Amps/Preamps for Rockport Aviors

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a good weekend and thank you all for your suggestions regarding the various components, including the Ayre, Pass Labs, VTL, D'Agostino, ARC and calling Rockport.  I do have a call into Andy Payor at Rockport to see what his thoughts are.  I wanted to audition some stuff from the dealer i bought the Rockports from, but that dealer doesn't have anything in his store other than the ARC REF 75 SE and the Boulder 2160 -- he just doesn't carry a lot of equipment in the store to compare. 

I do have some follow up questions.  A couple of you mentioned the VTL amplifiers (Baby Bear and Knghifi), which are also tube amps like the ARC.  Is there a reason you think the VTL amps would drive or match the Rockports better than an upgraded ARC, like the REF 250 SE monoblocks? 

Knghifi, you mentioned that philb7777 drives his Cygnus's (which are one up from the Aviors and a great sounding speaker) with the ARC 250 and REF 5SE -- do you know whether he is in love with the sound of his equipment? 

I am going to look into the other suggestions as well  (luckily Ayre is a local company here in Colorado where I live) with a dealer right around the corner.  There is a Pass Labs dealer not to far from here that says he will ship a pair of Pass Labs XA 160.8 mono blocks for me to try and if I don't like them I just pay for the shipping back, and if I do like them I pay for them.  It might be worth the cost of shipping to see how they sound.

Everyone, thank you again for the great suggestions and also taking the time to provide me guidance.  I will let you know what, if any, of these amps I can test with the Rockports before buying. 

Thank you, Larry
 

Jim P.,

Thanks for the advice re amp/pre amp. Your Ref 3 Phono Stage is supposed to be amazing -- I have never heard it and wanted to compare it to the Boulder 1008 that I have, but the local dealer didn't have it -- he only had the PH9, which I must say gave the more expensive 1008 a run for its money, so I would be very interested to hear the Ref 3 someday.  I bought the 1008 used here on Audiogon, so was able to save some money. 

I did speak to Andy Payor very briefly and he suggested that I break the speakers in, listen with my Ref 75SE/LS17SE, and if I noticed anything lacking or missing to call him back and discuss the specifics of what is missing/lacking and then he would be able to better advise me then.  I was shocked that he just picked up the phone when I called and was willing to talk to me -- seems like great customer service.   

In the meantime, based on the feedback here I have contacted some other dealers here in Colorado and it looks like I may get a chance to audition some of the gear you all have recommended with the Rockports in my house in a few weeks after I've broken the speakers in.  I am also going to go and listen to them at the stores this weekend (or at least try) and listen to the gear on the store's speakers just to get a flavor for what they are like.  One of the dealers about an hour north of me in Fort Collins has VTL, ARC and D'Agostino, so I should be able to hear all 3 in one shot, which is nice.

Again, I appreciate everyone taking the time to try and help me out here.  I'm very excited about the new speakers and finalizing my system once I figure out what amp/preamp best works for me with the Aviors. 

Thank you, Larry     

Hello Everyone,

I am hoping tomorrow is a fun day as I drive up to Ft. Collins to listen to the VTL, D'Agostino and ARC.  I also hope to stop in Wheat Ridge on the way to hear the Ayre that was also recommended. 

JWM, thanks for the warning about the Altair 2's not doing great with tubes.  I have heard, although I may be wrong, that the Altair and the Arrakis were very hard to drive and needed a lot of SS power, although they are supposed to be magical sounding.  The Rockport Cygnus and smaller speakers (like the Aviors) i have heard are less demanding (also produce a smaller sound stage).  I will let you know what I think after hearing the various SS and tube amps on the speakers at my house. 

Knghifi, thanks for putting me in touch with Philb7777; I sent him a message and he responded, and he thought that a bigger need than an amp upgrade was a preamp upgrade.  He says he loves his ARC REF 5SE driving his 250's with his Rockports.  While I was intending to upgrade both, I appreciated him suggesting that the bigger need may be the preamp and that I may get a much bigger soundstage just by upgrading the preamp.   

