Greetings to the Forum

Just joined the club and wanted to send greetings to all ML friends.

I am in decision phase on the Vantage.

Happy to receive any suggestion on the best brand/model as far as the integrated amp or pre & amp.

thanks
L

Welcome to the site! You will find much info here.
Torry

You are right. After only 1 hour of intense reading I am more in that specific status of confusion that is probably typical of newbies.
I know I like the Vantage but I am stuck on the amp choice.
I have read almost all possible directions: great with Mc, ok or bad. Best with tubes or so so. Etc.
I really feel overwhelmed and my problem is that I do not really trust the retailers since they push for their brands.

Any help from real ML lovers is really appreciated.

Lotus said:

You are right. After only 1 hour of intense reading I am more in that specific status of confusion that is probably typical of newbies.
I know I like the Vantage but I am stuck on the amp choice.
I have read almost all possible directions: great with Mc, ok or bad. Best with tubes or so so. Etc.
I really feel overwhelmed and my problem is that I do not really trust the retailers since they push for their brands.

Any help from real ML lovers is really appreciated.

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You might want to do a search on the main forum. There have been a number of recent "what's the best amp" threads. You will get a different recommendation from everyone who posts here. The best thing you can do is go out and listen listen listen or try a home audition if possible.

Welcome Lotus,

I'm a recent new guy with the Vantage. They are my first ML speaker and wish I did not wait so long to take the plunge! I have a feeling that the Summit may be in my future but I'm pretty content right now.

As you can see in my sig, I have Mac gear. I have not figured out how to add my room to the "systems" page yet! To my ear, I am happy with it. I have not heard any distress when I have pushed it up to insane levels. In my opinion, the Vantage is not the speaker for White Zombie, Disturbed or Tool. They just didn't sound right to me. It may be my gear, I'm not certain but I don't listen to heavy metal all that much unless one of the kids comes home for the weekend.

As you'll find here as at other sites, some people prefer brand X over Y and have moved many pieces in and out of the equation. They are much more qualified to comment on a piece of gear than I am. I've come to the conclusion that the "best" piece of equipment is between the ears. It is your money and your system. If it sound good to you, that is all that matters unless you belong to the "piece of the month" club and like to swap in and out all the time. I like to listen to music, not equipment.

I can understand your concern over dealers. That is why I'd recommend finding a dealer who has a wide variety of equipment and is willing to work with you. I"m fortunate to have found such a dealer and have had alot of fun getting to where I am. My dealer does not sell ML. But he carries a wide line of other equipment which he does not push on one way or the other. He has "his" favorite but never pushed it on me. When I was there a couple weeks ago, he made me a sweet offer on some Mac 501 monoblocks. He said they would be a nice upgrade over my 352 and would blend well with ML. Sales talk? Yes, probably a little, but I heard the same thing at several other sites as well as here. Could not get the 501's past the wife at this point. Maybe next year.

Try setting a budget. If you can afford $X, look/listen at stuff in your budget. Realize that if your budget is a small AVR, you will probably not get the full potential of your Vantage's. They may still sound fine with a AVR, just not to potential. Look at what other people are using, and get an average cost of all the pieces. If the average is say 4K for an amp, decide if you can swing it or not. If not, that is ok. You don't have to. Your just getting an idea of an (I'll use this term carefully) "average" system. I'm not saying anybody has an average system here, just an average dollar amount. Some of these guys are using some way over average stuff and mean no disrespect toward them. I have another expensive hobby that competes for our hobby dollars every month. I try to stay within budget, but sometimes I just blow the budget.

In the end, buy what you like.

Gordon

Lotus, welcome to the club. There are lots of great amp and preamp choices for the Vantages. Give us an idea of your budget, room size, and general tendencies (prefer the warm, mellow sound of tubes, or the simplicity, dynamics and bass slam of solid state?). If you want the best of both worlds, you can do what a lot of us do and go with a tube preamp and solid state amps.

I don't recommend too many integrateds. To get the best out of your Vantages, it is much better to go with separate pre and amp. Keep reading the forum and you will learn more about the different options out there. Peruse the member's systems and see what the folks on the forum are using. Most of all, get out there and audition some equipment and trust your own ears. Good luck and enjoy the ride.

You did not say what you want to use the system for. Is it 2-channel or home theatre, or a mix (and what percentage). If it is HT only, save your money and buy something cheaper than a Vantage.

Hey Lotus,

If you really have to stick to an integrated, I recommend some that I've heard which sounded pretty good. I liked the Musical Fidelity A5 and the Krell 400xi integrated.

Those should be found for under $2K.

Thanks everybody for your great comments and warm welcome! So nice to hear and read your feedback.
Ok, let me start to share more details so that we can be more specific.
My budget is around 4-5K max, I wish I could more but this is what I have. My room is not really defined since I am not sure where the best location is in my house, in any case it is a temporary situation since I will probably change house in max 2 years. I love the sound of the Vantage and plan to keep them in my next houses for a while.
In terms of sound, I prefer the tubes but I am not sure I can get it with my budget. I would love the tube preamp and SS amp.
They system will be 100% dedicated to 2-way audio. At the moment I do not plan to use if for HT.

Has anyone listed to the Vantage with the NAD M3?

Lastly, I have found a couple of great offers on Audiogon for Vantages but it looks like that ML does not transfer warranty, that means, if I buy them used they will not have any warranty. Is this true and if yes, do you know how to manage this topic?
By the way, I would save appr. 1.5k that I would use for upgrading to a tube pre amp and SS amp.

thanks a lot for your great help to a fresh newbie!

