For many listeners, talk of VTL amps calls to mind the Siegfrieds and the MB-450s, something that reflects the presence of the various models in the market place and, in turn their long association with Wilson speakers. In turn, that reflects the fact that Dave Wilson used Siegfrieds at home, because the VTL’s strengths dovetailed perfectly with the Wilson speaker’s demands. Their combination of weight, power and dynamics delivered just the sort of unflappable life and musical energy the awkward and power-hungry Wilsons thrived on. Their stability, linearity and bandwidth delivered the extension and transparency that underpinned the soundstage the speakers so readily reproduced, while incidentally delivering the timing integrity necessary to make the alignment of the different driver modules gel.
But the times they are a changin’ – and Wilson speakers ain’t what they used to be: they’re a lot better. More integrated and refined, they are more sensitive and easier to drive, characteristics that alter the demands placed on partnering amps and the viability of the different models. Having spent considerable time with the S-400 and the Siegfried, in the same system or used in tandem, I have a clear understanding of what they deliver, their relative advantages and how they interface with the pre-amps. In other words – how they sit in the range.
The bottom-end transparency, control and authority of the Siegfried pretty much sets the standard for tube amps. In comparison the S-400 sounds rounded and lacking in leading edge definition and the overall shape of notes. However, what the S-400 does do is get the notes, their weight and pitch, in the right place at the right time. That’s crucial, because it doesn’t undermine the amp’s greatest strength. From the mid-bass on up, but especially through the broad midrange, the S-400 has a vitality, articulation, immediacy and transparency that the Siegfrieds cannot match. It’s a characteristic that is even more apparent if you are using KT88 output tubes: you hear it in terms of vocal immediacy and instrumental texture; you hear it in the almost physical expression of a string player’s bowing or the attack and weight of piano notes. It makes music more engaging, communicative and expressive and, for me it trumps the bottom-end qualities of the mono-blocs, musically more important than the sonic properties that come from that low-frequency definition – just as long as your speakers don’t absolutely demand that degree of drive and control that only the Siegfrieds provide.
A shifting (audio) landscape…
With the shift towards more benign (everything’s relative) amplifier loads, the balance of power demand in Wilson speakers has opened the door to amps like the S-400 and their musical advantages. Interestingly, you can draw an exact parallel between the MB-450 – always considered mandatory on the Sashas and earlier Watt/Puppy incarnations – and the MB-185, whose midrange delicacy and colour, dynamic agility, texture and intimacy will, I suspect, be meat and drink to the DAWs. It’s not something I’ve tried, but then I have heard the 185 and its EL34 output tubes deliver sensational results from both Focal and Stenheim speakers – and the current Wilsons are definitely heading that way.
