Ruminatons on the ARC VS115 Amp

For those of you who admire the sound of ARC tube amps and haven’t heard the recent incarnations of their efforts, I think you would be in for a pleasant surprise. I really do think that the sweet-spot in their current line-up is the VS115. Depending on your point of view, you can say it’s the little brother to the REF 150 or you could say it’s a distant cousin. The REF 150 has power and output transformers that were designed specially for the KT-120 tubes in order to take advantage of the extra output power they are capable of providing. The power supply is also much larger in terms of the capacitor bank which results in more energy storage measured in joules. Outside of those differences, I assume the basic circuit is fairly similar in both amps.

I like the looks of the VS115. I like seeing my output tubes and being able to bias them easily. This amp looks much nicer in person than in pictures. It’s also nice not to have to remove a million screws in order to take the top plate off like the ARC VT-100 series and every amp that came after that using the exact same chassis.
There is no doubt in my mind that the VS115 is the finest ARC amp I have ever owned. It also has the best tube bass that I have ever heard in my home. This is one clean, clear, and transparent amplifier. I think the output transformers that ARC uses today are much better than ARC output transformers from yesteryear. I know there are some who think newer doesn’t always equate to better and they are correct. Where I differ is to assume that newer can never be better than gear from yesteryear.

The VS115 makes music come to life via realistic tonal colors, very good dynamics, surprisingly good bass for a tube amp, and a purity that I found lacking in earlier ARC tube amps. I bought another LS17 to pair with the VS115 thinking it should be a good match and I wanted to try a pure-hybrid tube chain (how’s that for an oxymoron?). I quickly discovered the reasons why I sent the LS17 packing the first time I owned it.

The LS17 didn’t get any better sounding when paired with the VS115 and it made the VS115 sound worse compared to hearing it through my Krell KBL preamp. The KBL is a much more pure and transparent sounding preamp and it has a super-low noise floor. The LS17 is adding all kinds of things to the signal that don’t belong there including noise. The good news was that I paid $2300 for the LS17 in 9/10 condition and I sold it within an hour on Audiogon for $2375.

Now I’m going to tell you where I think the VS115 falls a little short of the mark and that would be the reproduction of voices. I think one of the areas that separates the boys from the men in great amplifier designs is getting the human voice correct. Some amplifiers (and preamps) give you singing heads that are seemingly detached from a body. And by that I mean that you get no sense of the physical person and hearing the impact that their chest cavity (diaphragm) has on the sound of their voice assuming the recording captured that sound in the first place. I think the VS115 falls into the singing heads category of amplifiers. Listen to Kurt Elling sing “Joe’s Bar” and you will understand what I mean. Kurt sounds like he caught a cold and is singing through his nose with the VS115. There is no chest or body behind the voice like there is with the KBL/KSA-250 combo.

So, if you love tubes and you love ARC tube amps, the VS115 has a lot to offer and brings a new level of purity to ARC tube amp designs.

KeithR said:

Mark- if the amplifier doesn't produce realistic vocals, how is this so "transparent" in your opinion? To be honest, this is exactly what the Ref 75 sounded like 2 weeks ago.

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If I described exactly what you heard two weeks ago with the REF 75, that is interesting. Not every recording has the type of chest tone like the example I gave and I just happen to be sensitive to the Kurt Elling song I mentioned. Also, I listen to lots of jazz that has no vocals other than some occasional grunting or low level banter going on so you only concentrate on the sound of the instruments. I find the tonal colors of instruments to be very realistic sounding and the overall feeling I get when I listen to this amp is transparency back to the source. The singing head syndrome I mentioned is probably due to the less than stellar grip and control of tubes in the bass and mid-bass compared to SS and not having the power, depth, and control of an amp like the KSA-250 in those frequencies that would affect the lower regions of the male voice.

And back to your first point, it's not that the vocals don't sound "realistic" because they do. This is a sin of omission in that something is being left out which makes voices sound more realistic and that is the chest tone that I tried to describe. If you have never heard what I'm trying to describe, than you would never think anything was amiss. I have and I do.

microstrip said:

Mep,

It must be something related with the interaction of the system and room with the VS115 - something I love with the ARC's is the natural sound of voices when properly recorded. But it will not change a soprano in a mezzo-soprano.

BTW, what is the main source you are using with your system?

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I listen to my music server, my Otari MX-55 playing 15” 2 track tapes through my Ampex 350s, and my SP-10 MKII/SME 312s as my sources. And again, it’s not that voices don’t sound “natural” with the VS115, I just think they are missing some flesh and bones. The ironic thing is that this is exactly what I used to accuse SS of. After buying the Pass Labs X-250 amp some time ago, I wrote a piece on the Tape Project Forum titled something like “Solid State and Zombies” to try and describe the differences I heard with a good tube amp vs. what I heard through the Pass Labs X-250. I thought the X-250 was all bones and no flesh at the time.

Somehow I don’t think this is a room interaction with the VS115 and if it really was, how the hell would you fix that? I have never heard of having to retune your room for different amplifiers. I sort of get it if you went from an amp with no real bottom octave response to an amp with a killer bottom end and all of a sudden the bass energy that was never there before is causing all types of room issues. But going from the KSA-250 to the VS115 is heading in the opposite direction.

Having re-read my original post, I'm still in full agreement with everything I said except fot the last paragraph. After listening to Kurt Elling last night, I think I was a little too harsh on the VS115 and how it reproduces voices. Either that or it has been too long since I heard the mighty KSA-250 in my system. The VS115 sounded much better to me last night than it did right after I first received it when playing the Elling cut.

I really do think the VS115 is a special amp. If you are a tube fan and a fan of ARC and you can't afford the Reference Series of amps, you can't go wrong with the VS115. When I was listening last night, I came to the conclusion that this is the best sounding tube amp I have ever owned.

KeithR said:

Mark- what other tube amps have you owned?

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Dynaco ST-70, ARC D-76, D-76A, D-79, D-70, VT-100 MKII, Quicksilver Audio V4s, Quicksilver Audio MS-190, and Jadis Defy 7 MKII.