Sonic Frontiers Power 2 or ARC VT-100 MKII???

Sorry;I just enjoy offending as many people as possible at one time. Charming isn't my long suit. When you put this 'other' amp in the trash----use a plain brown wrapper and make sure you do this in the middle of the night, so as not to be seen by others.

The SF2 is more musical and less bloaty. That being said, the highs are the only thing that I am not crazy about with the SF amps. They seem to be a tad congested.

I do not remember about biasing the SF2's, but I remember it is no fun with the ARC. The other thing to be aware of with any ARC amplifier is when a tube goes, it generally takes out a resister and a foil. Unless you have a great and reasonable technician, ARC will gauge you.

I have owned ARC VT100MKII and still own SF Power2. In stock form, VT100 will give you warmer "tubey" sound than Power 2. Initial listening, it will make you thinking that VT100 sound better than Power 2. After while, Power 2 will start sounding more realistic sound than VT100. Power2 has more details/controls and slightly leaner than VT100(I think this is reason why many reviewers say that Power 2 sound more SS than Tube).

On Power 2, I recommend changing both output and input tubes as soon as you can. Once I have changed output tubes to KT88s on Power2, Power2 will definitely win you over. I currently have Svetlana KT88s and Tesla KT88s for power(differnt sound) Amperex bugle boy 6dj8s for input on my Power2.

Regarding "Living with the amp everyday", I would definitely pick Power 2 over VT100 any day, any time. You will know what I mean when you are in need of retubing VT100 or tube rolling on VT100.