SS Amp to replace VAC 300.1 in a side-ways move?

Well, as long as Mike made an additional note to his comment, I will do the same! :-)

I should state that my friend replaced the single stock Sovtek 6922 tube in each Lamm amp with a NOS 6922 Amperex U.S. pinched waist PQ white label. These tubes took the Lamms up a notch from a high level contender to the champs that they are now. (So if you get the Lamms, be ready to upgrade the stock tubes.)

I should also state that his system is pretty incredible, and uses very high level of components, to a similar, (but different), caliber as Mike Lavigne's system, (which is pretty damn impressive Mike! Man, I love that room!)

And, since Mike brought it up, the DarTZeel NHB 108 that we compared the Lamm to was indeed the older version, so it probably does not compare to the current version. Therefore, take what I said with a grain of salt. (Although I will state that IMHO the DarTZeel NHB 108, (a 100 wpc stereo amp), does not have the power reserves to handle the bass response of a power hungry speaker like the Rockport Antares.) And I believe that Mike's speakers, (the Evolution Acoustics MM3, right?) are actually partially active speakers, (powered by an internal 1000W amp for the bass response), so his use of the DarTZeel amp is limited to the mid-range and the treble. I will also state that the DarTZeel's mid-range was the equal of the Lamm M2.2s, (which was surprising for a true solid state amp), but I preferred the treble of the M2.2. (Again though, that was comparing the older version.)

I have gone from tube to SS back to tube. The SS gear was very good but it was not in the tube league. I have heard your amp and it is in the upper level of tube gear and will be hard to beat. I will no longer be tempted to look at SS gear.

To offer some perspective about how people choose differently, Grannyring and Bobheinatz have owned the same model SS amplifier, yet their decisions are opposite.

I'm going to toss another amp into the mix, and one that replaced my VAC Phi 110/110 due to its superior bass reproduction in my system: Moscode 401HR. There is a new Moscode model now. The Moscode retains much of the benefits of a tube amp, while adding the benefits of solid state.

It can be auditioned with a home trial.

To also add a brief comment - the VAC 300.1 has deeper and tighter bass response than the VAC 300.

Bobheinatz amp was not the same to clarify. Mine had TRL's ground breaking new power supply that was just developed. The 225 amps were still very good, but the power supply in the latest Samson amps are a revelation.

The other thing is one just can't swap an amp and then compare. A new component needs to be dialed into a system to know its real capabilities in that system. Changing a tube in a preamp, new IC, power cord, speaker cables, tweeks etc.....

I cannot overstate this point. My comments are based on keeping the same speakers and dialing in around that.

Bill
This stuff really changes things and one