VTL MB-450 Series III Signature Monoblock Power Amplifier Set, Upgraded Cables & Fuses

***** SOLD ******

VTL MB-450 Series III Signature Monoblock Power Amplifiers

This is a $20,000 retail pair of amps with valuable extras. The design for these is based on the technologies in the legendary VTL Siegfried amps which sell for $65,000. MB-450 III's are very rarely seen on the market. People who have them tend to keep them. They're super reliable, US made, fully balanced 425 watt tube amps for an affordable price and there just aren't a lot of those. 425 watts is a lot in a solid state amp. In a tube amp that is huge. And these are not hybrid amps where the tubes are just used in the input and driver stages. These are tube amps throughout with a grand total of 10 tubes per amp. They're also very easy to use thanks to the auto-biasing system. This pair are at VTL where they have just been checked out, updated to the absolutely latest spec as VTL is constantly making improvements to their designs, and had a brand new matched set of 16 KT88 Gold Lion tubes put in. Those cost the owner $1,360 for the tubes alone plus the upgrades, shipping and labor charges. VTL said the driver and input tubes didn't need replacement or we we'd have had those done too.

In addition, the owner paid for VTL to burn the tubes in with the amps for 2 weeks to thoroughly check that they were a perfect set so the amps should give the new owner years of trouble-free pleasure just as they did for him. The amps can ship out to the new owner directly from VTL.

The only reason the owner is selling these VTL amps is because he got the opportunity to buy a full Ypsilon system from us. He heard our room with Ypsilon and Perfect8 at the LA Audio Show in 2017 and was so impressed that he asked us to help him to sell his his VTL gear and Zesto phono stage to get into the Ypsilon gear. The VTL stuff is great, I was super impressed with the sound of the VTL amps and preamp in my extensive listening tests here. We had so many inquiries for the TL 6.5 preamp I probably could have sold 3 of them in just a few days. It was wonderful. I was really excited to try it because there is always this big debate about the sound of VTL vs. AR and I love getting the chance to demo gear in my home with my music, cables, and room acoustics. Ypsilon is really the only thing I know of that is a big step up in sound. Of course it's also a step up in cost, that's often the way things go in the audiophile world. Ypsilon is our favorite line to sell, we love how Demetris, the co-founder of Ypsilon personally tunes each piece of gear before it leaves the factory, how he knows each of our clients by name and how he will modify gear to suit our client's systems and their tastes. Truly, Ypsilon gear is like the "bespoke suits" of the audiophile world. But it's spendy. The seller of these MB-450's went to the "entry level" Ypsilon mono blocks and the MSRP on those is $40K a pair. So it's a big jump up for sure. I have a pair of those amps myself. Ypsilon also has an integrated, the Phaeton, that is much more affordable and just won the Golden Ear Award. But I digress...

As you'll see below most reviewers who've had the pleasure of testing these amps seem to think the 450's are just about as close to tube amp perfection as you can get for an affordable price. Today you have the opportunity to buy this beautiful pair of MB-450 III's with new tubes, original boxes, great power cords (retail $2,600 a pair), plus four upgraded Synergistic fuses, for $12,000. That's a sweet deal for stuff that has just been checked and upgraded at VTL. Basically the best of both worlds, the confidence of buying something just checked out, with brand new tubes and upgrades but the pricing of used gear.

Just like the Siegfried these have VTL's Smart Tube technology which monitors every single tube at startup and when the amp is idling. I picture myself tweaking the bias on 16 tubes with a little screwdriver. Only no, I am NOT doing that. VTL Smart Tube is doing that for me, probably better than I would and certainly without all the hassle! I get the joy of 16 big ballsy output tubes without the hassle. Hooray!

These amps are owned by an electrical engineer who is a Director of the San Francisco Audiophile Society. He is someone with patents in his name who cares for his gear very nicely. He's held events with various audio dignitaries in his home and is someone we're very proud to have as a customer at the High End Zone. He's the type of brilliant and successful individual we enjoy interacting with! Our hope is that these amps will go to another such individual. The truth is we make next to nothing on selling consignment gear like this for our clients. But what we do get out of it is that often the people who buy it will become clients and in other cases people who see these ads even long after the consignment item is sold will call up and buy something else from us.

So because of that and the fact that Audiogon leaves these ads up forever (we get calls even years after a piece is sold), we are going to put info in this listing that you may find extraneous to this pair of amps. Please forgive us. But we've had 4 calls and emails just recently from gentlemen who were looking at ads from years ago. So, it makes sense for us to talk a bit more generally about what we do and see if we can earn that future caller's business for something else! Of course if we can earn YOUR business on this or something else please get in touch, the best part of our job is the wonderful people in this hobby and the fact that some of you become our customers. We look forward to your call at 575.535.2280 or please email us. Whichever way you prefer to communicate we look forward to talking with you.

The MB-450 series III Signature is VTL's second from top of the line monoblock amp. It sounds like and incorporates many of the wonderful qualities of the Siegfried amps at a (much) more attainable price point. Today you have a chance to get an even better deal on this used pair. Of course if you have the money to buy a pair of Ypsilon amps or Siegfried amps or whatever else we'd always love to try and earn your business on those. But these represent a chance to have something awesome very affordably.

"Music lovers have long admired the VTL MB-450 Signature monoblock amplifier for outstanding performance at a fair value. The new Series III version of the long-standing MB-450 platform features a complete re-working of the entire signal path. Upgrades include a fully balanced differential input stage driving a differential phase splitter and a lower impedance push-pull output stage with a dramatically improved, fully balanced and enhanced interleaved and coupled output transformer. VTL's innovative engineering brings the legendary sonic performance of the venerable 450 Signature platform to even greater heights." -from VTL's website

These are for sale because the client upgraded to the Ypsilon Aelius MK II's to replace these MB-450's. The Aelius MK II's (which you can see pictured below in one configuration of our demo system) are some of the best amps in the world. He also replaced his TL 6.5 with a Ypsilon PST 100 MK II which is one of, if not the, best preamp in the world. Handmade by a small team in Greece, Ypsilon is the most beautiful equipment, both sonically and aesthetically that we have the pleasure of working with. Each piece is personally tested and tuned by the CEO of the company before it ships out to our customers. If you would like to add Ypsilon to your system please email us or call us at 575.535.2280 It's fantastic stuff, true heirloom quality audio gear that is on the cutting edge technologically as well.

