I owned one of the Cary V12's for over 2 years. I bought it right after selling an Audio Research VT130. Not owning any of the newer VS series of amps I cant do a comparison. However, I have had several of the other Audio Research amps (D70, D115, D125, Classic 60, V70 and the VT130). As stated in the above reply, it was very musical, didnt seem to have a shining character that one could point at and say there is no peer, it just played music with a nice sound stage, that would be expected from a tube amp, both front to back and side to side. The speakers totally disappeared. I did replace the stock Ruby EL34 tubes with Svetlana EL34 tubes with great results. The biggest difference was in the base region. I do believe that the ARC amps that I have owned did have better dynamics, that could be because the amps I used were 6550 power tube driven. I never tried the 6550 tube in the V12 although you can use that tube as well as the KT88 and KT90. I too ran it in the triode 50 watt mode. In the ultralinar mode if found it to be a little hard sounding, that could be my speakers. If you are buying used there are, I think, three different versions of that amp already, you might check with Cary, I had the very first version. Good luck with what ever amp you choose..........Bob
