DK Design VS-1 versus 300b sound

BTW, I haven't sung the praises or advocated for the dk design at all. I just asked a question

WEll I am admittedly a newbie that hasn't posted on Audiogon before, although I have posted several times at that other forum. Anyway, You can see that I have been a member for about a year, well before the Dk Design came out. Of course, the way some folk like to accuse you for just asking a question makes me understand why it took me so long to post after lurking around for a while.

Anyway, a quick perusal of Audiogon forum turned up a few previous tube owners who bought the Dk Design,which was the basis of my comments. I'm sure there are more but I don't have time right now to comb the forum. Here are some:

However I do find it rather amusing that we have to have 'experts' tell us what our ears should be telling for oursleves. Don't we trust our own judgement?
I for one sold my Audio Research SP16 and VS55 for the VS1.
Why? Because it sounds better. To my ears. And that's what really matters.

I replaced the VTL amp and pre-amp with the DK VS-1 Mk. 2. The difference in sound quality was shocking. The DK amp retained the harmonic purity and the dimensionality of the VTL combo except it added thrilling dynamics, much better bass, incredible pacing, rythm, and speed. Overall, it took my system to a new level of performance. It is also the only amp that I have had in my system that does not seem to have any flaws. It is an absolute sonic marvel and I highly encourage any serious audiophile to check it out.

I replaced a Sonic Frontiers Power 2 (Svetlana KT-88's, Jan Philips 6922's) with the VS.1 MKII and find the midrange is not too much different from that of the SF amp, VTL amps, and other large contemporary design push pull tube amps. The bass is definitely better. The treble is some of the least fatiguing I have heard with a solid state power amp. The soundstage dimensionality is good -comparable to the SF but not quite as good as my 300B and 2A3 SET amps. My Maggie 3.6's, which sound harsh with some solid state amps are very happy with this one. I'm using Tungsram E88CC's in the preamp section.

The second one had only an email address not an Audigon name, so some might think that is a shill. I don't know.
Anyway, that is the basis of my simple statement and question.

Who has replaced tube separates with the DK design? I'd sure be interested to hear their experiences. I seem to have missed this as well.
Thanks,
Art

It sounds like you answered your own question: you demo'ed the VS-1
yourself and while you liked some of its qualities it did not impress you with a
classic "seductive" 300b character. To get that you'll probably
have to go with a tube amp, most likely a SET. Then you may lose some slam,
it depends on the design. Trust your own ears.

this looks like it's gonna be another one of those "long time audiogoners" vs. "brand new posters" where all of the latter rush to the defense of DK design.

what ever happened to the 3 test samples that were going to be sent to long time audiogon members for review? why have we heard no more about who the three will be?

Interesting. Oddly enuf I read these pages every day and I've notice no evidence of "a lot of Audiogoners who have replaced their tube seperates with the DK design". I have noticed a dealer or two who sez his customers did. I'm sure not tempted from anything I've read about it yet and I understand that I'm to ignore dealers, or want to be dealers, puffery. I'll be impressed when known tub-o-philes in this forum say they have switched over.

I think that what might have tempted some one to refer to your thread as a "shill post" is that many of the DK raves in this forum have come from 1st time posters. This is usually indicative of shill posting.

Nothing shill about this. I have a small taste of the 300b sound from a Ming Da amp with 300b and 805 tubes. It sounded quite good to my ears, but has been a PITA with respect to reliability. I've read a lot of Audiogoners who have replaced tube separates with the DK Design and I recently auditioned the amp. I was very impressed with the amp, but in the set up I heard it didn't have quite the seductive sound I had heard from the 300b's. I would like the best of all worlds. Just wondering what more experienced listeners have found.

Sounds like it could be a fair question if asked in a more general sense: whether solid state at its best can provide a "best of both worlds" or whether we'll still have to use highly efficient speakers and low powered tube amps to get that "SET magic".

Perhaps the reason this question seemed like a shill to you is that it was so focused on DK amps instead of solid state amps more generally? That does seem a bit odd...... Hmmmm. Why would someone who has this interest be focused solely on whether DK's solid state amp offers SET quality sound.

Art

hehe, looks like another shill post. Wasn't the inside rear cover of Stereophile enough?
300B....hehe, good one.