VAC 450 Statement monos vs VTL Siegfried II's

[mbovaird]

Any comments on these two amps? Speakers will be Wilson Alexia's.

 

[KeithR]

I think the Vac is a more interesting design- and he eschews the use of negative feedback which is in general better. As to having both in a listening room to hear back to back? Doubt many have the scratch to do that and dealers won't carry both.

 

[Joel]

Any comments on these two amps? Speakers will be Wilson Alexia's.

I would point on VAC 450s or older VTL Wootan for sound.
For commodity of use, maybe VTL Siegfried...
Currently testing Orthos XS... IMO a very fine pair to take into account.

 

[JackD201]

My brother has both. Boy that is one tough call to make.

 

[caesar]

Any comments on these two amps? Speakers will be Wilson Alexia's.

Amp selection is such a personal choice.

IMHO, VTL has superb bass, but is a bit sterile elsewhere in the newest incarnation. Vac, on the other hand, has softer bass, but is just gorgeous in the midrange and highs. The amps, IMHO, are polar opposites. Do you prefer tubes or solid state? What's your preamp, out of curiosity?

 

[Steve Williams]

I would be very careful in the selection of a tube amp to drive the Alexia due to the difficult load required to drive them at 88-90 Hz. As great as I like to think my amps are they would crap out at that frequency and in all likelihood would not drive them. No question that this problem doesn't exist with VTL and Kevin's larger amps.

 

[KeithR]

I would be very careful in the selection of a tube amp to drive the Alexia due to the difficult load required to drive them at 88-90 Hz. As great as I like to think my amps are they would crap out at that frequency and in all likelihood would not drive them. No question that this problem doesn't exist with VTL and Kevin's larger amps.

have to admit I'm disappointed in the power required for the Alexias--most of the upper end Wilsons in the past were much easier to drive. maybe a Maxx4 will change that.

 

[mep]

have to admit I'm disappointed in the power required for the Alexias--most of the upper end Wilsons in the past were much easier to drive. maybe a Maxx4 will change that.

The Wilson website says all you need to drive the Alexias is a minimum of 20 watts. They do dip down to 2 ohms at 80Hz so it better be a very stout 20 watts.

 

[mbovaird]

I would be very careful in the selection of a tube amp to drive the Alexia due to the difficult load required to drive them at 88-90 Hz. As great as I like to think my amps are they would crap out at that frequency and in all likelihood would not drive them. No question that this problem doesn't exist with VTL and Kevin's larger amps.

Steve - do you think a pair of VAC phi200's would drive them? VTL is definitely out for me.

Mike