But I digress, the point of this listing is for you to get a more affordable but still incredible sounding pair of tube amps, which will bring you musical joy without burdening your wallet too much. And actually, switching from a $40,000 pair of Ypsilon Aelius MK II's to these MB-450's in our own system was only a moderate downgrade. We truly enjoyed the sound of the VTL amps. Before I had ever met Demetris and heard the Ypsilon line I used to yearn for a pair of Siegfrieds. A friend had a pair and I felt that they were the best amp I could ever possibly get, my personal reference. Once I met Demetris and sold some of our clients his SET 100 Ultimate reference amps which are nearly double the money of even the Siegfrieds I had a new reference. Nothing surpasses the SET 100 Ultimates in my mind. On the other hand, I also know I will never be able to afford them. These MB-450's impress in that they have the power to drive anything, actually tons and tons more power than those Ultimate SET's which can only drive certain highly efficient speaker designs, and yet they give you the great tube sound for a price that is affordable. On top of that, they come with brand new tubes so you don't have to worry that you'll get stuck with a bill to spend thousands more on tubes right around the corner and that this will eat up a big chunk of what you saved by buying the used amps. You're getting amps that just got checked out, that are good to go, with new tubes and great sound. So they actually should sound even better for you than for me.

I was listening to them with the old tubes and I had them tube fault a few times. It was not a big deal, the VTL system is super, the reset procedure is incredibly easy and the VTL system for managing a large set of tubes with auto-bias and so on is fantastic. The manual is very well written, this is clearly US made gear and they are clearly knowledgeable people who care about the users. But I had a concern that I didn't want to sell something where I would worry "Is the buyer going to have tube faults?" "Does he need new tubes?" And so I talked this over with the owner and while he knew this was going to mean he'd get less for the amps and obviously he did just spend a lot with us on his new Ypsilon stack and he wanted to try and get back as much as he could within what is fair for these, he quickly agreed with me that we should send them to VTL and follow their advice. They updated the amps to the very latest specifications by adding the latest ECO kits to the audio Auto-Bias modules which are such a sophisticated part of this amplifier design, And, they advised for the owner to purchase new tubes. They gave him a choice of a cheaper set of 6550's or these KT88 Gold Lions. He knew he probably would not recoup the extra money, but he wanted to follow the Golden Rule and do for the buyer as he would want done for him and he wanted the buyer to have the tubes he knew would sound better. So, he spent the extra money and got that $1,360 set of Gold Lions. Plus paying for all the labor.

So this set of amps, when you factor in that they also come with a $2,600 set of Audio Art Statement 1 power cords, is just an exceptionally good deal. I know Audio Art is not as well known a cable company as Stage III, Wireworld, Verastarr or some of the other ones that we sell. But even so, they did make some Stereophile Recommended cables and they got some really good reviews. These power cords feature the Furutech FI-50M and FI-52 which are $350 each retail carbon fiber connectors and are without question among the best connectors in the world that you can buy, at any price. So $700 of parts on each cable in connectors alone, never mind the wires and shielding, etc. And of course 20 Amp power cords are not that common. Even most big solid state stereo amps can run on a 15 amp power cord for BOTH channels. It is a measure of just how powerful these amps are that they EACH require 20 amps for a single channel of amplification!
So in other words you have $1,400 just of CONNECTORS in these 2 included cables! If you want you could take these off and use them to upgrade other cables in your collection. I have to say I was tempted to do that myself. I have a lot of cables that are terminated with connectors nowhere near as nice as these Furutechs believe me, and 20 amp power cords are pretty scarce. So getting these included in the deal is a huge plus!

For the cable loom in our tests, we used the power cords that are included in the sale of course, and then we usually have our system wired with Verastarr, just below reference level, and in this case we substituted top of the line Stage III Medusa speaker cables for our Verastarr ones when listening to the Lansches as we have those for sale right now and know that pairing well. With the other speakers we tested we used our Verastarr speaker cables.

We mainly tested these with our Aurender A10 music server as the source and in some cases used it as the preamp too. The Aurender servers are the best addition we have made to our home musically in the last decade, they have helped us to listen to about 5 times as much music as we were playing with just CD players and turntables. We did a bit of listening with our reference CD player. We used the VTL TL 6.5 preamp with that for a perfect match but we did not have a phono stage on hand for demo at this time, it was out for a repair, so we didn't test these with vinyl but the owner listens mainly to vinyl, and loved them dearly. Of course we are happy to advise if you have questions on any sort of system design / intercompatibility.

These MB-450's should do great in either analog or digital systems and of course these amps can drive just about any speaker there is which is an exceedingly rare quality for a tube amp.

These MB-450's are coming fresh from the VTL factory where they got a check up and a brand new set of the best tubes recommended by VTL, Gold Lion KT-88s, which VTL sells for $1,360 so tubes will look different than shown here.

I did most of my test listening with the VTL MB-450's in the setup shown in the pic above that has a pair of the beautiful Lansche 5.1 speakers with plasma tweeters. These were recently sold. They belonged to another client who consigned them with us after he purchased a pair of Perfect8 Point Mk III loudspeakers that we used at the LA Audio Show 2017, where we won Best Sound of Show from Part Time Audiophile and a Gold Show Award from AVShowrooms. Our customer bought those speakers from us after the show then gave us his Lansches which we'd sold him a year ago to sell for him. He also sent us his extra pair of top of the line Stage III Medusa speaker cables, which are still available, since bi-wiring was unnecessary with the Perfect 8's external crossovers. But I expect these items cost more than someone would want to spend if he or she is buying the MB-450 III Signature amps.

