VAC owners, sound off

It's always amazing to me how discussion over a topic as trivial and unimportant as a stereo system can ruffle up so much antagonism and defensiveness among participants.

It's not a life altering decision. It's a stereo.

I own a bit of VAC gear, find it to be of exceptional build quality and in the event it were not, Kevin has been absolutely terrific to work with.

The guys are right, VAC gear has it's own sound that you will need to hear and spend some time with in your own system to make the best determination for yourself. However, I believe your intent was to ask about reliability and relelvance of older VAC pre's. Not a worry in either case is my opinion. I will own these pieces the rest of my life.

Like someone said earlier, you would have a hard time finding a better way to spend $1,500 for a good preamp. Whether you like it or not, I would think you would though, you just have to try it. Now if you can describe a type of sound you like like lets say warm and smooth, versus fast and detailed just as a general orientation we might be able to direct you to some options. But if I had $1,500 to spend, that VAC looks mighty good to me.

Tholt,
Also, keep in mind, whatever vintage VAC preamp you are looking at, make sure that its output impedance matches well with the input impedance of your amp/s. This is a very important parameter to match up front in helping you to make your decision.

Tvad, if only all heads were as cool as yours... But of course, the passion and the chest banging are all part of the game, esp when we can all hide behind a screen name and yell a little. It's all good and part of the fun until it just gets stupid.

Thanks for the sound explainer on VAC's. Answered a lot, primarily that the modern technology question wasn't necessarily the right question to ask. Got it.

Of course ultimately it always boils down to 'try it in your system and find out.' And of course that's the most useless thing anyone can say. Like, really? That's all i have to do? What am I wasting time asking questions for? Nah, I found tons of information that i didn't know -- info i trust -- in one day from over 20 posts. i feel better. And hey, hope everyone here had a good T-day. I truly appreciate you taking the time from it to give me your thoughts.