Hi Charles,

That is great to learn what you are hearing with Jeff's system and how the Absolare electronics are sounding with the Rockport Altair speakers. I have heard the full set of electronics at Kerem's wonderful home in Istanbul and what you are describing is what I heard as well.

babybear August 03, 2013 13:14

Hi Jeff,

That is great to hear. I can certainly speak from the perspective of the Absolare Balanced Signature preamp and agree with you 100% about how pure and transparent the sound is.

Glad you are enjoying both the preamp and the Absolare Passion amps with the Altairs!

babybear August 03, 2013 13:11

The Absolare electronics are stunning in their transparency,tonal fullness and utter organic character.The PSET amplifier has just fantastic realism and flesh and blood presence.They combine effortless control,relaxation,articulation and are exceptionally nuanced.The sound is very pure and natural.It does make the prior electronics in this system sound veiled,hazy and cloudy relatively speaking.At this early stage I doubt they`re any more than70% of their final sound when fully burned in.
Charles,

charles1dad August 02, 2013 19:28

They are sounding absolutely fantastic. They have a purity and transparency that is phenomenal. I hate to say it, but they are more transparent than my Vac's. I only have 63 hours on them and I hear that they change 100% after 300 hours. The tubes also need 100 hours. I think I am in for a real treat as they are already great.

jwm August 02, 2013 18:51

Thanks Jeff,

It has definitely been great the past 2 nights to have the music back again.

How are your Absolare electronics sounding so far?

babybear August 01, 2013 10:54

Congrats I know it must be great to have music in the house again.

jwm August 01, 2013 09:13

Thanks very much Lloyd. I am looking forward to the break in and determining the best damping factor settings for the 2 sets of amps with the Arrakis.

Update me on what you hear after you audition the Altairs.

babybear July 31, 2013 20:23

Hi Albert,

Yes, the change to the 12BH7 driver tubes was something that I didn't realize VTL had done. You are correct in that they are more readily available than the 6350 but also probably in general better sounding tubes.

I've never heard the VTL 750 amps - only the 450 Series 2, the S400 and of course the Siegfried's. All of which are quite wonderful. The new Series 2 Siegfrieds, at least so far sound quite a bit better - more relaxed, effortless, open
and at the same time I think more resolving and more extended at the frequency extremes. One of the many changes that they made was eliminating the global negative feedback from the amp which I think is a nice improvement and helps contribute to the sound that I have heard so far.

You are correct in that it will take some time to fully break in the new amps - they did put in a new fully balanced input circuit, new driver stages, new output transformer, new Mundorf silver oil capacitors, new tubes, new tube sockets, etc

babybear July 31, 2013 20:20

Hey ARnie,

big news! Congrats! looking forward to reading more about your adventures in VTL!

I am scheduled to hear the Altairs in two weeks and am looking forward to it. They know my system, and are trying to assemble something similar. Will be very interesting. stay tuned...meanwhile, enjoy the break-in! like the damping settings...quite cool particularly given that the Arrakis is actively crossed over.

lloydelee21 July 31, 2013 17:16

Thanks Arnie, very interesting about VTL changing to 12BH7 after using the 6350 for more than a decade. The 12BH7 is probably easier to source and maybe lower distortion.

What I'm most interested in is if VTL managed to keep the Siegfried Series 2 sounding as "tube" like as pervious models.

If VTL changed the output transformer it could be months before it completely stops changing but it's certainly positive that you've gotten this much performance out of the box.

albertporter July 31, 2013 14:32

Hi Albert,

I did do some initial listening last night - it was great to hear my system again after 7 weeks.

Obviously my impressions are preliminary since the upgrade from the Siegfried to the new Series 2 Siegfried is basically a complete redesign of the entire audio path of the amplifier (and I had VTL provide all new tubes as well) and therefore some extensive break in will be required to fully assess the sound. But having said that, it was obvious as I listened last night, that the Series 2 Siegfried is quite a step up in sonic performance from the previous version. Even right out of the crates (and after about 30 minutes of warm up) the sound was more effortless and relaxed than the previous version with better transparency. After a few hours the soundstage began to open up and I could begin to hear what the new amps are capable of doing.

One of the new features on the Series 2 is an adjustable damping factor control to allow you to tailor the amps ability to control a particular speaker. It has 4 settings and since the Arrakis are bi amped with 2 pairs, I will need to experiment to find the optimum DF setting for the amps driving the mids and highs and the amps driving the bass of the Arrakis. I did use a higher DF setting last night on the bass amps and I could easily hear better control of the bass drivers than I had before (it was very obvious) but I will continue to experiment further to find the optimum settings for me.

