|   VTL Tube Products: Reliabiltiy? | Joe France
Jun 11, 2003 7:49 PM | | I am getting to like the VTL I-85 a lot more since my most recent listening session. But over the years there's been some industry talk about reliability on VTL that has dissuaded me from serioulsy thinking about their products. One tube dealer I know will not retube a VTL amplifier and he says they eat tubes, and you can't guarantee any tube life. The integrated has a lot of good qualities, but its a 4-EL 34 power tube system that puts out 85 Watts. Isn't that pushing the tubes a bit? Are you going to significantly reduce tube life with that kind of power demand? I may be wrong, please VTL fans out there tell me what you think. VTL seems to get either love or hate reaction from people, and sometimes I am not sure if its's about the amps or David Manely and his "reputation". I know he is not involved in VTL, but maybe they get negaitve reactions by association. Anyway, back to tube life,I have a Copland integrated amp that is vey nice but the same tubes put out 30Watts of conservatively managed power, and I have yet to change tubes after 3.5 years of moderate use. Not bad. Yet the VTL has a great soundstage and musicality, a headphone jack I need, and pretty nice people out in Chico,CA. What do you think? |
| re: VTL Tube Products: Reliabiltiy? | STEVENK
Jul 6, 2003 5:43 PM | | I think a lot of the poor reliability talk is old baggage that goes back to the Manley days when David Manley ran the company. His emphasis was on design, and not production quality. Since Luke Manley has taken over the company, however, I think you'll find the production quality has improved immensely. I own a pair of 1996 MB-125 monoblocks that I bought used a year ago. I believe this was the first year for this model. The previous owner bought them new and drove a pair of Quad 57's with them for 6 years and I've been driving a pair of Magnepan MG12's with them since. He retubed them once with new power tubes and I recently retubed the EL-34's again as I lost two tubes. So that's 3 sets of tubes in 7 years. Both these speakers are difficult loads for amps in general so this may give you some idea of the tube reliability. Other than that the only maintenance the original owner had was to replace a power switch. I've had no other problems with them and I've done a lot of listening and tube rolling on both the power tubes and the drivers. I also switch back and forth between triode and tetrode modes depending on the music I'm listening to which also wears on the tubes. I'm very pleased with the soundstage, wonderful midrange and depth of these amps. I would not hesitate to recommend them as I think they're a tremendous value.
steve |
| re: VTL Tube Products: Reliabiltiy? | Joe France
Jul 30, 2003 8:16 PM | | Steve:
Thanks for your comments. They are just what I was looking for. Even the VTL website says that their designs push the power output tubes, I can't remember the exact words, but push them to something like their "limits". I will check this, put the point I was wondering about was whether that was a good idea, I mean putting out 85Watts on 4 EL-34s (the integrated) seems like a lot. Most other amps using 4-EL34s put out about half that. Therefore my question about reliability, and perhaps I should have emphasized tube life. By the way, I emailed VTL on this issue and they never replied, perhaps they thought I was being a wise-guy, which I really wasn't. Anyway, your comments are appreciated. Thanks
Joe |
| re: VTL Tube Products: Reliabiltiy? | STEVENK
Aug 12, 2003 3:58 AM | | That is where tubes sound best, when they are up in their linear region. That's why VTL drives them that way. Again, my amps have needed three sets of power tubes in 7 years so that's about 2.3 years of use per set on the average. I find that acceptable for the quality of sound and value (power output per dollar) of VTL amps since my speakers are very power hungry. They're a good match. If ultimate power output is not a priority with you or you want much longer tube life, you probably should consider other tube amp manufacturers.
steve |
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