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Van Alstine products, my first experience.

Posted by jackman (A) on January 25, 2003 at 14:56:02

I just listened to the Van Alstine Omega III 440HC amp on my system and was very impressed with its sound, versus the Odyssey Design Labs HT-2 it replaced. The FetValve preamp had, perhaps, the biggest positive impact on my system in a long time, but this amp was in the team photo. It was very good sounding. Heck, it was better than that, it sounded great. Mark, the owner came over to check out my new Van Alstine Fet-Valve preamp and the Fet-Valve tube amp (I've decided to buy) and brought the Omega III 440HC (high current) along to test. We plugged the HC440 into my system and it sounded very good, however I decided to stick with the FET valve (by Van Alstine) because my Ellis 1801 speakers could use a little more warmth.

It took less than fifteen minutes of listening to the Van Alstine to realize I would take this amp any day over the stereo Odyssey Stratos (with my speakers). It is more powerful, smoother and much more refined. I have never compared my recently acquired Fet Valve Van Alstine to the DM Stratos amps, but I will soon when I bring my Van Alstine (tube pre and amp) to my friend Audiojerry's house (possibly next week if he is available). I will be totally shocked if the DM's can come close to the Van Alstine's smoothness and realistic soundstage, and I'm not kidding. The Stratos DM's are undoubtedly more powerful (the VA is only a 38 lb. amp!) but the Van Alstine has a rich, refined sound that I can't get enough of.

The Fet-valve amp is an incredible piece of equipment. It combines the strengths of tubes and solid state amps. It sounded gimmicky when I first read Frank V's description on his site but I can't argue with what I'm hearing. The Fet-valve pre is equally stunning. Instruments and vocals have a new sense of depth and body that was missing from my old system.

IMO, the FET-valve amp has made the biggest impact on the system in a long time. It has very powerful bass, liquid mids and very realistic highs, with lots of detail and no harshness at all. The Omega amp, however, was VERY close to the performance of the FET valve. It was slightly less warm, but would be a great choice with any speakers, particularly ones that could use a little warmth.

Since trying the Van Alstine gear, I have decided to keep the modded Bolder Smart DIO with Bybee PS. The DIO/Van Alstine combination have a very nice synergy with the Ellis speakers. Before the Van Alstine addition, the DIO added a level of detail that was not necessarily beneficial, but now it's spot on. My system is now very smooth, very refined and the bass response has improved tremendously. I could listen for hours without a trace of fatigue.

Frank Van Alstine is not only the owner of the company, he builds each amp in his facility (I think it doubles as his home) in Minnesota, near Mineapolis. He is an allegedly stubborn and very opinionated guy but his products are amazing. He is not an advocate of power cord swapping and does not offer removeable power cords on any of his equipment. IMO, I would not want to change anything that sounds this good. The best way I can describe my system is that is sounds like beautiful music. No hifi techno-babble today, just beautiful music.

This amp is in perfect condition, I think it's about 3 years old, and Mark is the original owner. He is a totally honest guy who babies his stuff and is selling because he is downsizing his system and has purchased an Electrocompenet (spelling?) integrated amp. His house is under construction and he will be without a system for a couple months. He has the original boxes and the manuals.

Mark, my friend who owns the Omega III came over to test the amp versus the Fet-Valve. The Omega was very smooth and drove the Ellis speakers (not the most efficient design in town) to very loud levels with relative ease. If I did not buy the Fet-valve, I would have bought this amp on the spot. The amp is on Audiogon because he is having his home remodeled and is trading down to a simpler system (integrated amp, etc.). I don't know if it's against the rules of this forum, but this amp is NOT mine. I just wanted to tell people about a product that totally surpassed my expectations.

Here is the link:

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?ampstran&1047057732

Thanks,
Jack

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