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Reaching Audio Nirvana with VTL TL 2.5 preamp and Amperex Bugle Boys! (long)

Posted by PriyaW (A) on March 18, 2008 at 12:15:59

It is not everyday one can tell that they found Audio Nirvana. As a matter of fact it is an oxymoron, becasue once you listen to the next generation of audio components, everything have to be re-evalauted. But once in a while, every now and then, synergy of your system components become near perfect leaving you to believe that you are in Audio Nirvana.

I believe I am at such a stage right now and want to share this with my fellow audiophiles. I have a very modest system with Theil 3.6 speakers, Audio Research 100.2 amp and PH3 phono amp, Cary Audio 302/200 CD player, and Thoren 320 MK IV TT and Benz Micro L0.2 cart. As you can see missing link in my system, in my humble opinon, has always been the "right" preamp. Several Audio Research and CJ preamps have come and gone becasue they did not fullfill my expectations.

Last year, I auditioned VTL TL 2.5 preamp with stock tubes. 2 12AU7s in the gain stage and 2 12AT7s in the buffer stage, and I really liked what I heard from this preamp. This very reasonbly priced preamp got most everything that we audiophiles expect from a preamp right. I finally pulled the trigger and brought a used unit from a Canadian customer. The unit came with Amperex Bugle Boys 12AU7 made in Holland with long plates and probably in 1950s. I have verified the Bugle Boys to be genuine, but previous owner had no idea how much juice is left in these. Also I am not sure if they are from 1950s.

In the meantime, I brought replacement stock tubes from VTL as well as NOS Mullard CV 4003 and 4024 from Upscale Audio. As expected, unit did its magic with the stock tubes, everything I heard during audtioning and a lot more. Wide 3D soundstage speading well outside of the speakers, somewhat neutral highs without extension and less air underneath. All important midrange, the voices sounds pretty darn good.

Next, I replaced stock tubes with the Mullards. This combination did not work well as I expcted. I beleive Mullards tend to be bit "dark sounding" tubes, and I thought they may work well with Thiel 3.6s which can drive you out of the room if highend is not sufficiently tamed. After breaking these tubes for 3 days (running at 2/3rd volume with the power amp off as recommended by VTL and Upscale), highs were bit too lavish for my taste. Mind you, Mullards did lot of thinsg right: deep base, focused and precise imaging, wide and layred soundstage, etc. But certain brass sections of my favorite classical and jazz recordings were bit too painful for my ears to take.

I removed the Mullards and replace them with Bugle Boys in 12AU7 slots and stock tubes in 12AT7 solts. Now things got very inetersting. Voices got so much better, the singers became vitually palpable. Bass was tight and deep and delivered a 3D soundstage. But the highend was still the problem just like the Mullards. I did not have much luck with NOS Amperex tubes even when I was tube rolling my PH3. They seems to over excite the highe end to the point where those Vifa tweeters in Theils bascially give up on music. Just a lot of screeching and screeming. First violins, brass for starters become irritable and then it gets worse.

So there I was sitting without much hope condemed to use stock tubes and absolutely no luck with the NOS tubes. I tried to justify my situaiton as "Heck, it is good for my wallet. Now I don't have to cough up obscene amounts of money for 50 yr old NOS tubes." But there is that itching and irritation. Why me Lord? Why give me good ears and good musical tatste, yet deny me the pleasure of enjoying sound of NOS tubes? I was begining sound like Anton Salieri, the archnemesis of Mozart in the movie Amadeus. What karma I did do in my previous life to take that right away from me?

So as a last ditch effort, I decided to mix things up. I had this vision. How will my system respond if I leave Mullards at 12AT7 slots and put Amperex Bugle Boys in 12AU7 slots?

The word WOW doesn't even come close to fully describe the sound. Folks, I sat in front of my system for a good part of this past weekend going from one CD after another, one LP after another, simply in disbelief. What I am hearing was that GOOD. Voices are pretty much dead-on belong to signers without any "coloration." Gone are the brightness and harshness at the high end. Instead, highs were extened with plenty of air underneath. Sound of Cannonball Adderly's sax and Miles Davis trumpt on "Something Else" were so sweeet and so realistic without any harshness. The track "Autum Leaves" was really special. Purring of the double bass was deep and tight. Cymbals also had a very nice ring to it and a beautiful decay that I have not previously heard in my system.

But I keep coming back to voices. These Amperex Bugle Boys does something very special to the human voices. Whether it is full-bodied lush voice of Ella Fitzgerlad or fragile brittle voice of Billie Holiday or deep soulful voice of Louis Armstrong, the reproduction is top-notched. Some of the New Age musical tracks by Vangellis (1492 Conquest of Paradise), Tagerine Dreams (Canyon Dreams) and Steve Roach were reproduced with wide and layered soundstages and wonderful highend extension.

So there you have another "successful" story of an audiophile reaching Audio Nirvana, thanks in large part to VTL TL 2.5 preamp and NOS Amperex Bugle Boys and Mullards CV4024 tubes. I have no explantion from an electrical engineer's point of view why this is so. After all, most of these components are made to meet certain performance criteria and one would expect them to function accordingly. But as most of us have found over many years of experimentation, costly and painful at times, "SYNERGY" of your system is not an easy thing to achieve even if you assemble the components from the same manufacturer.

Now I am hunting for a pair of Amperex Bugle Boys and boy are they rare and pricey or what. Right now I have been offered a pair for $250! My dillema is I don't know how much longer the existing pair will last and I don't want to spend that kind of money and let it gather dust either. But for the moment, I am satisfied and who knows what will be there for me next month (LOL).

Happy Listening everyone.

Priya

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