audio research vsi 60 VS the Pathos logos

Well after much debate i have made up my mind. I will be stearing away from the tubes just because of lack of power. I have opted to go with a Bryston Bp 26 with dac incorporated and Bryston's 4b sst square. Thanks for all the patients and knowledge to the forums on audiogon. I should get the 4B sst in about 2 weeks and will keep you updated. Thanks again to everyone.

I've heard both of these amps and the winds, although I've never heard them together. I've also owned the totem forests, fwiw.

Everyone has their own opinions about power, but I wonder if either have the quality power reserves are there for big dynamic swings, assuming you listen to music with big dynamic swings. That being said, I would lean towards the logos, which doubles at 4 ohms, to 220 watts. Also, it's available with a balanced input, which the vs-i60 isn't, so that may make it more versatile. I'm not sure if you're a tube tweaker, but if you're not it also has fewer tubes to worry about rolling/replacing. I heard the Logos with Proac d28s and it was a very gripping sound: wonderful dynamics, especially bass, and voices sounded full. Again, an amp I'd be happy to live with, depending on the system. I would imagine it would be a nice combo with the totems, but who knows how that would actually play out. I would want to verify with Totem about the power--hell, they maybe have tried the combo before. I know at some points they were pushing plinius, and lots of people like the Plinius 9200 with the forests, which some feel has a tube-like sound (and had a good phono stage, for an integrated).

I heard the VS-i60 with the new Sonus Faber Liuto compact floor standers and it was a very lovely sound. Maybe not the most pin-point accurate in imaging, but very competent, and had a very ethereal sound that I could easily listen too for hours. If I had more efficient speakers or was making a second system I would definitely consider this amp. Also looks very cool.

I heard the Winds with a McIntosh 7000 integrated and wasn't blown away, and that has plenty of power. I think this wasn't a fault of the winds, or maybe even the mac, but the listening environment.

Whatever you do, I would keep your bryston/sim combo. I understand that the Bryston is meant to be a seriously good DAC, and seeing as it allows you to connect many sources (including USB, if you decide to try a music server) and select upsampling or not, it's just a much more versatile setup. I don't know much about the digit cd player, aside from that it looks pretty sexy, but that wold seem more an aesthetic than sonic decision to me, and means you can't connect various digital sources to your DAC in the future. I've heard a bunch of integrateds, so email me offline if you're interested.