The main reason I mention them is that these speakers are best known for how they play female vocals, jazz and classical music more so than rock. And indeed while our client who sold the Lansches listens to some of everything he is a huge jazz fan and bought them with that in mind. However, the VTL really helps the speakers sound more incredible on rock and roll music.

I listen to all sorts of music but classic rock is what I play most. And definitely I found that using the MB-450 amps brings out the best in these speakers as far as playing rock. I tested them with AC/DC (to my wife's dismay), Queen, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground, Pearl Jam and lots of other great classic rock music and I played it loud. I tested both modes, Tetrode and Triode. These efficient Lansche speakers did not need the power, they would be fine with 10 watts probably. So the 425W these amps deliver in Tetrode and the 225 in Triode (both ratings into 5 ohms) are just way beyond anything they would ever need. I did test the amps with some other speakers too, but all the speakers we had on hand were very efficient. I used them with some speakers, one of the big theater speaker companies in Europe had sent us to test out because they want us to be dealers, but I had never heard their speakers before and really don't know what they SHOULD sound like so couldn't consider this much of a demo. And I drove my Silverline Sonatinas, V1, Avalon style, which I know well and love. But again this is a very easy to drive speaker. I wish I'd had something on hand like Revel Ultima Salon2's that really challenge an amp. I bet they would have sounded fantastic with those. but I didn't have anything like that here at all. I will say that I didn't notice any of the low end rolloff you sometimes get with tubes, I neither heard it nor noted it on any of my measurements. The owner of these used them to drive Von Schweikert VR55's which are massive speakers of course though not necessarily considered difficult to drive. I know that Michael Fremer was driving massive Wilson Maxx3's when he reviewed these amps and that he found them to easily drive those fairly challenging speakers.

These amps are a very easy piece of gear to recommend, a great place to start with tubes if you are just going to start in with them in your system, or could be a great upgrade or continuation on the tube journey for some. I hope these go to a great new home. I know the owner really loved and cherished these and could have been very happy with keeping them but since he had the opportunity to move up to an ultimate product like Ypsilon he took it.

VTL is a US based company and they let us know on their website that, "All VTL products are manufactured in our own facility in Chino, CA and are designed for musical sound quality. With a proven track record of over 20 years in the home audio business, VTL has a solid heritage of delivering reliable, timeless components that you can enjoy for generations to come."

We do ship worldwide on all our sales and would be happy to ship these anywhere in the world, but of course they are set up for 120V and they come with power cords with US type plugs. We are checking with the manufacturer to see if conversion is possible. We could get Schuko or other types of plugs for the power cords and reterminate those for you with the same grade of Furutech fittings as well if you like, or arrange and exchange to another type of power cable for a foreign buyer. We want to earn your business and will do our best to do so, please email us or give us a call if you would like to discuss the possibilities.

These MB-450 Series III Signature amps were originally Series II, and VTL previously upgraded them to Series III. VTL is great with their upgrade programs. I don't know if they will ever offer a "Series IV" but if they ever do, then you could probably save a bundle by paying them to just upgrade these to the newest spec. This is one thing that VTL and Ypsilon have in common that whenever possible they will do that type of thing in order to save the customer money and preserve your investment in valuable audio gear. And VTL just did an upgrade to the auto-biasing system which brought this pair up to what is on the most recent pair of MB-450 Series III sold. So if you compare these to another used pair for sale, most likely this pair is more advanced than the others!

OK, so I loved listening to these amps. But, what did Michael Fremer and others have to say? I have tremendous respect for Michael Fremer and for many of the other reviewers who are so much better than I am at describing what they hear. I can tell you "I really liked this piece of gear" which applies here to the MB-450's or sometimes an item leaves me flat and I will be honest about that. But I cannot describe anything in the kind of visceral way that helps you to understand what differentiates something as guys like Michael Fremer can. That is a special gift and I have tremendous respect for Michael. Actually it was things he said about Ypsilon and the fact that he owned Ypsilon in his system that first got me to give that brand a try. I am so glad I did. But I digress again, here are some snippets from reviews of the MB-450's and of course links to the full reviews which are worth reading and pretty darn glowing overall:

Michael Fremer from Stereophile had the following to say: "Do you like gobs of air and superior spatial projection? Do you like it when everything floats effortlessly in space, freed from the confines of the speakers? The MB-450 IIIs did that with ease. Their top end was as generous and expansive as you'd expect from the best solid-state amps, with unusually fast, precise attacks, but without any of the grain, glare, and etch that often accompany those attacks in the solid-state realm. The MB-450s didn't miss a molecule of air or a single cymbal rivet...

"The MB-450 III's crystalline finesse in the treble never ceased to excite. Cymbals, bells, and celeste were reproduced with effervescent precision and sophistication: tiny when appropriate, but always precise. It's almost impossible to go ice-crystal precise on top and not pay a price in terms in the richness of string tones lower in the audioband, but the MB-450s managed a fine, realistic sheen on massed and solo strings alike, producing an ideal balance of bow on string and the resulting woody resonance...

"Their unquestioned transparency and wide bandwidth made them difficult to "hear"--about as high a compliment as can be paid any audio component...Through the MB-450 IIIs, the top and the bottom ends of the audioband sounded and felt complete. The lower octaves, in particular, were tightly drawn and well extended. I never wished for more grip or extension. In some ways, particularly on top, the MB-450 sounded more like a spectacular solid-state amp. Only its superior flow--its long sustain and clean decay--gave away that it it's a tubed design...

"Like the MB-450 Series II Signature, VTL's MB-450 Series III Signature is easy to recommend."

Full review.

