conrad-johnson Art mono amps versus VTL mono amps

Ron Resnick

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I heard the conrad-johnson Art mono-block amplifiers at Myles' last week and I thought they were amazing, both sonically and visually. I thought Myles' system overall was wonderful (startling transparency, sound-staging and depth, detail, dynamics and realism) and emotionally involving, and very finely-tuned!

The visit got me wondering about high-power tube amplifiers . . .

Has anyone compared directly in one system the conrad-johnson Art to any of the Vacuum Tube Logic 450s, 750s or Siegfrieds?
 

bonzo75

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Feb 26, 2014
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I heard the conrad-johnson Art mono-block amplifiers at Myles' last week and I thought they were amazing, both sonically and visually. I thought Myles' system overall was wonderful (startling transparency, sound-staging and depth, detail, dynamics and realism) and emotionally involving, and very finely-tuned!

The visit got me wondering about high-power tube amplifiers . . .

Has anyone compared directly in one system the conrad-johnson Art to any of the Vacuum Tube Logic 450s, 750s or Siegfrieds?

If you are going to compare, you might as well listen to VAC iq200 (I haven't heard it). You can monoblock it too.
 

XV-1

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I had the VTL 750's in my system for a couple of weeks when I owned the VTL 7.5 pre amp.

I much preferred the cj prem8a's and that was pre teflon caps.

The 750's were just slow compared to the faster more musical prem8a's. The cj's seemed to drive my then Vienna Mahlers much better than the VTL's despite the power advantage.

The ART's would be better again I would assume.
 

Ron Resnick

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Thank you for replying.

That is interesting. I would have thought the Premier 8as would have exhibited the more traditional cj tubey sound and be slower than the MB-750s.

Have you ever compared the Premier 8as to the Arts?
 

microstrip

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I have owned the MB750's for a long time and currently have the LP275's with all teflon's - quite similar to the ART's. The LP275's are not as powerful as the VTL750's, but are much more detailed and transparent. Bass is less powerful, but much more articulated. If we do not need the 450W, the LP275 is a much better sounding amplifier IMHO. However we must remember that we are comparing a system, not just the power amplifiers. I used the VTL750 with Audio Research preamplifiers (REF5 and REF40) and the LP275's with the ART and GAT. Swapping the preamplifiers between them is a real disaster.

The MB750 is an old design with many top features - excellent output transformers, three independent over rated power supplies. The main problems comparing with modern designs were the absence of regulation in the input and drive supplies and a poorly implemented balanced input. It could also benefit from better quality coupling capacitors.

IMHO the LP275 is miles ahead of the old Premier8 - but I never listened to the Premier8 with the GAT, just with the original ART and the Premier14.
 

KeithR

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Ron- I think you can do much better than VTL these days and believe you should concentrate on finding the amplifier with the least amount of tubes and gain stages for your speakers. Simpler sounds better. I have some ideas, but need to know more about your speaker requirements. If you could post an impedance chart from Gryphon, that would be helpful. I'm sure they will provide one.
 

DaveyF

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Ron- I think you can do much better than VTL these days and believe you should concentrate on finding the amplifier with the least amount of tubes and gain stages for your speakers. Simpler sounds better. I have some ideas, but need to know more about your speaker requirements. If you could post an impedance chart from Gryphon, that would be helpful. I'm sure they will provide one.

+1

Or, listen to the CAT amps...:D
 

Folsom

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The bass concern is not for the Pengradons, those drivers have their own amp.
 

BruceD

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+1

Or, listen to the CAT amps...:D

+2 on the CAT

I have never seen the attraction in VTL gears--too slow they always seem to me they are struggling to catch up with the music:(

YVMV

BruceD
 

XV-1

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Thank you for replying.

That is interesting. I would have thought the Premier 8as would have exhibited the more traditional cj tubey sound and be slower than the MB-750s.

Have you ever compared the Premier 8as to the Arts?

Just the opposite actually - I was surprised as i had just sold my stk prem 8a's at the time

After my trial with VTL 750's and various SS amps I bought another pair the prem8a's used from Jack English and had cj upgrade it with teflon caps as well as change the voltage - a substantial upgrade in transparency, quietness, extension and dynamics.

as microstrip the Lp275 are better than the prem8a in stk form even thou I never cared for the Lp275's looks.

Have I compared the teflon prem8a to the ART amps? No - in Australia I will never get to hear the ART unless I buy a pair - very expensive.