GPGR4blu, thanks also for the suggestion on the D'Agostino amp with an ARC pre-amp.  It reminded me that someone at RMAF had said something similar and I had totally forgotten.  This gives me one more good combo to think about and test out -- could be an amazing sound.  

Thanks everyone, and I'll give my first update after this weekend, but I think the best update will come after I've had a chance to test the gear on the speakers in my house.  so far, it looks like I should be able to listen, at my house after I get my speakers,  to a used pair of ARC REF 250's (the dealer up in Ft. Collins has a traded in pair), a pair of the ARC 250 SE's, the VTL's, the D'Agostino, and the Ayre, all from local dealers, and I may pay to have the Pass Labs shipped to test them too.  I was surprised at how friendly the dealers were and that they offered to bring the gear over to my house and let me test it. 

Again, thank you to everyone for your suggestions and taking the time to respond to the post.  I know many of you have a wealth of knowledge and experience with hi-fi; I unfortunately do not, so these forums really help educate me and lead me in a good direction for my purchase. 

Thank you, Larry  

Hi Everyone,

Thanks again for all the advice.  Boneman I was planning on breaking the speakers in for about 500 hours using a borrowed bryston amp.  I was then going to test them out with the ARC 75 SE I have and see what, if anything, I feel is missing or could be better.   

So as an update, I went up to Fort Collins and was able to hear the ARC 250's and the D'Agostinos (dealer didn't have the VTL 450's yet - said they would be in next week and he'd bring them down once my speakers were broken in).  The D'Agostinos (amp and preamp) were being played on Vandersteen speakers with a boulder phono stage.  It was a very nice sound.  He had the ARC 250's hooked up to some Martin Logan speakers and was using the ARC ref 6 preamp and ARC ref 3 phono stage.  I'm not personally a huge fan of Martin Logan, so I didn't love the sound, but it did create a nice sound stage nevertheless, so I am excited to hear them on the Rockports iwth the VTL's.  I didn't get to Wheat Ridge to hear the Ayer amps, but hope to that this week. 

Speakers should be hear  this week I'm hoping according to Andy Payor. 

Thanks everyone.  Larry

Hello everyone,

Thanks for the all the advice.  foreverworkin, I have heard rave things about the Chord DAVE dac, but don't know much about the Chord amps; you have given me something new to investigate.  Admranger I had hoped to hear the D'Agostino amps with the speakers as the dealer that had the ARC and VTL is also a D'agostino dealer, but he couldn't bring them to my house when he brought the ACR and VTL.  I did hear them at his store on a pair of Vandersteen speakers and boy was the D'Agostino a great sound. 

I thought I would give you an update.  My speakers arrived a little over 2 weeks ago and have been playing ever since -- although not fully broken in let's just say they are a very nice improvement over my Thiel 3.7's and I'm loving the new Rockport Aviors.  I have heard the ARC REF 250's with a REF 6 preamp -- unfortunately, I wasn't able to hear the ARC REF 250 SE's as the dealer didn't have them, just a used  pair of REF 250's.  He also brought the VTL 450 mono's with a VTL 6.5 preamp.  The VTL sound was nice, but I liked the ARC better -- that may be just because I'm used to the ARC sound as I have ARC gear, so not sure, but after a few hours of spinning records on both I liked the ARC sound better.  I wish I had been able to hear a REF 250 SE as the REF 250's were very nice, and I expect the 250 SE's would be even better than the 250's.  I should be able to hear the Ayre reference preamp and stereo amplifier soon and the dealer offered to let me listen to the Ayre dac because I also need a new dac -- my last one isn't working the way it was supposed to and the dealer and the manufacturer have offered me a full refund, which I thought was amazing.  I'm looking at an EMM labs dac, a Chord DAVE, the Ayre right now, but I know even less about DAC's and digital music than I do about amps and preamps. 

Thanks again everyone for all the help and taking the time to provide the great advice.  I will provide another update after I've heard the Ayre gear. 

Larry