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Spectron Musician III Signature vs VTL Siegfried?

I have the Musician III Signature two months. In my review, a month ago, I wrote:

"the sound, excellent to begin with, dramatically changed for the better. The highs became something magical, I never heard such in any solid state or tube amplifier. Totally silky and extended to heaven!!!! The "see thru" soundstage became immensely three-dimensional, truly, I feel sometimes that I can touch musician, go around him or her, and soundstage huge to begin with became even more specious! Midrange became "alive" like in the best tube amplifiers I ever owned or even auditioned, its magic feeling!!!! Base have now both: more authority and startling clarity - so different from one-note solid state and mushy tube base. I can play it quietly and I can play it loudly - no slightest strain. Additionally, black background became even blacker again as never in any other amplifier I auditioned in the past. It adds to the overall "magic".

Last week, I got well broken in VTL Siegfried monoblocks for a a few days of auditioning. Spectron cost $$6.5k, Siegfried - $35k. Spectron weight 50 lbs, Siegfried - 360 lbs. Both declare power into 8 Ohms - 600 watts and and into 4 Ohms - 800 watts. Headroom, Spectron 3600 watts over 330 msec, Siegfried - unknown. As a matter of fact, VTL except power and few others does not disclose its specs even such important as bandwidth and distortions.

OK, playing - both show big soundstage and good imaging. Treble is Spectron's domain, VTL sound simply murky and veil. Midrange is warmer in tube amp, very pleasant on ear. Bass - here is my problem. First, I though VTL bass is better - weightier and richer. Next I compare a few discs and to my surprise I am starting to believe that this monster tube amp bass is full of distortions, full of warm rich details which are not present at all in cello which I played and Spectron is accurate and after few days even surprisingly for me, I fall in love with Spectron bass - rich weighty. Perhaps, one detail. I am not sure I can physically hear deep bass but I can feel it, my chest is "shaking" my listening chair leather is vibrating etc. I hear it in Spectron very much and just a little bit with Siegfried.
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I am eager to know if anybody else have experience with Musician III Signature vs best tube amplifiers? Thank you very much for reply
dob

Showing 1 response by cytocycle

cytocycle
1,043 posts
 
Thanks for the detailed description but it's hard to get a feel for everything without knowing the rest of your system... Cabling, preamp, speakers, CDP?

I've heard the S400 stereo VTL and the bass was amazing, and the liquid midrange was amazing, and perfect detail in treble without any hardness. This was on my Watt Puppy 7's, Transparent Reference Cabling, and a Casablanca III with a Theta Gen VII DAC and Theta Compli CD player.

I've heard the monoblock VTL's on Wilson Maxx II's with basically the same setup except Transparent Opus Speaker Cable and it wasn't necessary to turn on the Wilson XS sub for any reason the bass was so articulate and low hitting. I use to play the upright bass and the notes with either VTL were spot on in tonal quality and that is one of my key gauges.

Did you have the Spectron control speakers cables on your system? How much of a difference did that make over stock cables?
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