Vandersteen 3a sigs- Tube or SS

The Mac SS stuff is nothing special The older tube gear is wonderfull. The tubes will get you your best sound.

I power mine with ONE MC275 in a 10x16x8 room. PLENTY of gas!I don't think you'll need 2. Also use a C22, MR71, MMF-7 and Rega Planet 2K. Very nice combo....

Is the pre tube or solid state? If your buying from a dealer ask to borrow a set up of each and return the one that doesn't float your boat. Tell him you'll need at least two weekends though.

I don't know about Mac gear being nothing special.Now once again you have option to get a tube amp or integrated.They sound great but you must think of the basic trade offs.Tubes will give better mids (and since they use KT88 as far as tube type go your geting one with best bass and dynamic slam).Think of the sup[erb tube pre and a macthiung solid state amp.No Mac solid stae is noit last word in resoluition they are simply muiscal.If looking in used market go with newer C2200 tube pre and a MC353 which is cheaper than buying latets series SS gear.To my mind it's a slow evolving company (whiuch is the way to be not re-introducing the whell evbery two years).You'd get features lie auto formers and power guard just a differnt amount of power (think new stuff id 200 and 400) distinguishing it from last series (or couple of amps) at 300.Don't buy MC300.While it matched up nicely for a freind of mine he had bought a unbalanced C712 pre/While it had XLR outputs it wasn't a true balanced pre nor was the MC300 a "true" balanced amp though it again had the XLR inputs.This was to allow both pieces to use very long cable lenghts with no distotion.Handy but one for a variety of sonic reasons would want trui balanced gear.
Chazzbo

Hi, it's not clear if you already have these speakers yet. Either way, your room is WAY too small for them. You're better off with 2Ce Sigs or Quatros. Just so you know...

As for amps, the Quicksilver V4s are excellent if you want tubes. The SS amps I recommend are the Theta Dreadnought, BEL 1001 mono blocks or Theta monoblocks. The Aesthetix amp (hybrid) that just got released may be a good option too.

Good luck!

Never heard Mac gear with Vandersteen but, from the Mac gear that I have heard, they tend to make bright sounding speakers sound smoother. Vandy's are anything but, bright. I have TAD Amp and preamp with my 2 CE signatures but, have had good results also with McCormack and ARC gear. If you go with Mac, then try to audition first. I would be interested in your impressions..

Eagleman

McCormack seems to be the perfect mate to Vandy's. Steve McCormack himself uses 3A Sigs in his system. I've heard alot of other McCormack owners here over the years talk about that magic combination (though unfortunately I've never heard it myself.)

Parasound JC-1s. Best Ive heard with 3A sigs yet. Belles, VTL, Ayre, Quicksilver are all very good also IMO. The JC 1s just seem to do everything well IMS.

Rogue M-150's are also very good with the 3A Sigs.

Thanks for all of the help so far.

Pete

I'm sort of surprised you are putting such large speakers in such a small room. Mine are in a 14'x28'x8' and it's barely large enough. The problem is the bass: the wavelength are too long for the size of the room when you get down to 35 HZ or so. Digital equalization or a larger room are almost essential.

McCormack amps are excellent. I am using a Llano hybrid , but they're out of business now.

Best of luck.

Channel Islands D200 have replaced my McCormack on my 3 sigs. The McCormack is an excellent choice, but the CI D200's are better IMHO. The main distinction is midrange clarity and low level detail. The McCormack seems to have the deeper soundstage, but the d200's wider. In reality, the sense of deeper soundstaging is because the McCormack's aren't able to bring the low level details forward. The result is also a more relaxed sound for the McCormack, which may be more musical for some people's preference. Pairing it with the somewhat relaxed Vandy's, it's not nearly as detailed or focused as with the D200's.
I loved the McCormack for years and it's like breaking up with a girlfriend you still really like.. till she came along. I'm comparing to a DNA 1 RevA Gold