Experiences, good and bad, with VTL

If you waste your time with VTL, you will only kick yourself later. The amps WILL fail on you, and you WILL go nuts dealing with the company. If you must use high-powered tube amps because your speakers are grossly-inefficient, I think you will be happier with something along the lines of ARC, CJ, or even the new McIntosh. At least with these three, the amps are reliable as can be, and they keep strong resale value.

But you're still better off getting more efficient speakers and using more moderate-powered tube amps. IMO of course...

Could not disagree more with the previous feedback. No mention of the reader actually ever owning VTL. I own the 25 TT and they sound great with no reliability problems. They run my Reference 3As. Cost of retubing is around $100

A friend has owned the larger monoblocks for 6 years, runs original Martin Logan CLSs. No reliability problems.

These amps do have a particular voicing and that of course is very subjective. I spent over a year listening to different tube amps before deciding on them. Will they rock your world with high volume, no. Are they quite musical, open, detailed, yes. Good luck.

i have not owned any vtl products. i have listend to them on demos. i love the 25tt's (just not enough jucie). if found the vt85 (think that was the number) ok; probably would be alot better with nos tubes. i will say that i own rogue monos (better price point; much improved sound with tube swap). i have retubed them with nos tubes from vintage tube services. i found it intresting that vintage will warranty all his nos and used tubes on all gear except "vtl". fwiw.

jim

Can anyone comment on the tube amps from Tube Research Labs? I know the company is technically not in business anymore. But in their day, they built an 800 and 400 watt triod amps. As I understand it, they built some monster amps.

Does anyone have actual user/owner or demo experiences?