Roy Gregory from HiFi Plus had the following to say:"VTL’s new MB-450 Series III mono power amps make owning valves easier than ever before. Here is a genuinely powerful amplifier that biases itself, monitors itself, protects itself and given half a chance, would probably feed itself too. No meters required; no matched sets of tubes; no special skills or training; no sacrificial components. If an output tube goes bad you simply get a blinking LED. Which LED blinks and how fast tells you what’s wrong and what you need to do – which in the worst case scenario is pull the indicated tube and plug in a replacement: Power up, wait while the amp goes through its self check and bias procedure and you’ll be ready to go...

"Any 450 Watt amp should be powerful, but sounding powerful is another thing altogether. The VTLs reproduce music with the sort of substance and solidity that escapes almost all but the very best amplifiers. They also do so with an absolute authority of the kind that leaves you in absolutely no doubt that no matter how large that drum, and how hard it's hit, they'll effortlessly encompass the dynamic demand. The result is a sense of actual presence, of real people and real instruments that's rare indeed. But what's really impressive is that this presence extends well into both frequency extremes and remains consistent regardless of scale. This is what makes them so engaging." Full review.

Specifications:
Vacuum Tube Complement: 8 x 6550 or KT-88, 1 x 12AT7, 1 x 12BH7
Output power 20Hz – 20kHz <2.5% THD: Tetrode: 425 Watts, Triode: 225 Watts Into 5 Ohms
Input sensitivity: Variable between 1-2V, depending upon DF setting
Input impedance: 45k Ohms
Load setting: 5 Ohms
Output load range: 4 Ohms - 8 Ohms
S/N ratio: 450W Tetrode & 200W Triode: -110dB, 120Hz
Power consumption: Idle = 300W, Full power = 1000W
Primary mains fuse rating: 100/120V = 15A Ceramic Slo Blo, 220/240V = 8A Ceramic Slo Blo
Input fuse: 100/120V = 1A Ceramic Slo Blo, 220/240V = 1A Ceramic Slo Blo
Logic fuse: 100/120V = 1A Ceramic Slo Blo, 220/240V = 1A Ceramic Slo Blo
B+ fuse rating: Plate Fuse - 2.5A fast acting 600V, Screen Fuse - 0.75A fast acting 600V
Dimensions W x D x H: 18.5 x 18 x 9 inches (47 x 45.7 x 23 cm)
Weight: 93lbs (42kg) per monoblock unpacked, 110lbs (50kg) packed

Please note that we are not VTL dealers ourselves. We'd love to be, it is nothing against them, it's just that we are a small company and there are only so many brands we can carry. However, if you do have any problems (hopefully you won't) we will do our best to help you get them fixed. We worked nicely with VTL to help arrange service for this customer, they are a great company to work with. We do not charge any markup on service or repairs because if a customer is having trouble with his or her gear, we don't want to profit from that. So if you ever needed help, we'd be happy to help. We like to keep our customers for life. We'll do whatever we can to support you and the equipment you buy from us regardless of whether you buy used or brand new.
These MB-450 III signatures come with the original manual, a pair of Audio Art power cords worth $2,600, a brand new $1,360 set of Gold lion KT-88 tubes, and brand new audio fuses from VTL. Our client is also including an upgraded set of Synergistic Research Input and Mains fuses which he ran the amps on for about a year. These four fuses are from SR’s BLACK Quantum fuse line and are a $500 upgrade which you will be able to easily experiment with. (Input fuse: 1A Slow Blow, 6.3x32mm and Mains fuse: 15A Slow Blow, 6.3x32mm)

As an electrical engineer he chose the ones which he felt would make the biggest difference for his money and upgraded those. So not every fuse is upgraded with Synergistic but we are Synergistic dealers and if you would like us to, we can upgrade those for you. One of the fuses he chose not to upgrade is one which just covers the computerized bias system and I know he felt that had no effect on the audio whatsoever.

The new owner will also receive a Frequency response chart and the Noise chart for each amplifier, generated by VTL’s Audio Precision Test System while the amps were being tested after burn in of the new tube sets.

These amps have internal feedback switches, which we expect you will want to play around with to get the optimal sound with your speakers. This is a fun piece of gear to play with and one that you can expect to get years of great sound and enjoyment from.

We do ship worldwide and appreciate our wonderful customers on every continent except Antarctica (which we hope to add soon). However, these amps are currently configured to only run with 120V. We are checking with the manufacturer to see if conversion is possible.

These VTL MB-450's perform excellently, come with lots of extras, are from a pet free, child free and smoke free home, and they look great from the front. However, up close one can see that they do have minor scratches. In the pictures below we give you a general view and then a close up of the areas that contain flaws. We do our best to give you as close to an in person inspection as you can have buying online as we want to be sure the buyer will be satisfied with his purchase. Due to these units being used and having a couple of flaws that we will point out below, the Audiogon guidelines lead us to giving these amps the rating of 8. From your seat you will not be able to see any of the scratches and you definitely won't hear them.

On the top cover of one of the amps, there are a couple of scratches which you can't see here
but, IF you look at it in the right angle and lighting you can, as the picture here shows:
On this same amp, there are a couple of hard to photograph scratches on the left side, pictured here: And here on the back edge of the face plate:

As we said, these flaws take being close to notice them, but we feel it is our duty to point them out to you.

The other amp has a section near the left side tube cover that has a couple of tiny screwdriver scratches. We did have VTL replace all the screws, so that part of this picture will be improved:

The above pictures show you the small aesthetic flaws that we were able to photograph for you. These two amps are in great condition and they are used, so we may have been able to display to you some small scratches, HOWEVER, please be assured that we found no scratches on the faceplates and no scratch will interfere with the way they support your system. Next, we will show you each side of these two amps. Please enjoy the conclusion of your virtual inspection....:
Amp 1:




Amp 2:




Below you will find the shipping details, more information about us, our policies, our recent award winning exhibitions at trade shows and more. Thanks for reading and we hope you see something you're interested in. If you do, please email us at [email protected] if you are sincerely interested in purchasing this or any other brand we sell and have any questions. We may also be contacted by phone at 575.535.2280.

