Anyone famaliar with the manufacturer,and in particular this pre amp.The credentials and testimonials seem impressive.The advertised 10 day audition is appealing.
Sherod Glad that amps are back safe, sound and better than before. Wish the thread members a wonderful New year. For our family it may mean a move from North Carolina where I have been for about 30 years to Ashland Oregon - we have many friends out West and are due for a change. Of course I am scanning properties for potential dedicated sound rooms.
Yes Sang. The Fusion power cords, once broken in, do indeed give you a spiritual enlightenment. Well, folks. It is a new year. Hopefully a better one than last year. I just got my monoblocs back from VAC. Due to extreme mis-handling from our guys at Fedex, one of my transformers had to be re-welded. This took some time and while the amps were in the shop, the owner of VAC, Kevin Hayes, took the time to do a few circuitry upgrades with some better resistors. I just hooked everything back up a few hours ago and the sound is so much better than before. I currently have my preamp in the original 2.0n version, but after a while, I might re-try the 2.1n newer version. I have the parts diagram from Joseph to do this( simply taking out a couple of diodes and adding a couple of electrolytics, along with the new output caps). I am going to simply enjoy the exquisite sound I'm getting now over the weekend and maybe make a New Year's resolution that I'm going to cool it for a while with the upgrades and tweaks in my system and just enjoy the music. I wish all you fellow Audio Horizons component owners a very happy and prosperous new year.
Holy Sh** I've been demo'ing the Fusion Impulse power cords that Sherod had previously discussed on this thread. Sherod wasn't kidding. This pc is monster. It is expensive, but I wanted to try it out to see if the benefits were worth it. They certainly are and then some. It's hard to believe how much better this preamp gets with every tweak.
i just received bi-wired Dimension speaker and a rca interconnect for between my phono amp and 2.1. i was so impressed with Dimension xlr between 2.1 and my amps i had go the entire system with Dimension wire. Joseph burned them in but i think they need a little more time before full break-in. for the price you get a super value in cables in this out of site part of audio IMO. I dont see much other than the price of Dimension on AHs web site but take it from me this is some fine wire.
hi ralph ~ nice to hear from you. i'm glad to hear that you are very safistied with what you are hearing so far btw, the sound will improve as more time permits and the smile on your face will become bigger :o) i totally agree with you and bill "grannyring" regarding the ah cables. i too own the transparency xlr cables, and the harmony speaker cables they both bested more expensive and over priced cables. i am currently saving some funds for the ah phono preamp to replace my older ms phonomena. one more thing has anyone here tried the ah tube buffer? HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all you folks out there... jojo
Ralphcast is right on about AH cables. I use AH transparency cables throughout my system and they sound wonderful. They beat cables costing many times the price of the AH cables.
I also love the upgraded AH preamp and find more refined as Ralphcast said.
Jojo about 70+ hours in on upgrade, absolutely no regret everything across the board sounding clearer, defined and even more refined. Must admit several changes as of recent besides standard upgrade 1 similar 6H30 set up as i think you ended up with, changed my musical surroundings Phonomena phonostage for Joseph's TP 8.0MN, also to a major surprise to me i auditioned cables from Joseph, and ended up replacing various Cardas Golden and Neutral Ref's even an Audience 24u interconnect. When auditioned side by side it was immediately apparent which cables to keep. I dropped off Joseph's cables at my brother in laws place, he has spent $1000,s in meter sets and was taken back as to how refined these cables are. Anyways if there is anyone on the fence for the upgrade here's one more write up to consider!
