etc
6 months ago I did a very similar comparison in my room; the dart 458's verses the Lamm ML3's then later also the big VAC Statement 450's.....all with the dart preamp.
comparing this situation to mine; gav has amps that are more extreme in their solid state-ness and tubey-ness than the 458's and ML3's. so the choices will be even more divergent. and the Wavac's will have closer to adequate power (with considerable measured distortion) on gav's speakers than the ML3's might have on my speakers. (not an issue for the big VAC's).
then there is the Wavac preamp which could shift things in various ways.
my thread went on for 1200+ posts. I'd say this one could also be very entertaining; although the 'Lamm Nation' fanbase (said with much love) was quite passionate on many aspects. not sure Wavac will get the same degree of (unconditional) faith, not that it's not deserving (at one point I came very close to buying a set of HE-833 Mk2's myself).
One of the best sounding amps I ever heard was the WAVAC HE805, which is one model below the one in question...however, it is a very different output tube than this 833 beast.
I heard the Wavac 805 monoblocks driving the Pnoes for a few weeks cos the General had some to play with. It was okay but was easily beaten on those speakers by the baby 46 Mayer power amp.
Don’t get me wrong, I think you’ll love the Wavac for a while but when your mad man side comes out and you decide to really play loud then the Boulder will just laugh at the Focals and the Wavac’s lipstick will start to smudge.
I heard the Wavac 805 monoblocks driving the Pnoes for a few weeks cos the General had some to play with. It was okay but was easily beaten on those speakers by the baby 46 Mayer power amp.
We never did that particular head to head in the same day but by memory it was easily beaten across the board. Much quieter, better resolution, more dynamic and slam, more musically engaging etc. Different ballpark in fact Ked.
Anyway - we are all talking apples and oranges cos neither the Wavac 805 nor the Mayer 211 will do for the Focals. The Wavac 833 is obviously much more powerful and potentially more suitable though.
Don’t get me wrong, I think you’ll love the Wavac for a while but when your mad man side comes out and you decide to really play loud then the Boulder will just laugh at the Focals and the Wavac’s lipstick will start to smudge.
obviously the big darts are still here, and the ML3's and VAC Statements are gone. there is simply no limitation to the darts in my system on any music. I never think about what the amp can't do regardless of the music.
as much as I liked/loved those tube amps there was always some sort of limitation or musical artifact present. I still greatly enjoyed those amps and recognize the attributes they bring, but preferred the unfettered musical direction of the darts to live with.
obviously the big darts are still here, and the ML3's and VAC Statements are gone. there is simply no limitation to the darts in my system on any music. I never think about what the amp can't do regardless of the music.
as much as I liked/loved those tube amps there was always some sort of limitation or musical artifact present. I still greatly enjoyed those amps and recognize the attributes they bring, but preferred the unfettered musical direction of the darts to live with.
It will be interesting to know what you like less in your system...a tube amp, tube pre, or tube phono. Or rather, which tube component would you tolerate more if you had to have one. I suggest trying the new Allnic phono and the Ayon conquistador pre.
