Vecteur I-6.2 Integrated ?


I currently own B&W N-803s and a Rega Planet 2000 player. I started testing a bunch of integrateds to drive the N803s.
My listening room is 13' x 17' x 8.5' (Rear wall has a 9' X 7.5' opening, right wall has a 4 x 7.5' opening, left wall has 2 3' x 5' windows heavily drpaed). I prefer listening to jazz, classical and rock at mostly low volumes. My room has a few acoustic treatments - drapes over 2 windows, wall to wall carpet, a couple of tube traps etc. I like a well - defined soundstage with reasonable width and depth and good precision of image (well who doesn't :-)), reasonable bass slam (prefer finesse over muscle) and linearity (little or no compression) even at low volume (under 9 'o' clock).
I demo'd the following integrateds and I found that in my room with my setup (no offense to anyone else that may own these fine integrateds):
1. NAD C370 maintained good tonality, but produced a flattened soundstage and sounded compressed at low volume, reasonable midrange but not good detail in bass and highs.
2. Bryston B-60 - very harsh sounding on trumpets etc., reasonable soundstage, compression at low volume , reasonable detail.
3. Mac 6500 - somewhat warm, but didn't quite like the sound.
4. MF A3.2 - lean sounding, slightly bright, not enough bass.
5. MF A308 - sounded robust, good bass slam but bass was not clearly delineated and highs rolled off. Good soundstage otherwise.
So I come to my question finally:
Have any of you listened to the Vecteur 6.2 ? A friend of mine pointed me to it, unfortunately I have no way to demo it (friend lives in California and I am in New England). I spoke to Mutine (the distributor) in Montreal and Pascal was more than kind to explain a lot of things to me and I must admit the Vecteur sounds good (on paper... atleast). Other than a single (exceptional) review by Neil Walker, I haven't seen anything else on this amp. Do you have any other suggestions ? If a bunch of you think the Vecteur is worthy, I may drive up to Montreal (speakers and player in tag) to demo the amp. Mutine unfortunately does not have a return policy and no dealers in New England. The B&Ws are somewhat tough to drive, even if they are 90db sensitivity, 8Ohms nominal impedance, they dip down to 3 Ohms and from what I've seen they prefer a high current amp with atleast 125-150 wpc into 8 ohms, both channels driven... My budget is ~$3k and I prefer to buy a new amp. If I have left out any relevant details let me know. I appreciate your input.
playhard
Loudandclear,
I did audition the I-6.2. This was along with Pascal Ravach, (Mutine distributor of Audiomat and Vecteur products) at his place. I really dug the music - played jazz and rock mostly. This was the first SS amp I heard that makes music first. I was also struck by the amount of depth, decay, reverberance and ambiance it unearthed. There are other audiophile qualities, but none of these are thrust at you. The Vecteur L4.2 and I6.2 uncovered detail that I didn't even think existed. But this combination is primarily about music making and then about various audiophile attributes. When I listened, there was a "rightness" about the music, that's hard to describe. You know it when you hear it. It would have been the perfect partner for my B&W Nautilus 803s. (I heard it with the N805s).
And then I made the biggest blunder of all ;-)
I listened to the Audiomats. The Arpege's bass control was not enough for my speakers. So in spite of Pascal's warnings, I listened to the Prelude. Voila! Everything about the Vecteur was there - only better, hard as that was to imagine - the synergy was about the best I have heard. I drove back from Montreal pretty late that night, but I had the music playing in my head the whole time.
I don't care much for reviews unless I can substantiate what I read by actual listening, but UHF is, for the most part, right about these amps - I was able to substantiate this with my auditions. In the end, your other audio equipment and listening room will dictate what's right. If you need a SS amp, go with the Vecteur. But if your system could use a tubed amp, the Prelude is very much the ticket.
Atleast, it is the ticket to musical enjoyment/heaven in my system.
Last but not the least, Pascal was extremely generous with his time and help in getting my system worked out.
Playhard,

Thnaks very much for the informative post. Yes, Vecteur amps are really something special.

The Vecteur I-4 we recently had in our systems bested the following list of well reviewed gear:
BelCanto Evo2i GenII
DK Designs VS-1 Reference MKII
PS Audio HCA-2 / PCA-2 combo
Cayin 265ai
Pathos New Classic One
Unison Research Unico
Panasonic XR25 & XR-45
JVC RX-ES1
Bryston 3BSST & PCA-2 / TVC Passive
Simaudio I-5
Blue Circle BC28 & PCA-2 / TVC Passive

Really shocked us for sure. Musicality is spades!

The Audiomat Arpege was beyond steller as well and bested the I-4 in one system (with B&W Sig805's) but did not have the drive for the other system (88db 4-ohm floor standers & large room). The Prelude must truly be something special & we can not wait to hear it.

thanks again.

LoudandClear,
I would be amiss if I didn't temper my recommendation for the Prelude by pointing out that in comparison to the Vecteur I6.2, its bass slam/attack does take second place. But that's a small issue for me while looking at the broader music canvas and the Prelude shines in the organic whole. This is ofcourse in the context of my system, and while the B&W N803s are not an easy load, the Preludes are able to control them just fine. Bass resolution, detail is pretty good, but the Vecteur may have more slam in the lower regions.
In comparison to the Arpege, the Prelude is definitely not as forgiving of either sources or speakers. In fact, I rather liked this attribute of the Prelude. In a simple and neutral system, the Prelude will really open up - organic musicality, inner detail etc.
I may explore Audiomat or AudioNote Dacs in the future.
Chelilingworth,
I know its been a while, but I actually ended up organizing my system around tubes, so I am (have become) a tubehead, I suppose. And I did listen to the Vecteur CDP and ended up replacing my Rega with it. Thanks for your post from August of last year.
I am looking into separate amp stands for my Audiomat and Vecteur CDP. Any recommendations. Right now I have both components on cones (amp's built in cones and cdp on AudioSelection large cones) into MDF shelves lying on carpet. For starters, I am thinking about a MapleShade amp platform or a Zoethecus.
Charles/Allizze2,
How is your system working out ? I had a momentary power interrupt that seems to have introduced an (annoying) edge in my system that I am in the process of working through. Am awaiting to demo an Equitech 1.5q that should land up here any day now.
Cheers,
Prelude Ref. owners who are in love with them: Try a VAC Avatar Super (integrated) and fall in love all over again. And it includes a very sweet phono stage. I have have relegated the Prelude to my second system. For a sweet CDP, try Vecteur's L-4.2.