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I’m sure many of you know, or have heard of, Craig’s (NOSValve’s) work. I recently was able to audition this amp in my system for a period of about a month. And I’ll tell you, this is one killer amp. Not only does it look nice, but it sounds great as well.

I’ve listened to Grumpy’s VRD monoblocks on several occasions, and this amp is every bit their equal. Possibly better - depending on your space needs. Monoblocks can use up your rack fast. This is a single chassis amp that delivers about 45 watts per channel - compared to the monoblock's 60 watts. But you wouldn't know it.

The sound of this sucker is spectacular. I really liked how it controlled bass in my system. Instantly, I noticed how bass notes decayed more realistically and had more impact. Compared to my AES Superamp, this amp had a larger and more immediate prescence. The scale of singers and instruments with this amp was life size. The Cary amp was “small” in comparison.

The Superamp has a great ability to deliver midrange – it’s lush and liquid and delivers vocals that float in mid air. Craig’s amp did all this as well, if not better. What was interesting was that Craig’s amp was able to deliver the midrange as well as sparkling airy highs. This is something the AES amp sometimes struggles with. It’s single-ended and I get the impression that it’s rolling off some highs and some lows (it struggles with lows in particular). Not so with this amp – it just plain muscles through bass and shimmers and sparkles.

If you ever get a chance to listen to one of these, snap it up. Many thanks to Craig for the swap/audition. I’m sure he’s glad to have the amp back. Me, I miss it bad.

Jeff

I'm sure Craig can fill in the technical details on this amp. I do know that I auditioned the amp with NOS (what else from Craig?) Tungsol 6550 outputs. I think the input tubes were Mullard CV4003s?

BTW Craig claims this is 58lbs shipped. Felt more like 70lbs.....guess I need to do a few more reps:D I can't say enough good things about this amp - the iron speaks for itself:thmbsp:

Craig makes nice amps. Less than a handful of folks in the country that stands behind their products in the manner Craig does.

The amp was a real nice match with your speakers imo :)

Just a sensational amp. Had the privilege of very many hours of listening enjoyment with a couple of them now. If it ever comes time to upgrade the CJ, Craig will be getting the cash.

The amp was a real nice match with your speakers imo :)

The cherry veneer on the amp was a perfect match with my speakers as well. Reminded me of your amps and speakers......well not as nice wood. Hard to compete with cocabola:yes:

Craig even remarked how close the cherry veneers matched.

I'm assuming you meant sound wise though:D I agree.

Jeff

One aspect I'd be interested in hearing from Craig on is the vintage 6550 tubes that were in the amp. Did these ENHANCE the bass? I got a tremendous amount of pretty clean bass with this amp. Just wondering if a tube roll would change things? I probably should have rolled some tubes but I was pretty pleased overall. So what about newer production tubes? Same bass?

Jeff

I never tried NOS outputs in my VRD's simply cause of cost. When my valve arts went south there was a huge lapse between listening so I cant really say if the new gold lions were better. I do like what I hear thought.

Sure Craig will chime in.

Nice review on a great amp. I've been privileged to hear several pairs of Craig's amps, and a beautiful set of his VRDs will never leave my system. :music: And yes, there are few people that will stand behind their equipment like Craig.

From what I recall, Craig has posted in the past that he does not believe that you will hear a big difference with NOS output tubes with his amps because of their design and quality parts. In other words, they were designed to sound great with newer output tubes.

I'm sure that at some point, however, that I will try a quad of NOS output tubes - just because.......

Carl:

The VRDs are indeed nice amps. I was trying to figure out if new production tubes would give me a little less bass. My speaks tend NOT to be bass shy so....I'd like to find a tube for this stereo amp that delivered good bass but in moderation. BUT perhaps as you say Craig's amps aint that picky about tubes.

I've heard Grumpy's VRD monoblocks and they kick butt.

Jeff

I can tell you that in my VRDs (that were pre owned) the Original type Valve Arts (I had to buy the set) sound wonderful...the Electro Harmonix KT-88s that mine came with (from the original owner) were much less so...the KT90 Type 2 Ei's were my favorite (perhaps because I had much more listening time on them) for bass but were sharper in their highs...PLUS they were difficult to keep biased...
Craig was very helpful to me especially in light of the fact that I didn't buy these from him...but Craig never tried to color my view of the Tubes...in fact...Craig asked me MY thoughts on each of these Tubes as I went through them...as I say...mine came with the Ei KT-90 type 2s and had the best bass...the highs were a bit shrill...the Electro Harmonix KT-88EHs were bland to my ear...the Original Equipment type Valve Art KT-88s have plenty of bass...nice mids and a smoother high to my ears than the others...
Craig's right up there as one of the best...been VERY helpful to me especially as I don't have anywhere near the Tube knowledge of you guys...