Hello all i am up and running, i have my room acoustically hooked up and sounding great after the new floor install. I have taken Tvads lead and have a pair of lessloss PCs coming for my Ref 9 se V2s. They are so backed up its taking longer than expected. I also have some of Josephs Dimension biwired speaker cables on the way along with a Dimension rca for phono amp to 2.1. Santa came to south Louisiana early ho ho ho. Wishing all a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
Hi Sang, Welcome to the AH preamp club. I hope you have many wonderful hours of musical enjoyment to come. I haven't posted lately because my VAC amps have been at the factory for almost six weeks now. I originally sent them back for a check-up, but apparently either during shipment to the factory or previously when the amps were shipped to me ( and I wasn't aware of it) one of the transformers broke loose from the chassis so they had to send it to a specialist to have it re-welded and spray painted. There was initially a two week queue before they could even look at the amps, but now there has been further delay due to the transformer welding job. While the amps are there, the tech is upgrading a few parts to improve on the sound as well as lower the noise level. I am hoping to have the amps back to me before Christmas so that I can once again enjoy my main system. Merry Christmas everyone. Have a safe and happy holidays.
SWO - looks like you have created a very sweet system. THanks for posting as I am still obsessing whether to do the 2.0 upgrade. I love the sound so much now and yet I hate to miss out if it could be better - horns of a pleasant dilemma. Happy holidays everyone! Joe
Well it's about time someone spoke up,this thread has been very silent as of late.Trust all is well with everyone and best of the Holiday season to all. Mark
Wow! I just had to voice my preliminary impression of the upgrades done to my TP 2.0 pre and 8.0 phono stage. I hate to simply echo the many comments that have already been posted, but I'm pretty freaked. I guess one gets quite excited when his system takes this kind of major leap forward.
Truth be told, I was a little cautious about the upgrade to 2.1 specs having read some discrepancies on this thread. I'm so glad I decided to pull the trigger. The sound that I'm getting even at this preliminary point (about 50 hours) is just plain scary. Detail, immediacy and dynamics - not much imagination is needed to hear things you only get from the live event. This is truly high end sound.
As for the 8.0 phono stage, I previously had the MM coupled with external step up transformers. The step ups were Bent Audio MUs, which are by no means slouchy. But I always felt that the 8.0 just didn't give me that last bit of excitement. All that has changed with the internal installation of the MC version of the 8.0 by Joseph. Setting aside the fact that this phono stage is just dead silent, it is simply outstanding in every way (and this is with an over-achieving, but "budget" cartridge). My comparison is to some very well-regarded phono stages, some costing 3 times the cost of the 8.0.
Please excuse my effusiveness. It comes from knowing that this pre is going to get even better time. I still have things I want to upgrade, but this preamp (which has all Siemens E88CC gray plates) is not going to be one of them.
Thanks so much, Joseph and Victor. Cheers!
Sang
System: Joule VZN 160 OTL monoblocks, ICEH2O Audio S250 Amp, Bi-amp'd Magnepan Tympani 4's (crossover mod's), Michell Orbe, SME V, Denon 103R and Koetsu Urushi, G&D Transforms Reference One CD player, Behringer DCX 2496.
*And for the record, I have no affiliation with nor do I receive anything from Audio Horizons other than their bill for services, which I appreciatively pay.
Hi all, scrolling through 6moon's site. It appears the Tp 8.0 MC is coming up for review. I am very close to a purchase of Joseph's phonostage anyone have first hand or ears experience with any of his Tp 8.0. I have much respect for Joseph and his team!
Joe, I don't recall reading the announcement, but I'd guess that the announcement was made earlier when Victor said that the upgrade cost would be increased an additional $75.00 due to the length of time needed for Joseph to complete the upgrades.
Hi, I recently bought a matched quad of the great NOS Siemens CCa tubes from Victors contact for these in Germany. They have not been plugged in once. They are just sitting in the box he sent them to me in from Germany. I am not using their great pre and don't need them. Just looking to recover the $650 & $15 shipping I paid for them. Anyone interested? See my feedback (rob755)..most legitamate! You can give a call or whatever. Thanks, Rob 541-404-0296
I have my new Canary amps up and working. I have the CA309 with updated Hovland caps. Really very close to the CA339.
