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VAC PA60

Hi,

does anyone know the VAC PA60 from his own experience?

I own the unit (two PA60-C + one PS90 power supply) and use it with my Paragon 12A occasionally. I find the sound rather thin and lacking in bass weight and extension, so far nothing I would describe as tube warmth. The unit has relatively new tubes (Svetlana KT88, Mullard/Brimar ECC81/83). The bias is set at 72mA for Ultraliear mode and 70mA for Triode, which I prefer cause surprisingly it sounds more full in the bass than the higher powered UL mode.

With the Paragon hooked up to my solid state Gryphon amp every lack in bass weight and extension is gone, to sound is more warm overall. I wonder that the solid state Gryphon should sound more tube like, than a VAC tube unit!?!!? By the way the speakers are Cabasse Iroise 500 with real! 91db and a normal 4ohms without any stressing low impedance dips...so nothing hard to control.

At least VAC is not known to build very thin or analytical sounding amps...?!?!?

Your comments are highly appreciated.

Ron
xronx
5 responses Add your response
jimmyblues
56 posts
 
Not sure about the PA60, but I recently read over an old Stereophile article on the PA90 in which the reviewer stated that he much preferred the Gold Lion KT-77's that he was using to the stock EL-34's that the PA90 was sold with.

His review was thus predicated on the sound of the PA-90's with the KT-77's.

Of course tube rolling with these amp's is always a good idea as long as you are dealing with matched pairs.

I still think that the PA60 and PA90 are the most beautiful looking amplifiers I have yet seen; understated elegance.

I just wonder how reliable they are?

Enjoy the music!
Jimmyblues
luiegueb362
13 posts
 
I forgot, the tubes sound much better after 150 hours of burning. Bye
luiegueb362
13 posts
 
I have one of these units, recently overhauled from factory, the type of sound depens to much of the model or type KT-88. Anyway it´s a excelent tube amplifier for the price. Try to put the bias to 42 mA, and listen. If yoy can find another power supply it will be nice. Grretings from Caracas.
xronx OP
55 posts
 
Dear Audioracle,

No they have around 80 watts in UL and around 30-40 watts in Triode mode (2xKT88 on ech side). They are quite far from clipping since the speakers are relatively efficient. Theres also still a lot of headroom from the amps. They go much much louder than I usually hear.

How would you describe the sound from your audio memory?

best regards
audiooracle
387 posts
 

I used to own these amplifiers which were quite good.

However, with only one power supply I think the amps are only 45 watts. You may be clipping them, and VAC amps sound horrible clipped.
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