More on the VR4seIII

Map1,

No doubt, the Jalo is a powerful, good sounding beast. When I went to CES this year this was one of the amps on my 'short' list to listen to. I was impressed, but again, I just didn't hear the shear musicality that I hear with the VT100.

Ok, so the VT100 doesn't exhibit the most ultimate highs, or the most accute transparency, or the tightest bass, or the fastest transients, or the utmost in accuracy, etc, etc. BUT, it is one killer of an amp. As I said earlier, it has balls, it boogies.

Full, rich, big bodied, textured, color, with air, air, and even more air presented in an absolute huge soundstage!! The VT100 just connected to me in a totally musically involving way. I found myself consumed in the experience (the goosebump kind), and for once not even giving a damn about all that audiophile stuff anymore. The VT100 gave me hot, wet kisses all night, and damnit, that's what I want!! Go find some reviews of the VT100 that the pros write, as they can probably explain it a whole hell of a lot better than I just did (or then again, maybe not).

After all, whatever it is that allows you to connect to the music is what this is all about. Don't get lost in the details, unless the details get you closer to the music, otherwise you've lost what it's all about.

Bottom line, I don't believe you have to biamp the VR4's to get them to do anything more than one great amp can. I know, I've heard one!

I reviewed my VR4 GenIII's a few yrs. ago & recently did an update here that you may find interesting.

With an amp big enough to deliver higher SPL's w/o distortion you don't need to bi-amp, although that gives you more headroom. I can easily play my system at 100+ dB at the listening position.

In addition to room & spkr positioning, I've found cables (power, spkr, IC) & isolation to have a big impact on refining the quality of the presentation.

If you want dynamics, lots of detail and serious DEEP bass energy, try them with a Spectron Musician II... It was a fantastic match for me, but I ended up being seduced by the harmonic rightness and 3-d imaging that my VAC Phi amp provided me on them in the long run.

Map1: You mention that you are bi-wiring and jumpering between the top and bottom, this could be dangerous to your amp, remove the jumpers when you bi-wire.

My friend bi-amped his VR4's with a tubes on the top end and SS amp on the bottom and they were extremely bass heavy because without using an active crossover the amps have different input sensitivity and watt ratings which causes them to ramp up at different volumn levels... what makes things worse with the VR's is the top and bottom have different impedences so that also causes the Solid state amp to double in watts making the the disparity even worse.. So look at getting a Bryston active crossover or something to allow the matching or just do what he did and get a Parasound JC-1 (and make sure to break them in 1400hrs to hear what they are capable)

I actually brought over my Music Reference RM200 over and we bi-wired it to the 8ohm taps (sounded more dynamic than the 4ohm taps) It was pretty amazing the control and the bass it had but the room wasn't as big as yours. The RM200 is an amazing amp but if you are a crank it fan, you can't go wrong with the JC-1's output, and then make sure to put a transparent tube preamp in front of it to get an excellent combo. My friend uses an ARC LS25 preamp. Or try a Rowland Synergy IIi (which is what I use and we tried at his place)