I'm a longtime ARC amplifier fan. To me the vt100m2 stands as one the the best amplifier's I've heard at any price.
I recently borrowed a vt200 from a friend* to use with my power hungry eidolon speakers. I had been wanting to try out a large tube amp with them.
* kurt at www.echohifi.com - he still has it for sale
I took it home & I found that it was indeed a superb sounding amplifier but it didn't have the slam that I wanted. The eidolon's are the most difficult speaker to drive that I have ever owned. My reference amplifier is an Ayre v-1x which puts out 400w into the eidolon's 4 ohm load. The vt200 has a typical midbass emphasis and 'powerhouse' ARC sound. It was quite nice. If I didn't already own the ayre I would have bought it.
I have also hooked up a vt100m2 to the eidolon's and noticed that it was a little sweeter sounding, but did not have the soundstage of the vt200. The vt200 put out one of the largest soundstages I've ever had in my setup. It seemed to make the images go a couple feet past the walls. There was also this foundation of sound that is missing from the vt100. The vt100 sounds great, but it's soundstage is limited to the space between the speakers (9 feet). The 200 can deliver a soundstage that seems a good 20 feet accross. The ayre can do this too, but you lose a little of the tube liquidity. The vt200 did not have the transparency, weight and power that the ayre has. I'm primarily a tube fan, but I do like the ayre and pass labs amps.
I recently borrowed a vt200 from a friend* to use with my power hungry eidolon speakers. I had been wanting to try out a large tube amp with them.
* kurt at www.echohifi.com - he still has it for sale
I took it home & I found that it was indeed a superb sounding amplifier but it didn't have the slam that I wanted. The eidolon's are the most difficult speaker to drive that I have ever owned. My reference amplifier is an Ayre v-1x which puts out 400w into the eidolon's 4 ohm load. The vt200 has a typical midbass emphasis and 'powerhouse' ARC sound. It was quite nice. If I didn't already own the ayre I would have bought it.
I have also hooked up a vt100m2 to the eidolon's and noticed that it was a little sweeter sounding, but did not have the soundstage of the vt200. The vt200 put out one of the largest soundstages I've ever had in my setup. It seemed to make the images go a couple feet past the walls. There was also this foundation of sound that is missing from the vt100. The vt100 sounds great, but it's soundstage is limited to the space between the speakers (9 feet). The 200 can deliver a soundstage that seems a good 20 feet accross. The ayre can do this too, but you lose a little of the tube liquidity. The vt200 did not have the transparency, weight and power that the ayre has. I'm primarily a tube fan, but I do like the ayre and pass labs amps.