I think you will find that the current top of range conrad johnson GAT and ART amps are very neutral, dynamic and musical as hell. ARC and VTL have a more traditional tuby sound in comparison these days.
 

KeithR

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You might reach out to DEV who has owned Vac 450, CAT JL3, VTL750, and ARC 610...haven't seen him post in a long time though.
 

ack

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May 6, 2010
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I heard the conrad-johnson Art mono-block amplifiers at Myles' last week and I thought they were amazing, both sonically and visually. I thought Myles' system overall was wonderful (startling transparency, sound-staging and depth, detail, dynamics and realism) and emotionally involving, and very finely-tuned!

The visit got me wondering about high-power tube amplifiers . . .

Has anyone compared directly in one system the conrad-johnson Art to any of the Vacuum Tube Logic 450s, 750s or Siegfrieds?

Won't be able to help you here with the comparisons, but all I can say is that I fully agree with your comments about Myles's system - especially "startling transparency" and "realism"!
 

Ron Resnick

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Just the opposite actually - I was surprised as i had just sold my stk prem 8a's at the time

After my trial with VTL 750's and various SS amps I bought another pair the prem8a's used from Jack English and had cj upgrade it with teflon caps as well as change the voltage - a substantial upgrade in transparency, quietness, extension and dynamics.

as microstrip the Lp275 are better than the prem8a in stk form even thou I never cared for the Lp275's looks.

Have I compared the teflon prem8a to the ART amps? No - in Australia I will never get to hear the ART unless I buy a pair - very expensive.

I think you will find that the current top of range conrad johnson GAT and ART amps are very neutral, dynamic and musical as hell. ARC and VTL have a more traditional tuby sound in comparison these days.

Thank you for describing your listening impressions. I am having some trouble relating to those impressions, however, because I have heard the VTL Siegfried IIs several times and I never felt they exhibited a traditional "tubey" sound.
 

XV-1

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Thank you for describing your listening impressions. I am having some trouble relating to those impressions, however, because I have heard the VTL Siegfried IIs several times and I never felt they exhibited a traditional "tubey" sound.

Actually yes, perhaps a slight exaggeration there :D. It more pointed that cj does not posses that tubey sound anymore. When I heard the original S-400 it certainly did not sound tubey. Its a very large amp. I do find the ARC preamps a but tubey with upper mid bloom when I had the ref5se.

All this might be a mute point if you are getting the big Gryphon speakers as they probably sound best with the Gryphon amps. You can always put a GAt to drive them thou :cool:

cheers
 

LL21

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Actually yes, perhaps a slight exaggeration there :D. It more pointed that cj does not posses that tubey sound anymore. When I heard the original S-400 it certainly did not sound tubey. Its a very large amp. I do find the ARC preamps a but tubey with upper mid bloom when I had the ref5se.

All this might be a mute point if you are getting the big Gryphon speakers as they probably sound best with the Gryphon amps. You can always put a GAt to drive them thou :cool:

cheers

Big fan of THAT combination! If you do this, Ron, you are most likely going to look to the GAT Series 2 and Mephisto.
 

XV-1

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Big fan of THAT combination! If you do this, Ron, you are most likely going to look to the GAT Series 2 and Mephisto.

LOL. I knew you would chime in Lloyd. Point is, quite a few audiophiles use the GAT with balanced SS amps and love the results. Mine sounds amazing with the D'Agostino Stereo amp and killed the ARC ref5SE running balanced.

cheers
 

Ron Resnick

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Jan 24, 2015
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Thank you for the suggestions, gentlemen. But, absent some horrible impedance mismatch with the Gryphon bass towers, I am never replacing the Io.

I sometimes toy with the idea of using high-power SET amplifiers on the ribbon panels (which play 200 Hz and up -- relieving an SET amplifier from low frequency duty).
 

tdh888

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Nov 4, 2010
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I heard the conrad-johnson Art mono-block amplifiers at Myles' last week and I thought they were amazing, both sonically and visually. I thought Myles' system overall was wonderful (startling transparency, sound-staging and depth, detail, dynamics and realism) and emotionally involving, and very finely-tuned!

The visit got me wondering about high-power tube amplifiers . . .

Has anyone compared directly in one system the conrad-johnson Art to any of the Vacuum Tube Logic 450s, 750s or Siegfrieds?

Hi ,

We've not compared the CJ & the VTL but we had the chance to compare the Siegfried series 2 vs the newly introduced ARC REF 750SE .
tdh888
 

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