I would go used Vantages or a Vista... you can get away with either one. As long as they are well taken cared of, you should have no problems with either speaker. The time during which a problem would occur (knock on wood) is years and years ahead of you, probably when the warranty has run out if you had bought new in the first place.

Go used if you want to save some dough.

ML does not transfer the warranty to the new owner. I think they should. Chances are if they are working fine when you buy them, you will be OK for many years. You can click on my user name "Tav1" over to the left to see my other posts, one of which is a discussion about the lack of transferable warranty.
Torry

Lotus, if you only have ~$2K to spend, then an integrated makes a lot of sense. I have both Krell 400xi (transistor) and Jolida JD 1000RC (tube) integrateds. Either can drive my Aerius MLs to very high, clean levels. Personally, I prefer the Jolida sound, but the Krell sounds very good, also. I plan in the future to go with separates (preamp and amp) and will relegate these amps to secondary and tertiary systems or pass them along to my daughter. Good luck with your choice.

Joey_V said:

I would go used Vantages or a Vista... you can get away with either one. As long as they are well taken cared of, you should have no problems with either speaker. The time during which a problem would occur (knock on wood) is years and years ahead of you, probably when the warranty has run out if you had bought new in the first place.

Go used if you want to save some dough.

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Agreed that problems can occur years down the road. but also, there is "infant mortality", where a brand new speaker straight out of the box fails to work, so I would be leery of buying anything unused but without a warranty.

slowGEEZR said:

Lotus, if you only have ~$2K to spend, then an integrated makes a lot of sense. I have both Krell 400xi (transistor) and Jolida JD 1000RC (tube) integrateds. Either can drive my Aerius MLs to very high, clean levels. Personally, I prefer the Jolida sound, but the Krell sounds very good, also. I plan in the future to go with separates (preamp and amp) and will relegate these amps to secondary and tertiary systems or pass them along to my daughter. Good luck with your choice.

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maybe my statement was not clear, when I say 4-5K max I am talking about the amp/preamp.
what you think about the AR PH5 and the Mcintosh 275 tubes combination?
I read a review on HI-FI NEWS that was run with those two.
anyone here who has heard / tried those?
thanks

Lotus,

Let me throw you a curve ball. What are you going to use as a source? CD, turntable etc, etc.

Do you have a fairly good one? If not, you may want to consider putting that in the budget also. There is this synergy thing and if say your cd player is a very inexpensive model, your going to hear or not hear it depending on your point of view.

Not trying to bury you in debt here, just some food for thought.

Gordon

Gordon said:

Lotus,

Let me throw you a curve ball. What are you going to use as a source? CD, turntable etc, etc.

Do you have a fairly good one? If not, you may want to consider putting that in the budget also. There is this synergy thing and if say your cd player is a very inexpensive model, your going to hear or not hear it depending on your point of view.

Not trying to bury you in debt here, just some food for thought.

Gordon

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i am planning to have a CD as a source. I do not have a good one and I would also need to go for a nice one.
last weekend I went to listen to the Naim Supernait integrated amp and the arcam entry level cd. the store told me that the Supernait has a fantastic DAC and i would not need to have a nice CD since the Supernait would do all the leg work for the CD.
but if I go for the AR PH5 and the Mc275 than I guess I still need a nice CD.

right now, I am still in confusion phase

the point is that with 4-5k for the int amp or preamp/amp, i feel it is a better choice the preamp/amp (maybe used on audiogon).

Any advise on CD? I have kind of left that as a last step after I figure the amplification out.

thanks

My suggestion is to go ahead and get the best amp/preamp combination you can get right now and worry about the source later. Once you have a great amp and preamp in the system and are familiar with their sound, then you can concentrate on finding (and funding) the best CD player for your system. Take your time and take it piece by piece, rather than trying to figure everything out at once.

With your budget, you have many choices. Just remember that those 'Logans will tell you all about the limitations of the upstream components.

With that in mind, I would strongly recommend that you look at the gear by ROTEL. Quality is high, aesthetic value is high, and the sound is damn near the best bang for the buck in all of HiFi....

A CD player, a Pre and a stereo amp should fall within your budget and drive the ever-lovin' s**t out of those Vantages.

Happy shopping !!!

~VDR

Lotus said:

i am planning to have a CD as a source. I do not have a good one and I would also need to go for a nice one.
last weekend I went to listen to the Naim Supernait integrated amp and the arcam entry level cd. the store told me that the Supernait has a fantastic DAC and i would not need to have a nice CD since the Supernait would do all the leg work for the CD.
but if I go for the AR PH5 and the Mc275 than I guess I still need a nice CD.

right now, I am still in confusion phase

Click to expand...

Lotus,

First off.....welcome ! Now with respect to your confusion, or shall I say mine ! you have said you plan on CD being used as your source, then why the interest in a ARC PH-5 Phono-Pre ??

FWIW, my system is based around Vantage's and my current amplification are a pair of Rogue M-150 MonoBlocks that I am very pleased with. While not an Esoteric High End name , IMO they perform well beyond their price point.

Looking back on what Kruppy said you have to decide which direction(tubes or SS) you want to go and let your ears and pocketbook make the wise descission.

twich54 said:

Looking back on what Kruppy said you have to decide which direction(tubes or SS) you want to go and let your ears and pocketbook make the wise descission.

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Dave, is it not the other way round ? i.e. let your ears make you decide what to buy rather than first deciding on tubes or SS ? This of course coming from a tube aficionado