ARC VTM120 Any thoughts?

Speaking as the only poster who seems to have ACTUALLY OWNED the VTM 120's here, and gave you my impressions...your most welcome! ;) As Jafox mentioned...you can certainly do better. I liked my SS D-200 better than the 120's.

Pawloski: I think that it is going to take some patience and luck to find a good deal on a pair of good sounding mono tube amps in your price range. But I have seen older VTL models like the 185/225/300 sell below the $2k mark. And these were huge hits in the late 80s with great 3-dimensional qualities and impressive bass for tube amps of the time. Just be prepared to put out a few hundred $$ to retube these amps if you get an older pair with old warn out tubes.

And what about the Quicksilver that was quite the rave back in the 80s as well? You might be able to find a good deal here and retubing if needed should cost less than the VTLs. They simply won't have the punch and dynamics of the VTLs.

What kind of speakers do you have? You can't really buy an amp without matching it with the speakers and vice versa.

Do you have any plans/interest to biamp? If so, focus on a 2-channel amp like the D115 or the VT130/VT100 if you want to stay with ARC products and then get another later. The BAT VK60 is another product to consider to start with one and then get another later to either use as two 2-channel amps or have them changed to run as mono amps.

If you need an amp with more power, the Counterpoint SA and NPS series are excellent performers as well; they simply will not have the bloom and decays like the other amps mentioned here. They are incredibly tonally coherent...just not the last word in resolution....but nothing mentioned here really is anyway.

So there's some ideas from my corner of the world.

John

Thanks for your comments. IMO, your speaker is a critical determinant of your amplifier choice. If the load is "normal" and driveable by both ss and tubes, a used Pass X150 is a nice solid state amp. Used units are going for around 2K. As far as tubed amps go, referring to my previous post, Rogue M-120 Magnum, Sonic Frontiers Power 2, and Quicksilver V4 are within your budget. All 4 are backed by a strong manufacturer/ retail network, reliable, and will outperform the VTM120.
Good luck and have fun.

Jafox and Gmorris- I have quite a bit of experience with ARC over the past 35 years. IMO they've made some very fine linestages but I've never heard a power amp (stereo or mono blocks) I would own. I respect your opinions however and wish you both well. To each his own guys.

Thanx JaFox. One of the things that appealed to me about the VTM120s was that they were probably less than 10 years old. I'm biased against buying something older than that. I just have that as a mental line in the sand. I have Von Schweikert VR4JRs. I'm going to start researching the amps you mentioned. Thanx again. Audiofeil, I agree with your opinions on the Rogue's. The 120 monos were on my shortlist but I didn't see any listed/available. I thought Sonic Frontier was out of business. That was the other requirement I had: I wanted to buy a used amp which was made by a company still in business for service/parts reasons. Am I wrong??

Pawlowski: There are a lot of VR4JR owners who would be willing to share their experiences on their search for an amp that works well here. This could save you considerable time and even a little money. Consider starting a new thread requesting ideas for amps that work well with the VR4JRs.

Concerning newer vs. older amps, as long as the company is still in business and doing very well, even older models are supported for repair and upgrades. This is definitely true of ARC.