VAC 30/70...pick your pre?

I had the VAC 70/70 Renaissance (not the signature version) Mk III for several years, and it is an outstanding amp with that classic to-die-for VAC mid-range. After an ill-advised system overhaul, I started over--again--and ended up getting the Line Magnetic 508ia. The 508 sounds great with the stock tubes, but if you upgrade the 300B and 6SN7/6SL7 tubes, you can take it to another level and it is truly very, very special.

Let's put it this way, as good as the VAC was, I don't feel like I am missing a thing with the 508. I know these are famous last words for an audiophile, but this integrated is here to stay. It's a nice piece of eye candy, and it sounds even better than it looks.

Walter,
I'm familiar with the the sound of the excellent VAC REN 30/30 and 70/70 300b push pull amplifiers. Your insightful comments are high praise for the LM 508ia.  805 output tubes running in class A SET topology must sound wonderful in your system.
Charles  

Thanks all for the input:

Some additional info that may be helpful:

Current setup: Vinyl only (second digital setup to be built in next year or so)
-Melody SP3/6550 (heavily rolled with Winged C 6l6’s, NOS RCA triple plate ax7’s, NOS RCA clear top au7a’s, and have switched between either JJ 6922 or GE ecc88’s)
-Graham Slee Era Gold Mk V
-VPI TNT IV with SDS
-Benz H2 Wood Body cart
-Warfedale Jade 5’s (87db, 6ohms)


Listen to: acoustic/Folk, singer-songwriter, jazz, alt-co, and rock--nothing that heavy. Lately been into early 1900’s gospel, 60’s/70’s funk, New Orleans swing. So a wide range.

Budget: Currently really hoping to stay around 6k. The current options of the 30/70 mkIII monoblocks, Sigma i160, Allnic T2000 integrated, Line Magnetic 219ia and 508ia all fit (the first 4 used on on the board here). 508ia would have to be purchased new.

Regarding 30/70s; always have craved VAC based on reviews; looking to move to monos; really think I like the idea of 300b sound, but have little experience in anything other than EL34, 6550/6l6, KT88. Based on budget, would mean these would be sitting packed up for a bit. Don’t know if getting a sub 2k pre would do them justice (CJ ET3, etc). So they could be waiting for 6-12 months to pair up.

The i160 seems to be a great integrated based on the reviews, but price is the same as the 30/70 monos, so worth just waiting for a pre?

The LM line is very intriguing. Trying to read up on the 219 vs. 508. Both seem to work well with mid efficiency speakers, even at the 219’s lower power rating. I do like the idea of being able to add a pre to either of these, and the 219 running dual mono power is pretty nice option. But, the 508 appear based on reviews to work a bit better with music outside of jazz and female vocals.

The Allnic running KT150s in the triode mode is about 43wpc and has nice reviews but just havent seen much.

And yes, my next change will be speakers (have thought about adding subs too)

I have really appreciated this forum over the years and continue to appreciate the input as I don’t have the ability get or hear a lot of great equipment often (medical school loans suck).

Excellent comments by the others.

A caveat regarding the possibility you mentioned of combining a CJ ET3 with the VAC amps. Like many CJ preamps the ET3 has very high line stage gain, 25 db in this case. My perception has been that the unspecified gain of my VAC 70/70 is also somewhat high, especially in its zero feedback setting which I and most others seem to prefer (although that will be speaker-dependent). And I would presume the 30/70 is similar in that respect. While I suspect that the resulting overall gain would be ok with your vinyl source and 87 db speakers, you mentioned that you are considering eventually adding a digital source, and upgrading your speakers. The combination of a digital source, higher efficiency speakers, and the high gains of those two components would be likely to result in having to use the volume control on the CJ preamp undesirably close to the bottom of its range.

I’ll mention also that for a few years I used a Classe CP-60 solid state line stage preamp with my VAC 70/70, and I was happy with the combo. I purchased the CP-60 here in 2008 for only $1350.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

Thanks Al, was worried about that too with a pre like the et3.  The digital system will be completely separate and my current speakers will go with that (possibly even solid state).  

Decisions decisions...esp hearing such good things about LM