50 watts per side out of these 70 pound tube monoblocks. They are PP 300B amps. 4 - 300B's per amp. At this point I am amazed, so amazed at the sound that I am not sure what to say or how to say it.
Boy they mate perfectly with the AH 2.1 preamp. I have owned and heard many great amps in my home, but thus far these fit my tastes perfectly. I guess I will have to deal with 16 tubes as these amps are pure magic in my system.
La45,I have owned some nice SET amps from Wavac and George Wright. These 300b PP amps have all the SET magic with absolute power and authority like I have yet to hear in any other tube amp. You are correct in saying the AH 2.1 preamp is wonderful with these types of amps.
I purchased some wonderful NOS input and rectifier tubes for these Canarys and Wow!!!!! I though for sure my Belles Ref 350 and the AH preamp was the best I could do. It was very good and I enjoyed many hours of great music. Over the past 2 months I have been blessed to play with 3 great tube amps and I don't miss SS power at all!!
These amps also sound best plugged right into the wall with no conditioner.
I tried using a conditioner with my 300B stereo and found it to be slow also. Loss of dynamic ummph in the bass. I found going straight to the outlet and Joseph's Transparency Power cord to be the right combo I was looking for.
Its a shielded design and with the Oyaida plugs it outperformed some well known alternatives. The SET sound is very hard to beat especially with Joseph's AH Preamp.
I just got my uprgraded pre-amp back too. It is a step up, for sure than the fine stock unit. The sound coming out now is really excellent and quite satisfying........Joseph Chow hits another homerun!
I only sold the VAC amps to pay for much more expensive amps that became available. Power was not an issue as the VAC drives my 90 db speakers with absolute ease.
I have been listening today and love these VAC amps. I wish I could have waited to compare the VAC amps to my new amps but I needed the cash badly.
Once I get the new amps in and settled I will update all. I found the VAC amps and the AH preamp to be a good match. VAC amps seem not to suffer from that traditional "old school, tube slowness or thickness". With the BPT out the highs go higher and the bass is fast and tight.
Bill, The power supplies of the VAC amps are so good that most conditioners that I've tried to plug them into have degraded their sound, just as you found. The only thing that benefitted my VAC amps are much better power cords and an Alan Maher Power Enhancer plugged into the same outlet. I'm curious why you decided to sell your VAC amps after such a short time with them. Did your speakers need more power? Are you looking for a different sound from the 300b's? The previous owner of my VAC amps sold them to me because they weren't enough power for his big Eggleston Andras. By the way, the VAC amps are very critical of the interconnects used from the preamp outputs. Thanks for reviving this thread. For a while there, I was wondering if the thread was dying a slow death. I still have my VAC amps at the factory getting them checked out. Hopefully I'll have them back soon to start enjoying my music once again. Let us know how your new 300B amps sound in your system.
Sure been quiet on the thread. I purchased some VAC Musicbloc amps recently and have been listening to them for a couple of weeks. I have learned something just recently that I want to pass on. I had these amps plugged into by BPT 2.5 Ultra as I have done with all of my amps in the past. I have always found the BPT helped the sound and never took away. Well, I assumed the same for these tube monoblocks, but I was wrong. Very wrong.
I liked the sound just fine, but I was finding the bass a little thick and slow. So after a week or so I decided to plug the amps right into my 20 amp outlets and much to my surprise the music flowed so much better. It was as if the amps were held back before. Goodness what a huge improvement from top to bottom.
Those of you with tube amps and any kind of power conditioner/balanced transformer may want to try the same thing. Plug your tube amps right into the wall and check out the difference. You may find a different result, but for me it was a HUGE improvement.
These VACs are very fine amps indeed. Sherod has the same amps I think and I now have even more respect for VAC. I may add that Kevin at VAC is a great guy and very helpful.
Well, while I had these amps one of my long time dream amps came up on the Gon and I had to have them. I will report on them once they come. They cost 2X as much as the VACs and I hope they are everything I anticipate.
