[Kiwicol]

Hi All,

I've been following all things Vapor for a long time. I don't listen to your stereotypical audiophile affair and have been looking for a speaker that can play Infected Mushroom, dubstep, EDM, indie, rock ect without falling apart. My journey led me to the nimbus speakers. I've had to adopt a huge degree of patience while a house sale in London, UK went through and now the time has come to make some decisions. One of my challenges is that I live in Auckland, New Zealand and threr are no nimbus owners down here. I did meet up with Mark Jenkins, owner of Antipodes audio and picked his brains and also plan to give Ryan a call.

I am keen to pair with the arte forma due volte monos and a lampizator 5 dac with volume pot. My main question is how many of you guys have heard the arte forma amps? From all accounts they are very good but there is not a lot in terms of detailed reviews on the web. My only concern is that some SET amps I have heard while glorious and palpable in the mids have been a wee bit rolled off in the tops.

My goal is extension at both ends with no wooly bass or rolled off highs.

Any feedback would be great at this stage.

Cheers,

Colin

[verdun47]

Coffee, Mt Eden? You can call/txt me on 0274 951450

[roscoeiii]

Well, it is all about synergy? Doesn't Vapor or at least Pete who is with Vapor sell or distribute the Arte Forma stuff? They could give you some feedback on that pairing. Or maybe if there is a demo amp that has been used at a show or elsewhere that is floating around that they could let you audition with Nimbus Whites once you get them. Or could they possibly put you in touch with an Arte Forma owner in your area?

Makes little sense to talk about an amp in the abstract. It is all about the amp-speaker synergy. Here's hoping you can find a way to hear the combo before pulling the trigger on the amp.

Great call on buying the Numbus Whites!!!! They are outstanding speakers.

[DaveC113]

It's a good pairing, they had that setup at the last RMAF and it was excellent. I think it would be a good choice for all kinds of music, including IM, who I like a lot too.  I saw them live a while ago, that was pretty cool...

I think you got your colloquialisms wrong though, "pull the plug" means get rid of, "pull the trigger" is probably what you meant. 

[Vapor Audio]

Hi All,

I've been following all things Vapor for a long time. I don't listen to your stereotypical audiophile affair and have been looking for a speaker that can play Infected Mushroom, dubstep, EDM, indie, rock ect without falling apart.

Uhm, yeah   The Nimbus can do that, as we have proven many times over at shows.  I do like listen sometimes at 105db, and yes Infected Mushroom gets thrown into the mix quite often.  No worries there!

My journey led me to the nimbus speakers. I've had to adopt a huge degree of patience while a house sale in London, UK went through and now the time has come to make some decisions. One of my challenges is that I live in Auckland, New Zealand and threr are no nimbus owners down here. I did meet up with Mark Jenkins, owner of Antipodes audio and picked his brains and also plan to give Ryan a call.

As you're aware, Mark is very familiar with our speakers.  We've done quite a few shows together now, and will be doing RMAF together again this year.  We're mutual admirers of each others work. 

We do have a Cirrus White owner in New Zealand, Mark knows who the guy is and where he lives.  But that guy won't answer my emails.  I (stupidly) shipped and paid the $1200 freight cost out of my pocket, expecting he would reimburse me.  So now he knows he owes $1200 and just ignores me, since he's 1/2 way across the Globe.  But if you can get in touch with him, he might have you over for a listen. 

I am keen to pair with the arte forma due volte monos and a lampizator 5 dac with volume pot. My main question is how many of you guys have heard the arte forma amps? From all accounts they are very good but there is not a lot in terms of detailed reviews on the web. My only concern is that some SET amps I have heard while glorious and palpable in the mids have been a wee bit rolled off in the tops.

As much as we loved the Arte Forma gear, dealing with them was a non-stop frustration.  They constantly sent us gear that was buggy, and that we had to fix on our end.  We invested a TON of time and money into finding fixes for their problems, but they refused to implement any improvements on their end.  Eventually we had to part ways, it was just turning into a resource drain for us. 

We do intent to at some point build and sell a similar amp, but with better parts and construction, under the Vapor Audio name. 

My goal is extension at both ends with no wooly bass or rolled off highs.

