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
LoudandClear,
I would be amiss if I didn't temper my recommendation for the Prelude by pointing out that in comparison to the Vecteur I6.2, its bass slam/attack does take second place. But that's a small issue for me while looking at the broader music canvas and the Prelude shines in the organic whole. This is ofcourse in the context of my system, and while the B&W N803s are not an easy load, the Preludes are able to control them just fine. Bass resolution, detail is pretty good, but the Vecteur may have more slam in the lower regions.
In comparison to the Arpege, the Prelude is definitely not as forgiving of either sources or speakers. In fact, I rather liked this attribute of the Prelude. In a simple and neutral system, the Prelude will really open up - organic musicality, inner detail etc.
I may explore Audiomat or AudioNote Dacs in the future.
Chelilingworth,
I know its been a while, but I actually ended up organizing my system around tubes, so I am (have become) a tubehead, I suppose. And I did listen to the Vecteur CDP and ended up replacing my Rega with it. Thanks for your post from August of last year.
I am looking into separate amp stands for my Audiomat and Vecteur CDP. Any recommendations. Right now I have both components on cones (amp's built in cones and cdp on AudioSelection large cones) into MDF shelves lying on carpet. For starters, I am thinking about a MapleShade amp platform or a Zoethecus.
Charles/Allizze2,
How is your system working out ? I had a momentary power interrupt that seems to have introduced an (annoying) edge in my system that I am in the process of working through. Am awaiting to demo an Equitech 1.5q that should land up here any day now.
Cheers,
Prelude Ref. owners who are in love with them: Try a VAC Avatar Super (integrated) and fall in love all over again. And it includes a very sweet phono stage. I have have relegated the Prelude to my second system. For a sweet CDP, try Vecteur's L-4.2.