Van Alstine?

A few years back, I was running a Pioneer AVR in my combo HT/2-channel system, and had a Rotel RMB-1066 amp, run bridged, for the front three channels. With my old speakers (Vandersteen 1C), this was a bright-sounding combination. I decided to upgrade to a new three channel amp, but limited myself to brands I could try at home. It came down to the Omegastar three channel amp and the Odyssey Audio HT3. The Van Alstine was somewheat less money, so I had high hopes, but was dissappointed. I found the V.A. sounded even brighter than the the Rotel. It was especially highlighted in the brightness range (~4-8kHz). I returned it to Van Alstine. Frank was gracious, but somewhat miffed that I did not like his amp (he really tries to make a high-value product that pleases customers). The Odyssey Audio HT3 (with cap upgrade) was completely different. It is super smooth throughout the audio band, including that crucial brightness range. Even so, it offers up plenty of fine detail and decay. Good dynamics, soundstage width (less so on depth, IME). I did have a cap go bad a few months in. Other than the hefty shipping fees, the repair was painless and it has been fine in the five years since. Note also that ground hum was an issue at first. Klaus of Odyssey had me remove an internal ground wire, which helped a lot. A later addition of a PS Audio Quintet made yet another improvement, and I no longer consider this an issue.

Cedunlap - I wouldn't dispute your claims regarding the flat frequency response of AVA amps. Nor would I claim that my room measures flat in the brightness range. I simply do not know. But I don't listen to test bench gear, I listen to music. I know what I heard. Without changing any other part of my system (I must stress this fact), the results I posted above were clearly apparent to me, in my room, with my associated gear and speakers. Since nothing was changed other than the three amps involved, room treatments or other system elements were a constant. The sound of each of the three amps was strictly relative to the others.

I did not mean in any way to suggest that Frank has engineered a response hump in that amplifier. I apologize if that's the way my comments came across. I was only sharing my personal experience with AVA with the OP, who was looking for experiences with this manufacturer. I am sure there are many happy AVA owners out there.

In any case, AVA's generous return option allows each consumer to judge for themselves, as they always should.

Kristian85 - I was wholely unimpressed with the linked article to The Audio Critic. The review on the DAC didn't even comment on how it sounded. Other articles in that issue show him to be a strict objectivist who judges a component's value based solely on measured performance and parts cost. To me, he is a Julian Hirsch wanna be. I wouldn't worry too much about what he has to say. I especially thought his criticizing Van Alstine for hand-wiring and hand-soldering his products was foolish. Some of the finest high end gear is assembled in this way, not to save money, but to insure that the production units will be the equal of the prototype.

There are issues with blind A/B tests. I'm not an expert, but Robert Harley has written extensively on this over the years. In any case, without claiming that the AVA, Rotel and Odyssey amps I compared are anywhere near identical in specs, I know what I heard, in my room, with my gear, with my music. In the end, for each individual, that's what counts. To paraphrase Einstein: "Not everything that counts can be measured, and not everything that can be measured counts."