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very old information

The behaviors of these tube designs were defined decades ago. My only point in mentioning them (and prefacing with a non-declarative expression) is to note that everything is flawed.

I have nearly no valve experience as a listener, but I did work on equipment built with tubes - radios, transmitters, tape recorders and such. That seems like a lifetime ago - over 30 years, but it is a part of my life. As Joni Mitchell might say, I've looked at tubes from both sides now (I've been witness to the good and the bad).

As far as the details as they pertain to home audio amplifiers, well, I can read. As I mentioned, the information is old. Before someone declares that information flawed because it is old, I'd like to point out the general preference for the tubes of old among the bottleheads. This is one of those mutually exclusive situations: Either they knew what they were doing, hence built quality tubes - OR - They had no idea how this stuff worked, but somehow managed to craft the best tubes ever made. There is a third possibility: The quality of NOS tubes is just romantic fiction. Okay, one more: They knew how to build great tubes, but weren't so swift when it came to implementing them in audio amplifiers.

My point here is not to demean or be a contrarian. Every amplifier is built around imperfect technology. Refinements to amplifier designs surely exist - I'm not completely nuts. Those refinements exist precisely because there is an engineering challenge. Without the warts, engineering is dead simple.

In deference to your far greater experience, I can only admit that I have no idea what the future holds. My journey may yet give you as much satisfaction as it has thus far given me. Two of the amps you mentioned were on my short list - VAC 70/70 and the 90W Lamm (the former are very rarely offered and the latter cost a bit too much). I thought very hard about the Cary 805AE as well - in my price range and available.

I made a choice. My choice was driven by a number of factors that made it feel right for me. The first is the described character - by all who described it. I was not looking for a big change and I didn't get one - a good thing to my ears. I preferred a stereo amp to mono blocks because of the way I built my cabinet. I could go on and on, but the gist of it is that I made the choice that seemed to best meet my desires.

Things may be different some day. I'm certainly open to trying another option. I paid my Visa bill. I'm pretty sure I'm keeping this VAC - for a while, anyway. My wife and I went out and bought all new appliances for the kitchen yesterday and I'm taking next week off to mount an overhaul. This will end up costing more than the amp did. I'm definitely 'off the hook' (wasn't really on it anyway) now, but I'd rather not spend any more money on upgrades this year ;-).

Does it not look like I designed my cabinet specifically for this amp?






Edits: 01/29/12
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