I always thought that the VAC Renaissance 70/70 was just a bad ass looking amp! VAC is outstanding equipment! Personally I would go for the upgrades and enjoy absolutely timeless equipment! Always lusted over that line! Also talked with the president at the Florida audio expo. He still has one in his closet! Very cool gear indeed! Enjoy!😎🎶
Can a Amp be "timeless" and compete with todays amps?
I’ve been into hi resolution audio for 20+ years, well longer than that but acquired high quality gear about that time. I veered off into other interests for 15 years but still had my system sitting idle in it’s dedicated room. I became interested in it again 6 months ago and began to update it. I still have my Rega Planar 25 table and a Dragon phono stage. I retained my CEC TL1 transport, but replaced my DAC with a Dinafrips Venus II, I also have the Hermes DDC which I feed my CEC into as well as my Cambridge Streamer. I sold my Genesis V speakers because they were having an issue with the left channel bass and since they were out of business I had no way to fix them, it was over my head. I found someone that wanted them and was willing to repair them himself. (he is very happy with them) I replaced them with some Goldenear Triton 1.r’s which I love. So here is the nostalgia part. I still have my VAC Cla 1 Mk II pre amp and my VAC Renaissance 70/70 Mk II amp. I feel they still hold up well sonically, so my thoughts are to send them both to VAC for the Mk III updates this fall of 2022, which includes replacing any necessary parts and "voicing" them back to new as intended when they were first made. I really believe these pieces are worthy of the restoration, are newer pieces today really going to make much headway? I cannot afford to replace these items with "like" items as I am retired and the discretionary income isn’t there anymore. I just feel like they are still really good and offer a very high quality sound. I mean 8- 300 B tubes can’t be all that bad can they? I’ve voiced the pre amp with with Telefunken 12AX7’s and I have a small stash of them. Tube sound is still great right?
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@gregp858 +1! For real! I used to experience sexual feelings when I saw it advertised in Stereophile! |
Like Tim de Paravicini said :(30 y. ago. )It Will take more than 50 y. when one even comes close to the sound that was then designed with tube amps. Class D will never reach that level. And he is right ! Look at the EAR 509 : more tha 30 years still the same… what a sound ! I have the VAC phi 300.1 : never heard a sound so beautiful like that. The emotion, “feeling” the music, placements…a lot of new amps.are very to the point , but cool, well detailed ,but without soul or emotion…… |
I agree with this assessment. The VAC Renaissance 70/70 is a superb tube power amplifier built to a very high standard. You can undoubtedly find different sounding current production amplifiers, better sounding? You’d be hard pressed to find find that IMO. Despite much hype and marketing efforts "very little" has changed with high quality tube amplifiers that were well built and have excellent implementation. @fthompson251 , your amplifier is an example of a timeless audio component if pure quality of sound is the over riding priority. Much can be rendered with the KT 150 tube but 8 300bs in well executed push pull is just different. Charles |
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