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Vecteur I-6.2 Integrated ?

I currently own B&W N-803s and a Rega Planet 2000 player. I started testing a bunch of integrateds to drive the N803s.
My listening room is 13' x 17' x 8.5' (Rear wall has a 9' X 7.5' opening, right wall has a 4 x 7.5' opening, left wall has 2 3' x 5' windows heavily drpaed). I prefer listening to jazz, classical and rock at mostly low volumes. My room has a few acoustic treatments - drapes over 2 windows, wall to wall carpet, a couple of tube traps etc. I like a well - defined soundstage with reasonable width and depth and good precision of image (well who doesn't :-)), reasonable bass slam (prefer finesse over muscle) and linearity (little or no compression) even at low volume (under 9 'o' clock).
I demo'd the following integrateds and I found that in my room with my setup (no offense to anyone else that may own these fine integrateds):
1. NAD C370 maintained good tonality, but produced a flattened soundstage and sounded compressed at low volume, reasonable midrange but not good detail in bass and highs.
2. Bryston B-60 - very harsh sounding on trumpets etc., reasonable soundstage, compression at low volume , reasonable detail.
3. Mac 6500 - somewhat warm, but didn't quite like the sound.
4. MF A3.2 - lean sounding, slightly bright, not enough bass.
5. MF A308 - sounded robust, good bass slam but bass was not clearly delineated and highs rolled off. Good soundstage otherwise.
So I come to my question finally:
Have any of you listened to the Vecteur 6.2 ? A friend of mine pointed me to it, unfortunately I have no way to demo it (friend lives in California and I am in New England). I spoke to Mutine (the distributor) in Montreal and Pascal was more than kind to explain a lot of things to me and I must admit the Vecteur sounds good (on paper... atleast). Other than a single (exceptional) review by Neil Walker, I haven't seen anything else on this amp. Do you have any other suggestions ? If a bunch of you think the Vecteur is worthy, I may drive up to Montreal (speakers and player in tag) to demo the amp. Mutine unfortunately does not have a return policy and no dealers in New England. The B&Ws are somewhat tough to drive, even if they are 90db sensitivity, 8Ohms nominal impedance, they dip down to 3 Ohms and from what I've seen they prefer a high current amp with atleast 125-150 wpc into 8 ohms, both channels driven... My budget is ~$3k and I prefer to buy a new amp. If I have left out any relevant details let me know. I appreciate your input.
playhard
ben
66 posts
 
You should consider Pathos Logos integrated first (it is shame to name it integrated however)but second Vecteur is really
winner among all the other integrated amps.
cpdunn99's avatar
cpdunn99
639 posts
 
If you liked some aspects of the NAD, you might consider their new C521BEE. Otherwise, I can say only great things about Plinius (specifically, the 8200 MKII).

I wonder, too, if your impressions of each of the integrateds that you auditioned were dependent on the ICs you used. Perhaps different ones would affect your evaluations?
playhard OP
13 posts
 
I finally ended up getting an Audiomat Prelude Reference MKII 30 wpc tube integrated amp. Then I upgraded my cdp to the Vecteur L4.2. The rig just shines. The synergy between the components is just right.
loudandclear
79 posts
 
Playhard,

Thanks for letting us know where you ended up.
I am much in the same position as you were.

Did you every audition the I-6.2 and how would you compare it to the Prelude Reference Mk11?

Thanks!
playhard OP
13 posts
 
Loudandclear,
I did audition the I-6.2. This was along with Pascal Ravach, (Mutine distributor of Audiomat and Vecteur products) at his place. I really dug the music - played jazz and rock mostly. This was the first SS amp I heard that makes music first. I was also struck by the amount of depth, decay, reverberance and ambiance it unearthed. There are other audiophile qualities, but none of these are thrust at you. The Vecteur L4.2 and I6.2 uncovered detail that I didn't even think existed. But this combination is primarily about music making and then about various audiophile attributes. When I listened, there was a "rightness" about the music, that's hard to describe. You know it when you hear it. It would have been the perfect partner for my B&W Nautilus 803s. (I heard it with the N805s).
And then I made the biggest blunder of all ;-)
I listened to the Audiomats. The Arpege's bass control was not enough for my speakers. So in spite of Pascal's warnings, I listened to the Prelude. Voila! Everything about the Vecteur was there - only better, hard as that was to imagine - the synergy was about the best I have heard. I drove back from Montreal pretty late that night, but I had the music playing in my head the whole time.
I don't care much for reviews unless I can substantiate what I read by actual listening, but UHF is, for the most part, right about these amps - I was able to substantiate this with my auditions. In the end, your other audio equipment and listening room will dictate what's right. If you need a SS amp, go with the Vecteur. But if your system could use a tubed amp, the Prelude is very much the ticket.
Atleast, it is the ticket to musical enjoyment/heaven in my system.
Last but not the least, Pascal was extremely generous with his time and help in getting my system worked out.
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