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Spectron Musician III Signature vs VTL Siegfried?

I have the Musician III Signature two months. In my review, a month ago, I wrote:

"the sound, excellent to begin with, dramatically changed for the better. The highs became something magical, I never heard such in any solid state or tube amplifier. Totally silky and extended to heaven!!!! The "see thru" soundstage became immensely three-dimensional, truly, I feel sometimes that I can touch musician, go around him or her, and soundstage huge to begin with became even more specious! Midrange became "alive" like in the best tube amplifiers I ever owned or even auditioned, its magic feeling!!!! Base have now both: more authority and startling clarity - so different from one-note solid state and mushy tube base. I can play it quietly and I can play it loudly - no slightest strain. Additionally, black background became even blacker again as never in any other amplifier I auditioned in the past. It adds to the overall "magic".

Last week, I got well broken in VTL Siegfried monoblocks for a a few days of auditioning. Spectron cost $$6.5k, Siegfried - $35k. Spectron weight 50 lbs, Siegfried - 360 lbs. Both declare power into 8 Ohms - 600 watts and and into 4 Ohms - 800 watts. Headroom, Spectron 3600 watts over 330 msec, Siegfried - unknown. As a matter of fact, VTL except power and few others does not disclose its specs even such important as bandwidth and distortions.

OK, playing - both show big soundstage and good imaging. Treble is Spectron's domain, VTL sound simply murky and veil. Midrange is warmer in tube amp, very pleasant on ear. Bass - here is my problem. First, I though VTL bass is better - weightier and richer. Next I compare a few discs and to my surprise I am starting to believe that this monster tube amp bass is full of distortions, full of warm rich details which are not present at all in cello which I played and Spectron is accurate and after few days even surprisingly for me, I fall in love with Spectron bass - rich weighty. Perhaps, one detail. I am not sure I can physically hear deep bass but I can feel it, my chest is "shaking" my listening chair leather is vibrating etc. I hear it in Spectron very much and just a little bit with Siegfried.
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I am eager to know if anybody else have experience with Musician III Signature vs best tube amplifiers? Thank you very much for reply
dob

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emailists
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I'm taking this thread even more off topic, but since someone mentioned the PS Audio GCC series, I'll add this.

I have a GCC100 as modded by Underwood/Parts Conextion. The top mod I have does in fact upgrade parts in the Ice modules themselves.

I had the amp stock, then had it modded so I could clearly hear the improvement. The gain cell volume is a huge boost in transparency. This integrated amp on a Power Plant offered some of the best Solid State I have ever heard.

I also own some ATma-sphere MA1's (older 12 tube) and when I finally retubed them and hooked them up to my Cerious Speakers ( I figured I should hear the tubes and maybe sell them) I was shocked at how much more like real music they sounded like. It was like going from a 2D high definition image to a holigram. Great I thought, I can just sell the GCC. Well then before selling the GCC I thought just as an experiment I should hear it on my woofer section and the Atma's on the mids/highs. Well that was expensive, since I now have to keep the GCC. The bass is quite tight and being able to dial in as much or as little bass as needed is welcome after so many years without tone control.

I have also heard the Sigfried but only at the NY hi fi show, and have heard the Tron 300B, but in an unfamilar system. I was surprised how well the Tron fleshed out the bass.

Did I appologize for taking this off topic?
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