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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
chelillingworth
309 posts
 
I own a Vecteur L4 cd player and had many oppurtunities to hear their integrateds when there was a dealer nearby in Hampton NH that carried them. Vey impressive ... easily my choice over the ones you mentioned in the list... I am probably to much of a tube head to own one... I have looked long and hard at the few used Vecteur integrateds that come up and may grab one.

If you do get up to a dealer make sure to give the cd player a listen...quite a leap in performance over your Rega.
playhard OP
13 posts
 
Chelillingworth,
I am planning to give the VTL-IT85 a shot to see what tubes sound like with my N803s. I heard them at the dealers - it had a lush sound with a lot of presence, but sounded a tad syrupy for me. I am planning to demo that amp in my room, see if I am happy with the sound.
I am also considering investigating the Unico Hybrid - but its not available for demo anywhere near here i,e. Boston.
The B&Ws seem to prefer SS with quite a bit of power and a high current amp. So the Vecteur does look like the top choice for me in my price range.
Would you explain how the Vecteur CD Player betters the Rega ? I am planning to hear it if I go to Montreal to demo the integrated.
BTW, it is hard putting together a system - its not so much that I mind working for it, but that to demo some component, other than the heavily advertised "hifi" stuff that most local dealers seem to carry, i,e. usually a few British & American amps, is not easy. Literally no one seems to carry the French - YBA, Vecteur or Italian stuff. I like the "CableCompany's" policy of loaning out a bunch of demo cables on deposit. Maybe a company like AA could consider doing that with demo components, although with a bigger selection. I don't feel upto ordering a bunch of new integrateds, keeping the one I like and returning the rest.
I have pretty much exhausted all possibilities with the local dealers, except the VTL-IT 85.
Plodding on in search of the sound,
Cheers,
Playhard
allizze2
3 posts
 
Hello, having just bought a vecteur i6.2 and l4.2 a few weeks ago, I can share my experiences.
I wanted to upgrade my Cambridge a500, cd 500se kit from my student days driving infinity il40's and I planned on keeping the infinity's for a while, changing the electronics.
I listened to a bunch of stuff
mf 3.2 kit
moon nova and i5
Arcam A85 and cd 72-cd 92
Bryston b60
Rotel amp and pre amp (forgot the model number)
Linn ikemi and lk 140
Sugden masterclass
yba gear

I listen to very varied music and I wanted something at ease with a piano concerto at dinner and with some trip hop during a party.

To my hears, it came down to the vecteur completely blowing away anything else I listened to. The soundstage was wide, the dynamics were there, it had the oomph to drive the infinities but most important, it just sounded right. This is by far the most musical gear I listened to.

So... back went the Quad gear and now I own the I6.2 and l4.2 and the music is all there.

So if you can, go give them a listen, trust your ears, for mine, this was the kit to buy.

Charles
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