In Pursuit of the very best amplifier (to my ears!) money can buy...

[DasguteOhr]

Looks nice! How does it compare sonically to Wavac 833?

Never heard wavac 833 sorry

 

[morricab]

I am going to be hearing a few different preamps in my system very soon. The preamps I am curious about are the Aesthetix Callisto, Trafomatic Tara 30a and the VAC Statement. While I have already heard the VAC I find myself drawn back to it. While I am very happy with my current setup, it could do with a tube in the chain. To quote Ron Resnick, "...that is not a question! You MUST have at least one tube in the chain. Stop talking as though that is somehow in question!"

Meanwhile, I have second room accumulating extremely lightly used gear! At some point I will need to transition from the fun part of accumulating to the less exciting part of dealing with bargain hunters!

Maybe Ron can loan you his Incito S?

 

[psbake]

I am very intrigued by it for sure! I just don't have an easy way to audition it.

Not sure if this will be any help but Paragon in Ann Arbor handle Octave, Burmester and now Robert Koda. I only mention Burmester because Larry, owner of Paragon, has said that the 808 mk5 was the best ss preamp that he ever heard.
YMMV

 

[LL21]

Not sure if this will be any help but Paragon in Ann Arbor handle Octave, Burmester and now Robert Koda. I only mention Burmester because Larry, owner of Paragon, has said that the 808 mk5 was the best ss preamp that he ever heard.
YMMV

Wow...Paragon looks after Robert Koda?

 

[sbo6]

Fascinating. As a big fan of Gryphon who owned them for 12 consecutive years up to Mephisto up until moving to Robert Koda (another pure Class A beast), I could imagine how great the Apex is…it is the comparison to the Relentless that is a new data point for me. Again, fascinating to know.

And absolutely enthralled with each of his 3 choices for speakers. AG Trio possibly my choice for favorite speaker…other than the Rockport Arrakis. And I own XLFs!

Side comment - FWIW and IME, the Lyras are significantly more coherent and resolving without fatigue compared to the decades old Arrakis. The challenge with the Lyras is bass articulation at higher SPLs. An interesting and likely fruitful experiment would be the Lyras rolled off at ~50Hz to columns of equal transparency and highly capable subwoofers that I'd surmise would outclass Arrakis in all areas.

 

[LL21]

Side comment - FWIW and IME, the Lyras are significantly more coherent and resolving without fatigue compared to the decades old Arrakis. The challenge with the Lyras is bass articulation at higher SPLs. An interesting and likely fruitful experiment would be the Lyras rolled off at ~50Hz to columns of equal transparency and highly capable subwoofers that I'd surmise would outclass Arrakis in all areas.

I have heard exceptionally good things about Lyra including everything you have said above...and have been advised that the Lyras plus subtower would indeed be killer. I still wonder whether the full-on airdisplacement of the Arrakis still hold that one meaningful edge over the Lyras.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Side comment - FWIW and IME, the Lyras are significantly more coherent and resolving without fatigue compared to the decades old Arrakis. The challenge with the Lyras is bass articulation at higher SPLs. An interesting and likely fruitful experiment would be the Lyras rolled off at ~50Hz to columns of equal transparency and highly capable subwoofers that I'd surmise would outclass Arrakis in all areas.

All this sounds correct to me.

One could roll off the Lyras or just add -- as pk_LA has done -- one or two pairs of Gobel Divin Sovereigns, my favorite front-firing subwoofer.

(Whatever I start with, I want to make four towers out of it!)

 

[psbake]

Wow...Paragon looks after Robert Koda?

New line for them.

 

[LL21]

New line for them.

Great news.

 

[sbo6]

I have heard exceptionally good things about Lyra including everything you have said above...and have been advised that the Lyras plus subtower would indeed be killer. I still wonder whether the full-on airdisplacement of the Arrakis still hold that one meaningful edge over the Lyras.

The Lyras are excellent speakers IMO.

The biggest benefit from any extra - large speaker is scale possible via as you said, full - on air displacement (there are other variables but driver quantity is primary IME). As an example, my Spirits with subs play at a larger scale versus Lyras especially at higher SPLs, however, the Lyras have the benefit of higher resolution.

 

[LL21]

The Lyras are excellent speakers IMO.

The biggest benefit from any extra - large speaker is scale possible via as you said, full - on air displacement (there are other variables but driver quantity is primary IME). As an example, my Spirits with subs play at a larger scale versus Lyras especially at higher SPLs, however, the Lyras have the benefit of higher resolution.

Fascinating to hear. Thank you for sharing that insight. As a huge fan of Rockport I have often thought of the Lyra but air displacement was the hold back…and perhaps based on your comment for me, that has been the right decision. The only possibility was having an exceptionally well designed and well set up subtower which I have discussed with Rockport years ago.