VAC Statement Phono Stage
- Thread starter wizard
- Start date
I know my buddy Frantz will comment on MSRP but I must say that Kevin sure knows how to make eye candy as well as very good gear
Wow 50k
Luv the 4 inputs, each with separate ground terminals.
Not so sure why mm gain is 52db - a bit high, there should also be 45db gain. The loading choices are weird as well.
Does this phono use active gain or sut's for the mc gain?
Luv the 4 inputs, each with separate ground terminals.
Not so sure why mm gain is 52db - a bit high, there should also be 45db gain. The loading choices are weird as well.
Does this phono use active gain or sut's for the mc gain?
Thanks Wizard.
Definitely SUT's used for the medium and high gain.
This is a single phono stage with a selector switch for the 4 inputs. You will need to potentially change the impedance settings each time you change turntable/tonearm. That is one of the pains of the excellent sounding Pass xp-25 as well as my Thoress/TW phono stage
The better option is for separate phono inputs that can be customized for each cartridge. Like Burmester, Boulder, ARC, Esoteric, Brinkman to name a few.
With the controversy over the $35k tonearm I cannot possible see where $50k has gone into a single phono stage with a input selector.
Last edited:
To me, this is a better value than a uber expensive tonearm as long as it sounds spectacular. I think a phono stage is more important than the tonearm and cart within reason when it comes to ultimate fidelity Extracted from the groove.
Hi Mike, I did not comment on its sound, as I have not heard it. I am sure it sounds superb, just struggling to find 50k's worth, whereas there has been 20 pages on the pricing of a 35k tonearm.
I hope the transformers have plenty of Silver as that goes some way to justifying expensive phono's like Ypsilon or Kondo.
Cheers
Last I knew, VAC used Sowter transformers for MC cartridges and they don't contain any silver wire to my knowledge. I had my Counterpoint SA-5.1 modified by Mike Elliott with Sowter 8055 transformers and I hated them. I sent the preamp back to Mike and had him remove them. Even though the Counterpoint SA-2 pre-preamp had more noise, it was 1000x better sounding to my ears than the Sowter transformers.
No doubt the inside is eye candy but .. Come one people!! To paraphrase Jeff Fritz: " Madness"
I mean really.. Of course it extracts so much more from the groove of any LP ... etc .. Couple that with a 150 K TT plus a $15,000 Cartridge mounted on a $35,000 Arm on a $15,000 Isolation device connected by 10,000 K of IC and you have
$275,000 Just for the LP section ...
Am I the only person to find this ludicrous?
FrantzM; said:
If it's delivering the musical experience to the said individual who can afford it then no, it is not ludicrous...
It looks beautiful. Is it worth $50K? Only the people who buy it can answer that question. He appears to be using naked Vishay resistors which are expensive (in small quantities they cost around $7 each the last time I bought a batch of them compared to a 50 cent metal film resistor). However, I see lots of dirt cheap electrolytic caps inside as well.
You are correct Christian. I have said before on numerous occasions that I would much rather have a component with a superior design that was built with cheap parts than a bogus design that used boutique mega-expensive parts. The better designed circuit will always sound better. Boutique parts are the icing on the cake, but you still need a cake.
If there is a justification for the price, it was provided to the manufacturers by some posts. Is this Phono Stage superior to anything else costing much less? Such questions need to be asked... The answers/comparison do advance the SOTA wherever it is at this point in time. What doesn't is blind acceptance of price as an indication of superiority. If a person feels no need to ask and just is able and willing to acquire any gear whatever the asking price, more power to her/him and his/her bank account. For the vast majority of audiophiles those are becoming increasingly pertinent questions with the ever increasing prices for dubious to vacuous increments in performance.
Similar threads
 | Steve Williams Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator |  | Ron Resnick Site Co-Owner | Administrator |  | Julian (The Fixer) Website Build | Marketing Managersing |