I have been enjoying the pairing of tube amps with my TP 2.1. The VACs are more musical then my previous SS Belles Ref 350 amp. I loved the Belles amp, but it seems I was ready for a change.
My VAC amps are going to a new home soon and I am waiting on my new 70 pound monoblock 300b amps!! It will be interesting to see how well they mate with the AH preamp and my Dali speakers.
Ok, tube amp owners, have you found conditioners degrade the sound of your tube amps? This is the first time I have run into it with my BPT?
The V-caps(especially the Teflons) require a very long break-in. If you like the sound now, you're probably going to love it in a couple of more weeks. Enjoy your new system.
Hi Grant, From a price comparison, it wouldn't be a fair comparison, however, a couple of guys have said that their TP 2.0 versions sounded better in their systems than a couple of preamps that retailed for $16,000.00 plus. I would love to hear your impressions of the Atma-sphere preamp paired with your VAC monoblocks, though. Are you getting a nice sound through your speakers that you're happy with?
Hi guys, I'm still on the fence pondering the upgrade to the 2.1.The REF 3 was sold this week and I must say it was a thumbs up experience auditioning and comparing with my 2.0.Now that I have that out of my system I'm looking to change amps.With the CDN dollar on a roll it's a buyers market for us north of the 49th parallel.Stay tuned.
Hey Sherod i was in your situation until Thursday, we have been installing a glued wooden floor in our great room and my system had to come down, 10 days. if there ever is a next time i will pay some one to install the floor. now i am trying to get the sound i had with wall to wall carpet. looks like i'm going to have my work cut out for me to achieve that. Victor sent me a pair of balanced ics i put them in yesterday. one thing that i noticed is the bass is more under control compared to rcas. this is my first usage of balanced ics and with my room completely different sound wise its tough for me to get a handle on them. well all have a good one.
Luis, You are a funny guy. I don't shop until the day after Christmas when they have the 50% off sales. Just kidding, but my mother has always shopped this way to prepare for the next Christmas. It's a little early anyway for me to get into the holiday spirit. Maybe when Thanksgiving comes, I'll start humming and whistling the Christmas carols and get myself into the holiday mood. I also enjoy reading your enthusiastic posts as well.
I still check in on the thread from time to time and always enjoy reading your enthusiastic posts. I am sure people are busy. Did you start your holiday shopping yet?
Gentlemen, This thread has become fairly quiet lately. Is everyone just enjoying their music so much that they don't have either the time or inclination to put in any comments? I would love to hear from new owners of the TP 2.1 or thoughts from anyone else who has upgraded from the 2.0 to the 2.1. My main system is still down. My VAC amps are still at the factory waiting for a check-up. I didn't realize until they received my amps that there was a two week back-up in the service department. I sure do miss the music. Even though I have my bedroom system running, it's just not the same.
Joseph definitely has a graet deal on the Siemens. Aren't they German tubes? I've tried the highly touted Telefunkens in another preamp, still have the pair, ECC801S. Also have a pair of beautiful Mullard ECC801S in original boxes, been tightly holding on to those 2 pair. I prefer the sweeter, warmer sound of the Dutch and British tubes. Speaking of which, Rhanson, I found some Amperex like yours but they are Philips made in Holland labeled SQ E188CC white label for $210/matched pair. Any info or experience with those? I'm going to have to start a new research line of work with the AH, there's just so many NOS of this type that I'd love to try. Some interesting reading at audiotubes.com/6dj8.htm. I'll get with you La about the other.
Yes, thanks, I saw your information about the tube positions. The answer seems to be in line with what I've experienced.
You may want to re-think your decision not to upgrade to better tubes. Joseph sells quality tubes - Siemens, if I recall correctly? When I received the TP2.0n, it came stock with EH tubes. I replaced them with Amperex PQ White Labels, and the difference was like comparing apples to automobiles.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