High End Zone had two rooms at the inaugural LA Audio Show in June of 2017. Our 2 Channel room featured the Perfect8 Point loudspeakers (which our client replaced the Lansche 5.1s with) they were paired with the following Ypsilon Electronics: PST 100 MkII, DAC 100 and the Aelius II Amplifiers. We played music from the Aurender W20 and A10. We really enjoyed showing with the Perfect8 Point MkIII's, even though we had intended to show with our favorite speakers, the $375,000 Perfect8 Force MkIII. Sadly, The Force speakers were crushed by the shipping company. We found this out less than 48 hours before the show started and so we had to overnight the Points to LA, which made us have a late start to the show... By Sunday we felt like our room sounded sublime and many others did as well.
Here is a video of AV Showroom's coverage of our 2 Channel room which we are very honored and grateful to say was awarded a Gold Show Award from AVShowrooms and also Best Sound of Show from Part Time Audiophile.

The pairing of Perfect8 speakers and Ypsilon Electronics helped make the act of listening to music in this room very transportive, and honestly-- I had a hard time paying attention to our guests because the music kept drawing me in.

Jason Victor Serinus from Stereophile was one of the reviewers who came when we had no speakers. He made a special effort to come back and listen on Sunday when our system had finally settled in and was sounding it's best. One of our helpers did the thing of trying to close the door to give the major reviewer a quiet demo without people coming in and out but Jason is such a humble and classy fellow, he asked that we treat him just like any guest. He said the following:
"Reproduction of a file of the Haydn Cello Concerto 1 exhibited lots of grace, with an airy, spacious, and warm sound that I found especially satisfying. I didn't write down the name of the track playing when I first entered the room, but it, too, was distinguished lovely warmth, notable spaciousness, and that indefinable quality known as grace. Timbres were extremely impressive.
"When I followed a suggestion to move to the second row, both midrange and bass response increased. Especially impressive was a 24/96 track of mezzo Jamie Barton singing Sibelius, where the system conveyed the huge expanse and changing dynamics of her stunning voice better than any other system I've encountered. When Barton opened her one-in-a-million, Golden Age voice to full capacity, you could literally hear it expand in the room. Wonderful." ~ Jason Victor Serinus, article for Stereophile

We were grateful that Jason returned to our room on Sunday, not all reviewers were able to do so, it's a tough job to cover hundreds of rooms and we certainly understand. So we were very sorry not to see Mr. Harley from The Absolute Sound, one of the most respected reviewers from one of the top publications to be sure. But he did seem to greatly enjoy his Ypsilon experience in the Aaudio room and had this to say in his review of the show. He mentioned only a very small number of rooms and so being mentioned at all was an honor, certainly to have such high praise was. We already sold 4 pieces of Ypsilon in the weeks following the show, in part I believe thanks to these comments:
"Ypsilon:
Aaudio Imports demonstrated a superb system of Ypsilon Electronics from Greece. The PST 100 Mk.II tube preamp ($37,000) drove a pair of Aelius II monoblocks ($39,000), fronted by Ypsilon's VPS-100 tube phonostage ($26,000) and MC26L step-up transformer ($6200). I had never looked at the Ypsilon components up-close, but they are extraordinarily built. The whole package sounded superb driving the remarkable new Wilson Benesch Resolution loudspeaker." ~Mr. Harley

Take a look at the build quality of this Silver Edition Ypsilon Electronics PST 100 MKII which Ypsilon custom made with an extra pair of XLR inputs for a client of ours.

While Mr. Harley was unable to visit our room to hear how Ypsilon Electronics sound incredible with Perfect8 speakers, Mr. Rafe Arnott (the Editor and Creative Director for Part-Time Audiophile) was able to and as we shared above actually gave us the honor of "the Best Sound which goes to a new combination of manufacturers for me (Perfect8 Technologies, Ypsilon Electronics, Aurender.)... My initial show report on this room is HERE, and as I wrote, this combination had soulful musicality, an ability to handle huge dynamic swings with ease, and aurally convinced with its impression of limitless headroom to the scale, depth, and impact of the sound."~ Rafe Arnott

High End Zone also had a Home Theater room, shown here:

High End Zone and Starke Sound collaborated with an amazing team of more than 25 people from over 10 companies including Trinnov, JVC, Kaleidescape and many of the world's best AV firms to create a 27 channel Atmos home theater system that seemed to be a well received surprise for the audiophiles at the LAAS. Normally if there is a home theater demo at all at these shows, it is in some little back room and isn't very good. Not this time, we were right next to the registration desk in the largest room of the show and we rocked hitting peaks of over 105 dB on our demos including Pacific Rim, Unbroken, Roger Waters: The Wall and several more. We had a lot of people come through, and as far as I could tell all of them had a good time.
The Gateway Ballroom exhibit won an Alfie award for the Starke Sound IW-H5 Elite wall mounted speakers which we were using eight of to form the base level surround channels. These speakers have won several awards at CEDIA and other events since LAAS and they rightfully deserve their place as an ultimate level home theater speaker! Three IC-H5 Elite Starke Sound speakers accompanied the IW-H5s as the LCRs and eight IW-H3 Be speakers were ceiling mounted. The room's bass was so thumping that some guests asked if we had put drivers under the chairs! This was accomplished through the use of six Starke Sound SUB36 subs and two almost refrigerator sized Rythmik subwoofers to fill the 50' X 50' room with 12' high ceilings with bass. The system was powered by Starke's A7 MK II amps, fed by the Trinnov Altitude 32 processor, with content from Kaleidescape's 4K Strato movie player. To help transform a hotel ballroom into a theater, we used Acoustic Sciences Corporation's TubeTraps, which also won an Alfie award, and Haikoustics panels on the walls and suspended from the trusses. The visuals in this room were handled with the help of Metra 4k HDMI cables feeding the JVC flagship projector the DLA-RS4500, projecting on a Seymour-Screen Excellence RF 160HD Enlightor 4K acoustically transparent screen measuring 160"x90". The visuals were as impressive as the 3D world created around you by the 11.8.8 Atmos system. I did the overall design of the room and specified most of the components. Curt Hoyt who is one of the owners of Trinnov who also consults with us, specifies speaker placement and does room calibrations. He knows more about 3D audio than anyone I know specified the precise speaker angles and did the calibration.

