Vecteur I-6.2 Integrated ?

I own a Vecteur L4 cd player and had many oppurtunities to hear their integrateds when there was a dealer nearby in Hampton NH that carried them. Vey impressive ... easily my choice over the ones you mentioned in the list... I am probably to much of a tube head to own one... I have looked long and hard at the few used Vecteur integrateds that come up and may grab one.

If you do get up to a dealer make sure to give the cd player a listen...quite a leap in performance over your Rega.

Chelillingworth,
I am planning to give the VTL-IT85 a shot to see what tubes sound like with my N803s. I heard them at the dealers - it had a lush sound with a lot of presence, but sounded a tad syrupy for me. I am planning to demo that amp in my room, see if I am happy with the sound.
I am also considering investigating the Unico Hybrid - but its not available for demo anywhere near here i,e. Boston.
The B&Ws seem to prefer SS with quite a bit of power and a high current amp. So the Vecteur does look like the top choice for me in my price range.
Would you explain how the Vecteur CD Player betters the Rega ? I am planning to hear it if I go to Montreal to demo the integrated.
BTW, it is hard putting together a system - its not so much that I mind working for it, but that to demo some component, other than the heavily advertised "hifi" stuff that most local dealers seem to carry, i,e. usually a few British & American amps, is not easy. Literally no one seems to carry the French - YBA, Vecteur or Italian stuff. I like the "CableCompany's" policy of loaning out a bunch of demo cables on deposit. Maybe a company like AA could consider doing that with demo components, although with a bigger selection. I don't feel upto ordering a bunch of new integrateds, keeping the one I like and returning the rest.
I have pretty much exhausted all possibilities with the local dealers, except the VTL-IT 85.
Plodding on in search of the sound,
Cheers,
Playhard

Hello, having just bought a vecteur i6.2 and l4.2 a few weeks ago, I can share my experiences.
I wanted to upgrade my Cambridge a500, cd 500se kit from my student days driving infinity il40's and I planned on keeping the infinity's for a while, changing the electronics.
I listened to a bunch of stuff
mf 3.2 kit
moon nova and i5
Arcam A85 and cd 72-cd 92
Bryston b60
Rotel amp and pre amp (forgot the model number)
Linn ikemi and lk 140
Sugden masterclass
yba gear

I listen to very varied music and I wanted something at ease with a piano concerto at dinner and with some trip hop during a party.

To my hears, it came down to the vecteur completely blowing away anything else I listened to. The soundstage was wide, the dynamics were there, it had the oomph to drive the infinities but most important, it just sounded right. This is by far the most musical gear I listened to.

So... back went the Quad gear and now I own the I6.2 and l4.2 and the music is all there.

So if you can, go give them a listen, trust your ears, for mine, this was the kit to buy.

Charles

Charles,
Thanks for your response. It definitely has me excited about my trip to Montreal at the end of this month. I have demoed some of the gear you mentioned. The MF integrateds (3.2 & 308) had a gorgeous midrange but were a little slow in orchestral and rock music. The B60 was way too harsh on some pieces. I tried some separates like the McCormacks (RLD1 & DNA-125) - they had good soundstaging, detail, imaging etc. but to me were simply not musical enough - for one they lost a lot of the glorious midrange voicing which the MFs had and so didn't quite draw me in. I auditioned a VTL IT-85 - it was very musical, but rolled off detail in the high and low frequencies, couldn't keep up with large scale orchestral pieces. I also auditioned Krell KAV400 (sounded like icepicks with the B&Ws), the Levinson 383(way too cold and analytical) and the Classe CAP 151(somewhat nice sounding but too recessed and dark) - again these didn't draw me into the music either.
I am planning to audition a tube preamp and a ss power - something like a VTL 2.5 and a McCormack or a Bryston.
I guess I am kind of looking for the VTL's musicality, the MF's rich midrange and the McCormacks' speed, bass slam, sounstaging and detail. All of that put together may seem a lot to ask for and ~$3-4K may not seem like much dough (to me it is a lot though). I am trying to find a single integrated amp that will do all of this for me and hopefully the Vecteur will be it.
I am a little amazed at the dearth of integrated components that are well put together in the above areas or even separates for that matter in my price range. Equally amazing is how some assume in the audio world that to gain reasonable performance (not perfection mind you) in all these areas require upwards of $5k or even five figures. I always look for exceptional value for the money and I thought the NAD was by far the best value, given its price. Hopefully, the Vecteur 6.2 is such a value standout at its price point.
This is a long post and before I ramble on too much, could you give me an idea of how the 6.2 does with human voices (with your system+speakers ofcourse).
I am also surprised that there don't seem to be too many Vecteur integrated owners out there. Glad to see you are one and that you seem to be floored by it.
I will be sure to post on the Vecteur once I've heard it and made my decision.
Chelillingworth,
thanks for the offer to listen to your Vecteur CD player. I may take you up on it, at a later point. I've been demoing a ton of amplifiers recently and its sucked up any free time I may have.
Cheers

If the performance of my Vecteur 4.2 CD Player (used as a transport via an Audio Note DAC 1 Signature) is representative of the other products then they are fine. I mean, they work damned well! I actually listen to CDs again and retired the Marantz CD63 II.

Audio Note is one of the Few Ways...respect those WAYS.

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