To be fair, I'm not a fan of the Levinson house sound to begin with, but I think the Levinsons exacerbate the Vandersteens already laid back sound signature. YMMV. |
For the kind of money your looking at I would suggest you shop around and find the amp that best suits your taste. Your Treos are will reveal the nature of your components that you choose. What amplification have you tried with these? As far as recommendation go I'm a died in the wool fan of the McCormack line. They just work well with the Vandersteens. I currently use a pair of 0.5 monoblocks with all the SMc Audio upgrades on my Vandy 3A Signatures. |
I too like the McCormack ss amps with Vandersteens. |
I use a Classe 15 amp from the late 90's with the Vandersteen 2ce speakers in my secondary system and it sounds fantastic. The amp outputs 175wpc and is mated to a tube preamp. Very full sounding system, delicate highs and excellent bass. |
Leninson and Vandersteens are a great match , but then Levinson's are very neutral and sound good with nearly everything , unless your tastes are for overly colored gear .
I'm not a big fan of most Levinson gear but there power amps are simply the finest . I purchased the #532H about a year ago , after listening to every available amp in my area and feel it's the best sounding amp on the market regardless of price . |
I have done many amp tests in my life. Even listend many times to ML. If you know there are possibilities to get a 3d image with an exeptional sharp invidual focus and an emotional sound to die for. Why anyone would choose for an amp with poor depth, not extreemly sharp focus and a sound what is far from emotional and musical. I still don't understand...... |
Thanks for the feedback all. I will certainly look into McCormack and Classe.
Ig316b, the Treos arrive end of this week so have not tried anything yet.
Bo1972, I agree with you but have to admit I'm not sure what you're getting at in terms of amp suggestions. |
I would suggest Pass Labs. Good 3d holographic image. Lost of drive and control. And a pure musical sound. You need a source and cables which are good at individual focus. |
I guess all I can say is listen for yourself . McCormack and Classe' are not in the same league as Levinson , never have been , never will be . Pass Labs can be great in the right system but are a little warm for many systems . |
Little warm? Mark Levinson is too cool for sound. I owned the Nautilus 802N and 800Signature. Wenn these speakers were driven by ML and I played my classical cd's the sound realism was sooooo poor. A violin sounded in real so much more emotional. All the emotion was gone. I call this always a clini violin. The 400 and 500 series are better in sound than the series before. That is the only positive thing I can say about ML. |
I've owned 2A Sigs and 3A Sigs. I've had very good luck with McCormack Amps with the SMc mods. My favorite amp for Vandys in MY system was a Belles 150A Reference. However, when I purchased the 3A Signatures, the owner was powering them with a Pass Labs amp (don't know which one) and it was the best I've ever heard Vandersteens sound.
Good luck in your search. |
Wenn you look at the most important parts in highend audio. 3d holographic sound, sharp individual focus and a sound to die for Pass labs is so much more talented than ML ever will be. |
Thanks all for your advice and input.
Settled on a demo Modwright KWA 100SE, which I had no real knowledge of at the time I originally posted.
I was concerned about the 100w being enough to drive the Treos, but after talking to Dan at ModWright, I pulled the trigger. The results so far have been spectacular in all the right ways, especially resolution, sound stage, bass articulation.
Thanks again. |
Take a look at Belles. I've heard Belles 350A Reference amp hooked up to Vandersteen 3A Signatures and they sounded great. I have the Belles amp in my system but not the Vandersteens. It's reliable as hell and has a high damping factor which will control bass drivers to give nice deep bass. There are other Belles amps to consider but the 350 or 150 series won't cost an arm and a leg. The Belles amp isnt the hard cold clinical solid state type at all but it is a little dry sounding. I ameliorate the dryness by using a tubed preamp and tubes phono amp. |