Peter Breuninger from AVShowrooms said "This is the finest theater system I have ever heard" and made a video with me and Curt talking about 3D sound. Designing for Atmos is vastly, vastly harder than designing 5.1 or 7.1 systems. The placements that worked for surround speakers in 5.1 and 7.1 do not work in Atmos. The performance you can get from an Atmos system is absolutely incredible. It is so stunning. Atmos, DTS:X and Auro 3D give movie makers a whole new language to work in. I can say that we screened a bunch of movies both with the Atmos sound turned on and without it before doing this show and that Atmos is a must have technology. It is the first new "must have" for home theater since the Blu Ray disc came out. But the complexity of designing the Atmos home theater makes it essential to have professional help if you want the best results for your money. We're here and available to you and Curt works with us on many of our projects so you can have us and you can have him, please get in touch if you'd like to know more about an immersive system. Here is the video which gives you some idea of what we do.

"The immersive soundfield was exceptional, and the sound was very clean, clear, and powerful throughout the audio range... As far as I can tell, the first LA Audio Show was a big success. I was glad to see one room dedicated to immersive sound, and I hope that home theater becomes an ever-increasing presence at LAAS and other audiophile confabs in the future. For this year, The High End Zone put on quite a show, and I commend the efforts of all involved!"- Scott Wilkinson, show review for AVSforum.

We aim to enhance your musical experience, please email us to meet our design team and discuss your project.

These VTL MB-450 Signature III Power Amplifiers come with all orignal accessories and packaging as well as a pair of AudioArtCables Signature 1 power cords and a 4 piece set of Synergistic Research BLACK Quantum fuses: Please contact us with your location and delivery parameters so that we may give you a shipping quote. The following includes general the shipping information for this sale:

Amp Boxes Pallet: 27" W x 56" D x 20" H
Weight: 250 lbs
Origin: These amps will be shipping from VTL in Chino, CA 91710/ USA

If you are located in Southern California it is possible we could arrange for you to pick up there to save shipping cost if you would like that.

AudioArtCables Box: 14" W x 14" D x 6" H
Weight: 6 lbs
Origin: The cables will ship separately from Gila, NM 88038 USA

Please email us at [email protected] if you are sincerely interested in purchasing this and have any questions. We may also be contacted by phone at 575.535.2280.

We put the "Make an Offer" option on all of our listings rather than a "Buy it Now" button. Partly this is because we had a few rude people hit "Buy it Now" then they never got in touch or paid and it just wasted our time. Also, we really enjoy talking with our customers and we want to know that they really want the items we are selling. So what we do now is just the make offer button. We still hope and expect that this item will sell for the asking price and most likely we will not accept anything much below the asking price for a while. On the last VTL item we sold for this customer so many people wanted it that it was very hard, we could not please them all. We try to get back to people quickly to answer questions and also to let people know that if they really want the item it is best to make an offer with the understanding the first person who makes an offer high enough that the owner accepts it is going to get the item. On that last piece of VTL I felt bad for one person who made one of the first offers and really wanted the item but was trying to save a couple hundred bucks. He ended up missing out to someone who offered more and that is pretty common.

Since we don't own this, we don't have much flexibility on the price. The exception would be if someone proposes a package deal for multiple items. Obviously that gives us more flexibility to work with you. Of course we are honored to receive any offer and we encourage you to submit one, all will be duly considered. But if you truly want this item please think about the fact that if you submit an offer below the asking price it is entirely possible someone else submits a higher offer and the item sells before we see your message or respond, even though we strive to reply quickly. Over the last 20 years this has happened many times, one time a $70,000 pair of speakers was on sale for many months, then we had two buyers who both wanted them the same day. I felt so bad. They were completely unique, there was no way I could satisfy both gentlemen. We earned the business of one and sold him and his wife additional items also. But it was sad not to be able to take care of the other fellow. So please consider if you really want this VTL, then simply send a full price offer. You will always get the item if you make a full price offer UNLESS someone else submitted one before you. If that happened you'll go on a wait list in case of any issue with the first offer. In my experience as both a buyer and seller of this type of gear for almost 30 years making that full price offer might very well produce a more satisfying result than trying to save a couple of bucks on something special and hard to find. Yeah, it's exciting to save that extra dough, I know that for sure! But what a bummer to miss out on the deal you want by just a small amount too. So totally up to you, we try to make everyone happy though we realize it is impossible when 3 people all want the same item at the same price and the same time. We do our best.

And of course even if you do make that full price offer we can still try to stoke with an extra discount on other items you may need. Maybe you want to pick up a brand new Aurender music server to go with your amps. Maybe you want to get more cables. Maybe you need a beautiful Wilson Benesch or Tandem Statement audio rack, or you want to look at one of the many beautiful lines of speakers we sell such as Perfect8, Lansche, Totem, Starke Sound, Wilson Benesch, ELAC or many others. The possibilities are endless. There are tons of buyers who have made that full price offer to grab the consignment items they want quickly then asked me for a deal on some new stuff they wanted to special order and I've been happy to give it to them! Please give us the chance to earn your business too.

For payment, we are happy to accept a cashier's check, a bank wire or PayPal. If PayPal is your preferred payment method then please add the following percentage of your purchase and shipping price to your total to cover the PayPal fees: 3% for domestic buyers or 4% for international buyers.

