Luke Manley's VTL gear is highly regarded by many (best of show @ WCES & HiFI '99). I home-auditioned both the model 2.5 preamp & the revered 5.5. Construction wasn't looking very good inside, considering the $$ asking price. I experienced too much tube-rush noise from both models, but my revealing ultra-high-efficiency horns magnified every little flaw. Depth of stage was good, good bass extension, & reasonable highs, but nothing real impressive here. The dealer "fixed" the 2.5 for me; the second round tryout was even worse as he had not replaced the noisy/microphonic tube, & had replaced only 1 of the outputs so the gains were way uneven. I may have just not been setup properly (re: optimal interconnects & power cords for this gear) because the raves I've read about these preamps came nowhere close to my mediocre experiences. I really tried to like them, but it wasn't happening.
