Tube Integrated for Von Schweikert VR4 Gen III HSE

I recently bought a good used pair of VAC Auricle Musicbloc to power my Reference 3A Dulcet mini-monitors. I e-mailed Kevin Hayes to see if he felt this would be a good match. Kevin said the Musicblocs would be a fine choice, but he said that his new Musicbloc 160 would be his ultimate recommendation. If you go to the VAC website, read through the info on the new Musicbloc 160's and you'll see that Kevin waxes very poetically over these. It's obvious that he's particularly proud of these new 160 Musicblocs. Kevin did welcome me to the VAC family.

Congratulations, Sherod, on the VAC Auricle Musicblocks. I was marvelling tonight at my VAC Phi 110, and wondering why the hell I want to sell it. There's very little that could replace the Phi 110 at it's used price, IMO.

The Musicblock 160s, at $8000/pair, ought to be good for that kind of money. The Phi 110 offers more, IMO, since it has triode and ultriode modes, and switchable feedback modes, among other things.

Of course, if Kevin says the Musicblock 160s are the new best thing, then I suppose they are, but they ain't cheap.

Yes, Grant. Kevin's stuff is expensive. I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out how you would downsize, get some extra money out of it, yet still be as happy, and at the same time stay with VAC products. Can this be done? Perhaps. It seems that you want to keep your speakers, right? So, that's where you start building from. The big question is your initial thread question. I'm assuming that you want to stay with VAC products. Maybe a quick e-mail or call to Kevin might be just the ticket. There's a chance( mentioned in an above post by maineiac, that Kevin just might be revising his Avatar Super based on new technology that he has developed. If that is the case, there might be some VAC Avatar Supers up for sale fairly reasonably priced. But then, how much would you be sacrificing sonically from your current Phi 110/Modwright combo. If you need extra money, let's pass the hat. We'll put Gunbei in charge of all donations.

Sorry, I meant to say Lamm LL2 preamp.

Sherod, I don't necessarily need to stay with VAC amps. I looked at the Avatar, but in it's present configuration, I don't believe it has the stones to drive the VR4 HSE. One thing I really like about the VAC Phi is the ability to run it in triode. It has more power in ultriode, but it has more sweetness in triode.

I'm considering a McIntosh SS amp or integrated amp as an alternative.