Tube Power Amp Reviews

The preamplifier used with the VTL Compact Monos was mainly the Krell KRS2 but also the Van Alstine Super PAS; loudspeakers were the Celestion SL600s and Celestion SL700s, used on their appropriate stands, and the Acoustic Energy AE1s; source components included my stock Revox A77 for master tape replay, CD players from Sonographe, Precision Audio, and Meridian, and the fully loaded Linn LP player (Sondek/Ittok/Troika) sitting on a Sound Organisation table.

My reference power amplifier was a 1986-vintage Krell KSA-50, it proving impossible to wrest the Mark Levinson No.20s back from Larry Archibald (where they were making every pair of speakers he tried sound like there was no need to try any other). Interconnect was either Monster M1000 or Tiare solid-core silver (an interesting cable; review to appear shortly), while speaker cable was Monster M1, two runs being used to bi-wire the SL700s. Although I was sure that microphony would not be a problem with the VTLs, I sited them on Mission Isoplats as a matter of course.—John Atkinson