Also, since this is a consignment sale where the equipment does not belong to us but to our customer, we need to ask that the buyer promptly inspect and test the item upon receipt and report any problems found so that if there is a problem found we could withhold funds from paying our customer to deal with the problem. We don't think there will be any problem, but once we have paid him we won't have any recourse if any problem is found.

Also, because we're selling this for a client and have to give him the cash for it, we're not going to take trades unless you make us some trade offer that we consider to be so far in our favor that we can't resist putting in our own money to buy your gear. An exception to this that we would be willing to consider would be that if you want to buy this AND some other items that we sell then we'll try and make you a package deal for all of it. Since this is not ours we cannot discount it much, but we can give you an extra discount on other items we sell to make you a package deal. So if you want some Perfect8 speakers or Ypsilon amps or any of the many other things we sell, which are listed below, then please email us about it.

We would be happy to sell your gear on consignment if that would help you to purchase this or other items from the High End Zone. In some cases we might sell your gear on consignment even if you don't want to buy more gear from us, if the gear is very nice. Our most successful customers are very busy folks and we understand that if they spend hours answering questions from Audiogoners, that is thousands of dollars that they lost in terms of what they could have earned with that time. We do have some restrictions as to what we can sell because of the manufacturer rules about online sales and so on, but we do our best to help. We can arrange to have the gear picked up from your home or office, or in some cases we can even have someone come in and pack it for you. Then we will handle all the testing, photography, sales of the item and follow up after the sale. Since many people prefer to buy from a dealer and because we have over 15 years of perfect feedback on Audiogon and Ebay with no neutrals or negatives ever we can usually get more for your items than you could get yourself. Depending on the exact item, you may net as much or even slightly more having us sell it. And once you factor in the value of your time, it's a clear savings to let us sell the gear for you. So let us know if we can be of service to you in that area.

We are truly appreciative of responsible Audiogon members, please make sure you are one of them before you make us an offer. If you have questions concerning the gear, the terms of sale, or if you need to upgrade any of your cables, amplifiers or other items in your system, please contact us through email or by phone at 575.535.2280. We will be happy to get back with you as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your interest and may our gear help facilitate your ears meeting high quality sound with ease.

Welcome to the home of High End Zone!

Thanks for looking at our listing.

Please check our perfect feedback from years of trading on Audiogon and buy with confidence. We have sold gear all over the world, to every continent except Antarctica and hopefully one of those scientists there will order from us soon!

We offer professional packing, prompt shipping with tracking info sent to you and a high level of customer service and support. We provide guaranteed quality and service. We think we are the perfect service for the customer who wants great savings but does not have time for all the hassle of putting together a system with pieces obtained from many different sellers. We offer one stop shopping for all your high-end needs.

The High End Zone, is a full service audio and home theater dealer offering superb gear at the best price possible.

The High End Zone is all about listening to good music, talking to clients around the world by email, and helping people get the most joy out of the time and money they invest in their high-end audio and theater hobbies. If you're a successful individual, you and your family should be able to enjoy beautiful music and video in your home affordably, and the buying process should be fun, not a chore. We're dedicated to that and I hope we get the chance to sell you something that you and your family can enjoy together for a long time in good health, just as my family and I enjoy our several high-end audio and video systems!

Thank you for your interest, please do not hesitate to email us with your questions at [email protected] or give us a call at 575.535.2280.

The Fine Print:

We accept payment by PayPal and wire transfers from anywhere in the world and cashier's checks drawn on US banks. We will also accept escrow if the buyer pays the fee.

If PayPal is your preferred payment method, then please add the following percentage of your purchase and shipping price to your total to cover the PayPal fees: 3% for domestic buyers and 4% for International buyers. If you pay by PayPal then your purchase must be shipped to the PayPal shipping address only, per PayPal's rules.

We may accept a personal check from long-standing Audiogon members, but it does delay shipping for clearance. Please ask before paying that way. If you desire to pay by some other means you do not see here then please email us, we will try to accommodate you if we can.

Our items are guaranteed to work properly and be in the condition we describe. If we make a mistake, if an item does not work properly, or if the item description is inaccurate, we'll offer you a full and prompt refund or exchange at our option and issue return shipping labels at our expense.

Please check your purchases promptly upon arrival. Our policy is that any flaw, damage, missing item, incorrect item, etc. must be reported to High End Zone by email no later than 3 days (72 hours) after that item is delivered. If you are not able to check the item yourself in that time frame, please make the necessary arrangements to have someone else make such a check for you in your absence.

All sales are final with no returns or exchanges allowed unless the buyer finds a defect and reports it to High End Zone within 72 hours after delivery. In the case of items that are shipped internationally, we require that any item be picked up from Customs within 5 business days or less in order to preserve the buyer's protections for shipping damage and defective merchandise under our selling policies. If the buyer finds a defect and reports it to High End Zone by email within 72 hours after the item is delivered then High End Zone will repair, replace, or refund at our option.

So while all sales are final and there are no refunds or exchanges unless you receive a defective item and report that within 3 days as specified above, IF for some reason we do agree to accept your return or cancel your order when there is no mistake or defect on High End Zone's part, then you agree to pay us the 20% restocking fee on your order.

That said, please don't buy if you're not sure that you want the item you are buying. If you need to check with your wife, your broker, your business partner, your kids, or the Supreme Court before you buy, please do that. The High End Zone cannot be held responsible for any case of wives beating their husbands for spending too much money on good gear!

The High End Zone is a full service home theater dealer located in Southwest New Mexico. While we are well established as the premier dealer in our small town market, we also serve many clients who have multiple homes or live in far-flung places. The world is increasingly a small place and I delight in talking with and serving clients from all continents and many countries of the world. Depending on your needs we are happy to just sell you gear (note some manufacturers may prohibit us from sending gear to certain places) or we can provide a full service experience including system design, acoustic design and construction, installation, programming, and more. We've done work for very high profile clients with multiple homes and we are also proud to serve many hobbyists who enjoy this hobby on a modest budget. No matter your budget, we'll strive to provide the products you want at a price that is fair with top shelf service.