With my NOSValves VRDs I am running a Juicy Music Blueberry MkI and a Heart/Marantz Tube CDP through AK-4 crossovered Klipschorns.
Bill

Thanks for the info. I'm also running KT90s in my AES Superamp (but type 3s) and I hear you about the bass factor with these tubes. Although in my system I think the highs are anything but sharp.

Interesting too what you say about the EH tubes since I've heard a lot of positive press on these. I have a set and ran them momentarily (literally) in my Superamp but didn't like the loss of bass compared to the KT90s I got with this tube. I guess with any tube, you've got to try them first to get an idea of how they'll respond for your ears in your system and in your room.

Valve Arts are on my list.

And Craig IS one of the best:thmbsp:

Jeff

If my memory serves me Craig mentioned that I may want to look elsewhere then the valve arts when it was time to re tube mine. Something about QC probs and short tube life.

Jeff,

Wow thanks for the great review it was not expected or required. I glanced at this thread a week or so ago when Mike Williams mentioned it and meant to come back when more comments or maybe some questions surfaced but it slipped my mind until this morning.

Bass....well I have to say you are the very first to somewhat say you'd like to curtail it a bit ;) or did you mean you wanted to Be sure it would remain with a stock tube set? The NOS Tungsol tubes I had in that amp most likely had little to do with the bass response or over response?. Some 5 or 6 years ago I used the Tungsol 6550 exclusively because I could not stand the sound of any current production Russian made KT88 at the time in my then highly modified Mark III amps (to machine sounding to me). Around that time I was surf-in eBay for KT-88/6550's and found a set of Penta Lab Golden Aero Chinese made KT88 for a song and bought them for the heck of it. When I got them I was shocked at the sound!! They sounded at least as good as my $500 set of Tungsols and in the end proved to be very reliable like 8000 hours reliable before I dropped one like an idiot and broke it... I then started researching the origin of these tubes and found that Valve Arts were very similar in sound and construction, made in the same chinese factory as the Penta Labs.. After years in the field the Valve Art proved to be not as reliable as the Penta but it cost a bit less... Lately the construction of the Valve Art has changed for the worse from a reliability stand point (may improve over time). So for the time being I'm in search of a new production tube to use at a reasonable price. The Penta Lab tube however has not changed (although no longer called golden aero) and is available from www.dougstubes.com $150 a quad retail I may end up going that route or the Tungsol reissue at $125 a quad. Sonically though I prefer the Penta Labs of these two. The Genelax reissue is a best Russian made KT88 I've ever heard but IMHO way over priced...I still prefer the sound of the Penta KT88 to the Genelax reissue.

As far a molding the sound to your liking IMHO much more to be gained in the small signal tube location especially the 12AX7 input/driver tube.

One more tidbit the wood chassis of the amp
1) It's not veneer but solid wood.

2)That amp was actually Maple with Cherry stain but I do build them with solid Cherry, Maple or Walnut standard or what ever a customer can dream up and is willing to pay for..... Heck I did one set out a solid Cocobola with 100% Gold plating of all metal surfaces.....bling bling...

Let me know if you (or anyone else) have any other questions and again thanks for the great review! I'll say I agree lots to love about this amp.

Cheers Craig

I was fortunate enough to have a pair of Craig's VRD Mono amps and I can say without hesitation that you will not find a better sounding amp/amps for the money. Craig is also very accessible and willing to assist with any question you may have.

They are also attractive which always helps and can be tailored to your desires.

I have only owned the VRD's but was totally satisfied with the sonic qualities on my Khorns and actually sounde much better than my vintage McIntosh MC-275! Not a knock on McIntosh but :thmbsp::thmbsp: for Craig and his VRD's!

Barry

Thanks for all the replies to this.

I really enjoyed this amp. I have been contemplating purchasing something a tad more powerful than my Superamp for some time. This amp seemed to fill the bill nicely. Now on to the cash part:scratch2:

I liked the bass especially but with some recordings the bass was just too damn much - perhaps the recordings fault as well. I'm thinking in particular of Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's "Raising Sand" LP. There were others that I'm not recalling right at this moment....

I expect some tube rolling with the drivers may indeed help this. And perhaps some bass traps in my room. One thing though it's a good kind of problem to have - a lot better than too little bass.

Thanks again Craig for swapping with me. A very enlightening experience.

Jeff