After perusing this thread for months and hearing about tube amps bring out the best of the VC, I decided to bite the bullet and get one. I found a good deal on a custom amp, the Ultrasonic Studios Citadel that reportedly works well with dynamics as well as planars.
I finally got the interconnects that allow the amp to work its best - in PMs with the builder even though it has both RCA and XLR inputs, the XLRs sound better. Because I have the XLRs from the Chord Dave dedicated to the ATC speakers, I found a work-around by using my audio-gd Master 9 as a preamp with RCAs into the audo-gd and then xlrs to the Citadel. I heard of this trick by browsing the Susqvara thread as those are notoriously hard to drive and the Master 9 preamp reportedly adds enough muscle to drive them well when using tubes. Plus, it makes a-b comparison of the solid state and tube amp a breeze. And even after a few days of using the tube amp, I can say with certainty that complements the VC sound signature well.
Tonight, for instance, I did a deep dive on a Qobuz playlist I found - “1990 in 50 Albums“. I figures this would be a cool experiment because as a middle aged dude who once used my hard earned grass cutting and ditch digging money to buy CDs and cassettes for my teenage self, a lot callouses and cuts were acquired in buying these tunes - it was truly a labor of love. The list starts with “Policy of Truth“ by Depeche Mode from the Violator album - the tube amp takes some sandpaper to the sharp edges of the digital beats, and kind of like my current hairline - a little smoothness on top. “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo” by a Tribe Called Quest was another I really enjoyed with the VC and the tube because it managed to do something very few headphones manage to do - make early hip hop (with its sampled sources and usually not so great mastering) actually sound the way I think sounds best. The tube applies some foundation makeup to the face of the songs, covering up the pock marks an uber-revealing solid state amp would bring out. “Been Caught Stealing“ by Janes Addiction with its awesome bass line shines on the VC, and it brought back memories I had of seeing the amazing show they put on at Lollapalooza in ‘91. “Round and Round” by Prince and Tevin Campbell highlighted how the VCs make the sweet sounding vocals shine. ”The Humpty Dance” is fitting for a tube amp, because sometimes you like your oatmeal lumpy. The mad playlist concluded with a song I haven’t heard in ages and truly one of the more perplexing global hits - “Sadeness” by Enigma - which combined Gregorian chants and pan flutes and disco beats as an ode to sadomasochism. The 90s were weird times - a few days ago I was listening to some Irish music as a change of pace while getting some reading done and the Chieftains singing “Cotton Eye Joe” came on and I did a double take because why would a respected standard bearers of their craft cover a silly Swedish club song but as it turned out the song is a standard from the 1800s and is about marriage being delayed by STD-induced eye goop. I suppose every generation will have weird one-offs they have to explain to future generations - my kids will have to explain why Mumford & Sons were once a thing, I guess - kind of like cicadas once every 17 years a pop group with a banjo will leave detritus on the grounds that Dexys Midnight Runners trod before them. The tube sound, all in all, is as comfy and soothing as the suede pads on my VC, and this little trip to happier times provided a nice respite. I get what y’all are saying about tubes now.
