This is a collection of equipment (note how I dont call it a system!), the purpose of which was for me to sample as much as possible prior to settling down to equipment I can use in a final room I am building with Rives. Needless to say, I ended up getting deeper and deeper in this, learning that reviews are typically falwed because (i) reviewers have specific motives, (ii) they dont generally have very good systems, and (iii) no system is perfect and therefore personal preferences matter a lot.
The room is by no means great but it is custom designed and measured. It works quite well, even though these speakers need more room to breathe.
Happy to answer questions about my experience with all this equipment, all of which is quite excellent in its own way. I have some on order which I will add when the time comes.
Other equipment I have owned include:
-Tenor 300hp
-MBL 9011 monos
-MBL 6010D preamp
-VTL 7.5 mk i and ii
-Audio Research Ref 3 preamp
-BAT 75se
-Other
UPDATE: Moved to new room, much more spacious and finally allowing me to sit within the prescribed distance for driver integration. Also, I cleaned up somewhat the amp list: I now use the Wavac 833 mkii (4 box) and for solid state the Class A Gryphon Colosseum Solos. Added to the preamps is the Soulution. All cables are Jorma Prime including an 8m length xlr. Power cords being changed all to Valhalla. Here you also see an attempt to test the continuum turntable through a wavac phono. The sound of the system has ameliorated appreciably and it is now starting to be a system after all. Very happy with it.
Alexsee you are right, I agree our tastes differ and I think even some systems are better with some music. if i say i like vitus i should add krell evo sound maybe more impressive than vitus with rock music and i prefer vitus on musics that i listen more.
our world is a place for all tastes and each person just have his place and his ideas. I do not like to impose my ideas to others. :)
the only thing that i stress is result of listening in long term. I just say micro linearity and emotion have more satisfaction factor in long listening term.
Thanks Mihalis we know many loudspeaker designers design their speaker with these ss amplifiers that sound exaggerated and unnatural. we can not say vitus should sound dynamic in combination with many speakers. if speaker be slow we need a exaggerated dynamic amplifier and if vitus seems slow in combination with these slow speakers we can not say vitus is slow.
I think your Gryphon Colosseums is more like vitus and less like krell evo. you know gryphon speakers are faster and more dynamic than many dynamic driver speakers and this shows gryphon match their class a design amplifiers (that seems to sound a little slower than class a/b design) with a faster loudspeaker. I say we can change the sense of slowness with pairing a match loudspeaker and in my idea macro parameters will be controlled by careful matching. I say vitus give you micro linearity that krell and fm and soulution can not give. we can not access micro linearity with matching. we can not find emotion in sound of FM Acoustics with pairing it with a special speaker but we can improve sense of speed in vitus sound by matching it with a proper speaker. we know good SET tube amplifiers need careful matching for sounding good in macro parameters. we can not say SET's like Audio Note Ongaku are slow and soft. we should change macro parameters with considering to other parameters.
I should say again Vitus in my idea is not like other ss design that like speed, resolution and sense of neutrality. vitus focused on emotion and beauty of music and we can not access these parameters with other impressive designs like krell evo one or FM Acoustics.
about power conditioner i think all conditioners will compress dynamic even AC generators but increase color and contrast of music. matching is in both domain, sound and electronics. why a high power solidstate that is electronic match of high sensitivity horn can not sound good with horn? I stress again that in my idea vitus has not coloration.
it seems that there is long road for getting common ground :)
just test one thing, what do you prefer in long listening session, class a gryphon that seems slower or krell evo one that seems to be more dynamic?
I should say i listened to Vitus SS-101 MKII Signature and never listened to SL-100 SM-100 series.
It seems that macro dynamic and speed is a important factor to you and you think reality is dependent of these factors.
I think in long listening term this parameter is not so important and musicality is less dependent to macro parameters. musicality is dependent more to micro linearity and micro dynamic.
I agree in equal condition krell seems to sound faster and more dymanic and vitus seems to sound slower and fuller but i stress again in my idea vitus is not slow , exaggerated sound will create illusion of speed and dynamic. Audio is a relative world and our ideas is so dependent to our habits. listening to exaggerated sound without harmony in long term will effect on our judgment. Vitus is slower in macro than krell but it do not means real sound is like krell sound.
krell and many other ss can not give us harmonic integrity of vitus. one of the most important factor of a real sound is it's harmonic integrity. I recommend you to listen to vitus without any AC conditioner and with removing Accuphase Digital room corection. make a direct cable from AC line and let sound be more dynamic. another thing is finding a good place for loudspeaker for improving dynamic and flow. http://www.goodsoundclub.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?postID=994#994
I stress again vitus should pair with a match speaker and in my idea vitus does not have coloration , krell evo make illusion of more neutrality and vitus sound is more real if you define reality as is in my mind.
listen to dcs scarlatti with fm acoustics and yg acoustics sound. it will be more real than your system if we define reality as is in your mind. after 6 month you sense you need to upgrade. if krell or fm or soulution are more real then we should not like to upgrade them in long term but in my idea krell evo one is not a better choice than vitus for long listening term.
excuse me if i stressed so on my idea, i do not like make a discussion that is out of readerÂ’s patine. enjoy listening regards Amir
Thanks Mihalis for care I should say in macro parameters like sense of speed/slowness or resolution or other factors that come at first view we should consider matching. balancing macro parameters are so dependent to system matching and i think vitus with a speaker like marten design and fine cable select and a match source can improve that parameters that you like be OK in sound. i stress again that many sound we hear like sense of high resolution are not real because they do not give us color and harmony of sound. real sound in nature is more toward vitus sound and do not create illusion of hyper detail. exaggerated sense of detail or dynamic can not give us good result in long listening term. we know FM Acoustics is so better if we use all FM system with their cables and i'm sure your Gryphon system will sound better at macro when you use all gryphon components.
Vitus need long break-in time and need careful matching.
I listened to krell evo one/two with dcs scarlatti and wilson 8 and i think krell is a good ss design but it was not in the league of vitus in micro linearity, emotion and full harmonic rendering. i never listened to gryphon colosseums but their lower level models were not in the league of vitus.
Thanks Mihalis audio is a relative world and if we listen to a lean sound with illusion of huge detail then after listening vitus we think it's sound have less detail. i think this is wrong and in my idea the most natural component is the least attention to his sound component but with color, life and beauty. I think vitus is less impressive that other like krell evo one and soulution because it's sound call no attention to himself and it's sound help we forget the system. in my idea goldmund and soulution and other high power designs can not transfer full harmonic structure of sound. vitus is not in the league of top SET designs like Audio note in full harmonic rendering but it's the only ss design that try to give us color, decay and micro linearity. regards Amir
about comparison of two components we need good condition and we should match each component. I never listened to soulution but i do not think it be emotional. I think Vitus has emotional sound and in my idea is better that other ss designs. in ss design we need to improve micro linearity, decay and emotion of sound. high power amplifiers like soulution and goldmund can not move in this line. regards Amir