Another change that VTL did was with the driver tubes - they aren't using dual 6350's per mono block any longer and have now switched to dual 12BH7 driver tubes and still use the 12AT7 input tube. Right now I have the stock 12BH7 and 12AT7 tubes that VTL provides but I will soon begin to experiment with some better sounding NOS 12AT7 input tubes.

babybear July 31, 2013 09:22

Please do post listening results, especially if you can separate the upgrade to Series 2 and what that delivers beyond the already excellent Siegfried.

albertporter July 31, 2013 01:42

My new Siegfried Series 2 amps arrived today! They are back in the system and warming up. Looking forward to listening tonight and learning more about the sonics of the new amps. Alot of breaking in to do - new amps, new tubes and the system hasn't been on for about 7 weeks.

babybear July 30, 2013 19:34

Hi Lloyd,

VTL confirmed that both pairs of the new Siegfried 2 amps shipped out from VTL on Thursday so I should have them here middle of next week. Really looking forward to hearing how they sound. I am pretty excited about the new Series 2 amps.

You might have told me already, but where will you be hearing the Altairs?
I do agree that since Andy runs Gryphon amps and Transparent cabling in his sound rooms with the Altairs that should be a great match.

babybear July 26, 2013 20:05

Look forward to reading all about them! I am hearing the Altairs hopefully in a few weeks which will give me a taste of the latest generation Rockport sound which I am really looking forward to, having heard earlier generation stuff and loved. As you may recall, I run Gryphon and Transparent Audio with a fairly vinyl-like front end (Zanden 4-box), so if you believe Andy Payor has a good ear (I do), Rockport should be a good place to look for someone like me.

lloydelee21 July 26, 2013 14:32

Hi Albert,

Thanks very much.

I am really looking forward to hearing the new Siegfried Series 2 version. I know that the audio circuit has been completely redesigned from input to output as well as they have added the adjustable damping factor control. I suspect that this feature will be very nice with the bi amped Arrakis especially for the Siegfrieds powering the bass drivers to provide great control over those dual 15" drivers per speaker.

babybear July 24, 2013 08:39

Hi John,

Amen to that - I am so looking forward to having the new amps back - it will have been almost 8 weeks once they are here mid next week since I have been able to listen to my system.

Part of the upgrade process at VTL was to do some burn in of the amps (partially to burn them in a little and more importantly to test them from a reliability point of view to insure they are stable and everything works correctly over a reasonable length of time).

Once they are here and up and running I will let you know so that you can come by and do some listening.

babybear July 24, 2013 08:27

Arnie, mark me as officially jealous.

I love my VTL 750, cannot imagine how the new Siegfried series 2 will sound.

albertporter July 24, 2013 00:01

Hi Arnie, really great news! I can't wait to hear em, and I bet u can't wait either! I suspect they might have to break in like brand new amps...

jfrech July 23, 2013 20:56

Spoke to VTL this week and both sets of my Siegfried mono blocks are in their final listening tests to validate their upgrade to the new Series 2 version. The Series 2 version is basically a new amplifier from the audio circuit point of view so this is very exciting. VTL hopes to ship them back to me later this week so I will soon have music again. And I am definitely looking forward to hear how the system sounds with the new Siegfried Series 2 amps.

babybear July 23, 2013 20:34

Hi Arnie,

Why -- thank you :-)

R2R is truly a blast! I'm glad you had an opportunity to audition analog reel...sine qua non ;-)

Vbr,

Sam

c1ferrari July 07, 2013 03:29

Hi Sam,

Thanks so much.

I took a look at your system - I bet it sounds superb as well.

Ah, the Revox R2R - I wish it were mine but it belongs to a friend who brought it over so that I could hear several of the Tape Project r2r tapes in my system and they were superb. I am slowly learning more about R2R decks and what source material is available. Maybe someday I will get one.

Arnie

babybear July 06, 2013 18:52

Hi,

Beautiful room and gear...I imagine the sound must be marvelous. I noticed a R2R deck...excellent :-)

Congrats!

Best regards,

Sam

c1ferrari July 06, 2013 14:17

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the suggestion. I had given that some thought, but then decided not to do it.

Given that I bi-amplify the Arrakis 2 via the Rockport active external crossover with 2 matched sets of the Siegfried mono blocks I knew that I didn't need any more power from my amps. And one of the new Series 2 features is an adjustable 4 position damping factor control that should allow me to get even better control of the speakers in general and specifically the twin 15" bass drivers per speaker regardless of which power tubes that I use. Plus, I like the sound from the Genalex Gold Lion KT88 re issue tubes that I have been using.

Arnie

babybear July 06, 2013 12:08

Babybear you may want VTL to convert them to KT-120 while at the factory.

jwm July 05, 2013 18:00