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Who here uses Von Gaylord amps or other gear?

I'm curious how many 'Goners are familiar with this sleeper of a hi-fi company (formerly Legend Audio Design) that has been around for 15+ years but seldom mentioned. I have been completely enamored by their products! I recently discovered that a coworker is a fellow audiophile and he told me his system was all Von Gaylord. My first thought was, "Did you say Von GAYLORD??" But being curious, I did a search here and found a pair of Chinchilla interconnects at a reasonable price so I thought I'd give them a try. Boy was I shocked at how good the sound was! So transparent and open, airy yet rich in tone, smooth and musical but so clear and not smeared or soft at all, great bass extension and weight... I mean these cables did it all and really just blew away my Audience AU24e which I liked a lot. I found another pair of Chinchilla interconnects from a local guy and snatched them up. He happened to have some other Von Gaylord gear he was selling to upgrade and let me demo the LAD-L2 preamp. I was even more shocked than with the Chinchilla!

To make a long story short I have replaced my Conrad Johnson CT5 preamp with the LAD-L2, all of my Audience AU24e/powerChord e cabling except for speaker cables (working on that) with Chinchillas, my Luxman M-600a power amp with Nirvana monoblocks, and added the Legend speakers to my bedroom system, and they have all been substantial upgrades. I decided not to replace my Tannoy Turnberry SEs with the Legends in my main system, but that had a lot to do with the size of the room and bass extension/weight. Plus the Tannoy dual concentrics have a unique sound and timbre that I enjoy, though the Legends admittedly do most "audiophile" things better and are more detailed.

This all happened in about a month's time.

From what I have read I am certainly not the first to get sucked in by their interconnects and fully converted! I can't recall reading anything really negative about any of their products, except for a somewhat lukewarm review of the entry level Starlet integrated in Stereophile from a long time ago. Still, there is not a lot of reports about Von Gaylord out there.

Aside from being a very happy customer, I have no affiliation with the company. Also, the owner Ray Leung is a great guy and has given me white glove service in my home for all of my needs!
eugene81
mitch2
3,968 posts
 
They are one of those companies that seem to be under the radar. Amazing, one could build an entire system from their gear from DAC to amps to speakers to cables. I would be very interested to hear a full Von Gaylord set-up. I like the reports of how their gear has terrific bass response and definition. Here is a link to a nice posting of their show displays on Audiogon;

http://live.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/ces.pl?vongaylordaudio&&ManuView&&&&&&&THE11

and also at Dagogo;

http://www.dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?bShowUnpublished=&hArticle=995&PageOfArticle=1

It would be interesting to hear some first-hand comparisons with other better known equipment from those of you who have owned their gear.
wilsynet's avatar
wilsynet
264 posts
 
At an audio show last year, I thought their room was one of the very best in show.
ybukhan
11 posts
 
I have a complete Von Gaylord Audio system and could not be happier. Ray has been incredible to work with. Anyone who is considering the gear and is in San Francisco, is welcome to stop by my place to check it out. I am waiting for my LignoLabs racks and will post pictures once those arrive.

My system details below:
Spiral Groove SG-2
Soundsmith Strain Gauge (SG-200)
Tri-planar vii
The Return of the Legend VG and VG1
Uni pre-amp
Uni Monoblocks
Uni DAC
Von Gaylord 7000S interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords
Von Gaylord Live Reference Power Conditioner
trelja
3,223 posts
 
Over the course of more than a decade, in the various times I've heard Von Gaylord/Legend at shows or two of my local dealers, I've always come away struck by their incredible musicality and terrific sound.

Aside from that, their use of the 6550 has proved the only application I have ever enjoyed this tube.
eugene81 OP
270 posts
 
Good to see other fans out there and I'm not crazy in my enthusiasm for this company!

Trelja, I agree about the 6550. I used to have a VTL ST-150, which was great on intimate/acoustic type music, but too dark and not so good with rock. I also felt the McIntosh MC275 was way too soft for me when I heard it, so I was hesitant about going with the Nirvana amps. But since I had such good experiences with the cables, preamp, and speakers, I decided to take a chance. It was absolutely the right move! At the time I was kicking myself after I sold off my Luxman M-600a because I liked it so much, but the Nirvanas are even better, being just as big, dynamic, detailed, and transparent, but adding just the right amount of that wonderfully musical tube bloom.
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