Robin
Well-known member
My audition of the conrad-johnson LP-140 mono-blocks occurred at a high-end audio store in Berkeley, CA. The listening room was approximately 22’ x 15’, and was appropriately sonically treated diffusers and absorption tubular traps in all corners and walls. The listening room was carpeted. I was seated in a standard chair in the sweet spot.
The equipment in used for this audition:
Speakers………………. ~ Wilson Sophia’s
Source…………………. ~ Ayre Audio’s C5 CD/SACD player.
Preamp………………… ~ conrad-johnson CT-6
Speaker / IC Cables…… ~ Synergistic Reseach Ref.
Amplifiers……………. ..~ Two conrad-johnson LP-140 mono-blocks (review).
First, I need to say these conrad-johnson tubed mono-blocks are huge, about 130 lbs. each, quite impressively, if I do say so myself. They were set-up in the center of the room on Grand-Prix single amp stands about six inches off the floor. Those Grand-Prix amp. stands looked very cool. All of the other electronic gear was mounted on Composite Products ~ three (clear ½ inch plexi- glass) shelves rack, which was awesome.
I brought my own CD’s and SACD’s of course, I asked the sales rep. to begin with Chris Thile’s ~ Not All Who Wander Are Lost (SACD). Spacifically track #7 called, “Club G.R.O.S.S.”. This track is superb for just Mandolin and Sax (no vocals). I had auditioned this same song with the McIntosh MC275’s about 8 – 10 months ago. The sales rep. happily complied, adding he’d never heard Chris Thile before. From the opening notes of music the music came forward and immediately positioned the two performers in the room. They were their right their with me in the listening room – the Mandolin and the alto Sax in all their full-on glorious splendor. The bass was there but the mid-range and highs were so smooth and sweet. The clearness and beautiful timber of these instruments were excellent. The sonic imagining of each note was wonderfully very easy on my ears. I could listen all day to this kind of beautiful music.
I realized almost immediately that the speakers were in no-way my lovely Ascent i - electrostatic speakers… The Wilson – Sophia’s were in no-way as sweet and beautiful on the mid range or highs as my Ascent i’s. In addition, the bass speakers of the three-way Sophia’s was not even comparable to my Descent subwoofer but one does what one must allow for these kind of things when auditioning amplifiers in store…
I was able to distinguish the simply marvelous nature of the Ayre C5 ~ CD/SACD source player. This player is simply a wonderful sounding player. It must have been influencing the details of the music to a stellar degree. It was especially lovely and detailed in delivery for the SACD’s and the one Redbook CD I brought for audition. I now have moved-up the Ayre C5, on my list to the number two spot just behind the Marantz SA-7S1 CD/SACD player. The Arye C5 was quick accurate and most importantly beautiful to listen to.
Back to the main reason I was auditioning in the store, the CJ ~ LP-140 mono-blocks. I was listening hard to see if these beauties rounded off the highs at all. I was looking to see just how the CJ ~ LP-140 mono-blocks handled the next CD Eva Cassidy’s – Live at Blues Alley specifically the song “Wonderful World”. In addition to the first five tracks of Pink Floyd’s – Dark Side Of The Moon SACD. I am very happy to report, I was not disappointed at all… The answer was the highs were absolutely not rolled off, they were clear and their was a thereness to the women’s voices not harsh or shrill but lovely and purely positioned in the air just in front of the amplifiers themselves. These amplifiers did gave a presence to the music. The Rockn’ Roll songs of Pink Floyd were as I had never heard them before as far as sweet clearness of presentation.
Adjusting the volume of the LP-140’s sounded just lovely at all reasonable loudness levels for the audition. I listened for over an hour. Conrad-johnson LP-140 mono-blocks are convincingly lovely.
So, I thought I had finished my audition….