High End Zone is proud to carry these lines and more:

High End Audio Gear:

Acoustic Zen Loudspeakers and cables

Audio Desk World's finest record cleaning products

Audio Vault Exquisite award winning custom racks, made in the USA

Aurender Music servers for every budget, best new music product of the decade, have increased my listening fivefold

Daniel Hertz Ultimate audio creations of Mr. Mark Levinson

Elac Affordable yet superb speakers and electronics from the mind of Andrew Jones

EMM Labs the famed Meitner DAC's and the MTRX, quite possibly the world's best solid state amplifier

Finite Elemente German audiophile racks

Hartvig Swiss made turntables

HB Cable Design Ultimate marble power strips from Germany

Ikeda Best Japanese phono cartridges for the money

Isoclean Audio Grade breaker panel and power products

Kuzma Brilliant tonearm designs and turntables

Lampizator Exquisite tube DAC's and more, made to order with your choice of parts

Lansche World famous speakers with Corona Ion plasma tweeters, ask us about Ypsilon custom transformer upgrades

Metaxas Sculpted gear from the recording giant Costas Metaxas

Parasound Legendary electronics with circuitry designed by John Curl

Perfect8 The world's best "cost no object" loudspeakers and my favorite speaker, now if only I could afford them!

REL Acoustics Unique approach to subwoofer design makes them the best for 2 channel or home theater--this I can afford!

Revel loudspeakers designed by Kevin Voeckes and the brilliant team at Harman

Scaena loudspeakers were the choice of Harry Pearson for almost a decade, we sold his pair to one of our clients

Synergistic Research Too many cool products to list, PowerCells, cables, bases, fuses, grounding and much more.

Stage III World's finest audio cables

Tandem Reference quality audio racks from Greece, this is the rack we take to audio shows and win awards with

Thales Swiss reference turntables, tonearms and cables

Totem Acoustics Audiophile loudspeakers for 2 channel and superb on wall and in wall systems for home theater

Verastarr One of my all time favorite cables, I use many of these in my systems

Wireworld Another cable that I use a lot, designs everyone can afford, all the way up to reference level cables

Wilson Benesch British made loudspeakers, carbon fiber racks and more

Ypsilon Our favorite electronics company, the best of the best. So good they can have 2 links. Second one is to price sheet on our distributor's website.

Home Theater lines: there is some crossover to be sure and some of the lines above, especially REl Acoustics, Revel, Totem, Verastarr and Wireworld are also ideal for home theaters while some of the products below, such as the Tube Traps and design services from Acoustic Sciences and gear from Trinnov are also idea ideal for 2 channel systems. So the categories are not rigid and when we advise you we will work hard to understand your needs and can even pull from an extensive list of additional companies beyond those listed here if need be to get you the best possible setup for your system or systems.

AB Amps The theater amps used at Skywalker, Industrial Light & Magic, Pixar, etc.

Acoustic Sciences Corporation (ASC) Tube Traps and custom acoustic design services and products

Cineak European luxury home theater seating

CinemaTech German and North American made home theater chairs for the finest theaters

Elac Affordable yet superb speakers and electronics from the mind of Andrew Jones

Front Row Affordable theater seating, made in Canada

JVC 4K projectors

Kaleidescape Movie servers are the best solution for today's movies, used in pretty much every industry demo

LG World's best flat panel TV's, ask us how we can save you money on all the LG OLED's for your home!

Marantz Affordable home theater processors and more

Metra Home Theater Velox HDMI cables deliver 4K with true 18GB performance

Middle Atlantic Rack systems, ubiquitous

Procella Reference speakers designed specifically for home cinema use

Salamander Racks, seating systems and more

Seymour Screen Excellence World's best screens, featuring Enlightor 4K acoustically transparent material

Starke Sound Award winning loudspeakers for Atmos theaters and 2 channel, stunning on wall sound

Sony Projectors, OLED TV's and much more

Stewart Film Screens

Trinnov Audio World's finest audio processor / home theater preamp. We offer exclusive custom system design and calibration with one of the co-owners of Trinnov when you buy from High End Zone. We install across North America.

Tru-Audio Speakers, soundbars and racks

Control and lighting equipment: We offer system design, sales, installation and service nationwide. Our installer is doing the Raider's new facility in Las Vegas and has done projects across North America and Central America. In most cases he can visit your home once to get everything running and after that he can take care of your system remotely so that you do not have to pay for travel on subsequent visits. Please talk with us, we offer high quality service for a fair price. Lines include, but are not limited to:

AMX

Control4

Crestron

Lutron

Sonos

Of course we can install digital assistants for you. One of our colleagues has already been testing the Apple HomePod for months and we'll have those as well as the Amazon, Google and Sonos Assistant products.

Doing these lists is always very hard because we are in process of discussion with some more very cool brands I'd love to list but haven't had time to get everything nailed down yet. And on the other hand there are some lines I left off because we just haven't had much call for them lately. But who knows, maybe tomorrow the phone starts ringing off the hook for one of those, I would certainly welcome it. So please don't be dismayed if you don't see one of the products you really want here. It's not set in stone and I bet we can get it for you and that we'd be happy to do so as long it is a quality component that we would be proud to sell. One of the advantages working with a family shop like ours is that we are flexible and will work hard to get you a system that suits you. Please give us a chance at earning your business.

Our clients certainly enjoy their home audio and video rooms. We do as well and hope you'll also take pleasure and be inspired by the variety of these beautiful installations.

Some aspects of making an informed choice in an audiophile grade listening room or a home theater system are worth a little extra effort. We invite you to contact the High End Zone for help in making your choices, we will make the extra effort worthwhile.