I looked up sweetly at my sales rep. batted my baby blues and sheepishly asked if I could audition the newest VTL 450, tubed mono-blocks. I knew the owner of the VTL company had just delivered these beauties to the store, personally, the day before from Chico, CA. The VTL 450 mono-blocks were set-up in a different listening room of the store. My sales rep. said, without hesitation, yes we can do that…. And with that this wonderful store flew into action. Two other big strong guys came in, unplugged the CJ LP-140 mono-blocks and whisked them out of the room, one by one. I protested saying, ‘I would be glad to go into the next room and listen to the VTL’s’. My sales rep. quickly said, ‘Oh no…, you need to compare the VTL’s with the very same electronic gear and listening room, which I had listened to the CJ ~ LP-140 mono-blocks’. Sooooo, I sat back down and these wonderful gentlemen brought in the stunningly beautiful, VTL 450 mono-blocks… 300 watts into 8 ohms each, they are the new, self-biasing, electronic tube designed mono-blocks, weighing in at upwards of 140 lbs. each. New, they cost about $500.00 (USD) more than the CJ ~ LP140 mono-block pair, which were a cool $13K (New), so $13.5K for the VTL 450 mono-blocks…
I listened to the exact CD and SACD’s I had listened to before with the CJ ~ LP-140 mono-blocks. From the very beginning notes I heard the differences. The VTL 450 mono-blocks were presenting the music closer to the center of the room. It was like the musicians had all moved up a foot or two. The bass notes were deeper and had more resonance, timber. Each note popped with a more authoritativeness and much more clear and with a smoother cleanness than the CJ LP-140’s. These amplifiers did what the CJ’s had just done with the music during my previous audition only these VTL 450 mono-blocks were presenting the music in a next step-up. The tube sweetness was there, yes… The timber and imagining was there, yes… The VTL 450’s were delivering the same high quality sound as the CJ ~ LP-140’s only with more tubed timber, definition sweetness and authority.
I was so blown-away… Then something unusual happened…. I started to cry when hearing Eva Cassidy’s, Wonderful World being played again through these lovely VTL 450 tubed mono-blocks… I remembered the last time I had been brought to tears by lovely sweet music; it was when I had auditioned the McIntosh MC275’s audition about 8 – 10 months ago. I started thinking..., was I hearing the same sound? Were these VTL 450’s producing the quality I had heard before? I though… I listened some more… And I concluded..., Yes!!! This was the same sound I had heard the MC275 making on the same Eva Cassidy song, which I had brought to that audition as well. I decided, well, I'll listen to Pink Floyd next to decide for sure. And as the captivatingly exquisite “Dark Side Of The Moon” played and the first five tracks came forth, I knew the VTL 450’s were producing a very similar not exact match to the McIntosh MC275’s probably a little better but not by much. They were very, very close though, the sound of the VTL’s and the Mac's. Just lovely...
All in all I think the audition went extremely well. It took most of a Saturday, what with the long drive from Calistoga. I shook everyone’s hand and thanked everyone two and three times for the wonderful audition. The only think my sales rep. said which showed his audio naiveté was he thought I should go for the Wilson – Sophia’s instead of those electrostatic speakers… He said, “What did you call them?” I said, ‘Martin Logan – Summits.” I had told him, before that I was only interested in ML Summits for speakers. He didn’t know what I meant, somehow I don’t think he ever will…
The equipment in used for this audition:
Speakers………………. ~ Wilson Sophia’s
Source…………………. ~ Ayre Audio’s C5 CD/SACD player.
Preamp………………… ~ conrad-johnson CT-6
Speaker / IC Cables…… ~ Synergistic Reseach Ref.
Amplifiers……………. ..~ Two conrad-johnson LP-140 mono-blocks (review).
First, I need to say these conrad-johnson tubed mono-blocks are huge, about 130 lbs. each, quite impressively, if I do say so myself. They were set-up in the center of the room on Grand-Prix single amp stands about six inches off the floor. Those Grand-Prix amp. stands looked very cool. All of the other electronic gear was mounted on Composite Products ~ three (clear ½ inch plexi- glass) shelves rack, which was awesome.
I brought my own CD’s and SACD’s of course, I asked the sales rep. to begin with Chris Thile’s ~ Not All Who Wander Are Lost (SACD). Spacifically track #7 called, “Club G.R.O.S.S.”. This track is superb for just Mandolin and Sax (no vocals). I had auditioned this same song with the McIntosh MC275’s about 8 – 10 months ago. The sales rep. happily complied, adding he’d never heard Chris Thile before. From the opening notes of music the music came forward and immediately positioned the two performers in the room. They were their right their with me in the listening room – the Mandolin and the alto Sax in all their full-on glorious splendor. The bass was there but the mid-range and highs were so smooth and sweet. The clearness and beautiful timber of these instruments were excellent. The sonic imagining of each note was wonderfully very easy on my ears. I could listen all day to this kind of beautiful music.
I realized almost immediately that the speakers were in no-way my lovely Ascent i - electrostatic speakers… The Wilson – Sophia’s were in no-way as sweet and beautiful on the mid range or highs as my Ascent i’s. In addition, the bass speakers of the three-way Sophia’s was not even comparable to my Descent subwoofer but one does what one must allow for these kind of things when auditioning amplifiers in store…
I was able to distinguish the simply marvelous nature of the Ayre C5 ~ CD/SACD source player. This player is simply a wonderful sounding player. It must have been influencing the details of the music to a stellar degree. It was especially lovely and detailed in delivery for the SACD’s and the one Redbook CD I brought for audition. I now have moved-up the Ayre C5, on my list to the number two spot just behind the Marantz SA-7S1 CD/SACD player. The Arye C5 was quick accurate and most importantly beautiful to listen to.
Back to the main reason I was auditioning in the store, the CJ ~ LP-140 mono-blocks. I was listening hard to see if these beauties rounded off the highs at all. I was looking to see just how the CJ ~ LP-140 mono-blocks handled the next CD Eva Cassidy’s – Live at Blues Alley specifically the song “Wonderful World”. In addition to the first five tracks of Pink Floyd’s – Dark Side Of The Moon SACD. I am very happy to report, I was not disappointed at all… The answer was the highs were absolutely not rolled off, they were clear and their was a thereness to the women’s voices not harsh or shrill but lovely and purely positioned in the air just in front of the amplifiers themselves. These amplifiers did gave a presence to the music. The Rockn’ Roll songs of Pink Floyd were as I had never heard them before as far as sweet clearness of presentation.
Adjusting the volume of the LP-140’s sounded just lovely at all reasonable loudness levels for the audition. I listened for over an hour. Conrad-johnson LP-140 mono-blocks are convincingly lovely.
So, I thought I had finished my audition….
I looked up sweetly at my sales rep. batted my baby blues and sheepishly asked if I could audition the newest VTL 450, tubed mono-blocks. I knew the owner of the VTL company had just delivered these beauties to the store, personally, the day before from Chico, CA. The VTL 450 mono-blocks were set-up in a different listening room of the store. My sales rep. said, without hesitation, yes we can do that…. And with that this wonderful store flew into action. Two other big strong guys came in, unplugged the CJ LP-140 mono-blocks and whisked them out of the room, one by one. I protested saying, ‘I would be glad to go into the next room and listen to the VTL’s’. My sales rep. quickly said, ‘Oh no…, you need to compare the VTL’s with the very same electronic gear and listening room, which I had listened to the CJ ~ LP-140 mono-blocks’. Sooooo, I sat back down and these wonderful gentlemen brought in the stunningly beautiful, VTL 450 mono-blocks… 300 watts into 8 ohms each, they are the new, self-biasing, electronic tube designed mono-blocks, weighing in at upwards of 140 lbs. each. New, they cost about $500.00 (USD) more than the CJ ~ LP140 mono-block pair, which were a cool $13K (New), so $13.5K for the VTL 450 mono-blocks…
I listened to the exact CD and SACD’s I had listened to before with the CJ ~ LP-140 mono-blocks. From the very beginning notes I heard the differences. The VTL 450 mono-blocks were presenting the music closer to the center of the room. It was like the musicians had all moved up a foot or two. The bass notes were deeper and had more resonance, timber. Each note popped with a more authoritativeness and much more clear and with a smoother cleanness than the CJ LP-140’s. These amplifiers did what the CJ’s had just done with the music during my previous audition only these VTL 450 mono-blocks were presenting the music in a next step-up. The tube sweetness was there, yes… The timber and imagining was there, yes… The VTL 450’s were delivering the same high quality sound as the CJ ~ LP-140’s only with more tubed timber, definition sweetness and authority.
I was so blown-away… Then something unusual happened…. I started to cry when hearing Eva Cassidy’s, Wonderful World being played again through these lovely VTL 450 tubed mono-blocks… I remembered the last time I had been brought to tears by lovely sweet music; it was when I had auditioned the McIntosh MC275’s audition about 8 – 10 months ago. I started thinking..., was I hearing the same sound? Were these VTL 450’s producing the quality I had heard before? I though… I listened some more… And I concluded..., Yes!!! This was the same sound I had heard the MC275 making on the same Eva Cassidy song, which I had brought to that audition as well. I decided, well, I'll listen to Pink Floyd next to decide for sure. And as the captivatingly exquisite “Dark Side Of The Moon” played and the first five tracks came forth, I knew the VTL 450’s were producing a very similar not exact match to the McIntosh MC275’s probably a little better but not by much. They were very, very close though, the sound of the VTL’s and the Mac's. Just lovely...
All in all I think the audition went extremely well. It took most of a Saturday, what with the long drive from Calistoga. I shook everyone’s hand and thanked everyone two and three times for the wonderful audition. The only think my sales rep. said which showed his audio naiveté was he thought I should go for the Wilson – Sophia’s instead of those electrostatic speakers… He said, “What did you call them?” I said, ‘Martin Logan – Summits.” I had told him, before that I was only interested in ML Summits for speakers. He didn’t know what I meant, somehow I don’t think he ever will…
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