The 805 tube was somewhat unique in it's presentation.  It had great bass drive and control, and excellent extension on top.  And for the vast majority of people, 40w on the Nimbus would be more than enough, but there are times with how I listen that I wanted more oomph.  Maybe others will have ideas for suitable replacement tube amps, I can't think of anything off the top of my head that isn't significantly more money.  But one solid state options I would suggest is the Wells Audio Innamorata.  People are always looking for that tubey sounding solid state amp, and for the most part it's a pipe-dream.  But the Wells is very tubey through the midrange, with more precision on top and better bass drive of course.  Also with much more headroom before it runs out of steam. 

[Kiwicol]

Hi all,

Thanks for your valuable feedback and yes it was pull the pin I meant. It was dawn pre caffeine.

Verdun47 would love to meet up for a coffee, I will drop you a text over the weekend. I work in ellerslie so sometime next week would be great.

Roscoeiii, completely agree that system synergy is extremely important hence my initial interest in arte forma amps. There are no owners that I know of in NZ and I had massive reservations shipping an amp half way across the world unheard.

Ryan, great to hear from you. I really appreciate your up front feedback and to be honest that sounds enough to put me off. I think I will buy the nimbus and then spend some time experimenting with different amps. A good friend has the first watt j2, an otl amp plus I've got a few solid state amps lying around. This will give me time to hear the speakers on different amps and hopefully buying locally means I can audition as well. I will give you a call in the next few days 

Thanks again for your feedback guys.

[roscoeiii]

I will be very interested in how the J2 and OT amps sound with that speaker.

[barrows]

I bet a Pass Labs XA30.8 would be a great match with the Nimbus, and no tube hassles...

[Kiwicol]

Wow I didn't mean to open a can of worms in this thread. Was really just after some honest advice. I've got two more pairs of speakers to here that are available in NZ before I make a final decision, the bastanis Matterhorn and legacy focus SE. After those two pairs I would of exhausted everything available in NZ.

I hope you guys can settle your differences.

[Gopher]

I've been very impressed by the Vapor speakers I've heard and can tell you there will be a strong synergy with your LampizatOr Level 5 DAC.  I have no experience with the amps, but I say go for it!

[Vapor Audio]

Wow I didn't mean to open a can of worms in this thread. Was really just after some honest advice. I've got two more pairs of speakers to here that are available in NZ before I make a final decision, the bastanis Matterhorn and legacy focus SE. After those two pairs I would of exhausted everything available in NZ.

I hope you guys can settle your differences.

Hi Colin, don't worry about Norman's response that I removed.  There aren't any differences left, it has long since been settled.  Apparently Norman was stalking us because he wanted me to remove mention of Arte Forma off our website. 

[sunnydaze]

You might wanna look into Redgum amps.  Australian company, so I gotta believe they have a presence in NZ.

http://www.redgumaudio.com/au/rg_frame.html

My preference is generally tubes, but Redgum are very good SS amps -- some of the best I've heard.  I use the 35wpc integrated in my bedroom system.  I also had the big integrated and tried it  with many speakers.  I always hear the same characteristics -- clean, fast, dynamic.  Not sterile, biased a touch to the warm side.  Lucid mids.   Good musical flow and tone.  Always more powerful than the specs suggest.

[paul79]

Got to mention the NOS Valves VRD's if you want a slammin super transparent set of tube amps. These have been my reference for quite some time, and nothing has touched them. Truly, remarkable.

[Vapor Audio]

Got to mention the NOS Valves VRD's if you want a slammin super transparent set of tube amps. These have been my reference for quite some time, and nothing has touched them. Truly, remarkable.

That's a new one, they looking nice for the money.  Any idea if his transformers have enough juice to scale with KT120 and KT150's? 

BTW, we just agreed to show with Allnic at this years RMAF.  Amp used will be a T2000 Integrated with KT-150 tubes, I'm very much looking forward to hearing that amp. 

[paul79]

New around here for sure, but they are all over the Klipsch Forum and Audio Karma. He's been making them for awhile.

Amps will run about any damn output tube you can think of with a simple rectifier tube change. KT120 and KT150 no problem. Mullard CV593 rectifier tube ups the plate voltage and current capability to run them very nicely. I do consider these to be relatively high current tube amps. They never run out of steam and my speakers are 87db.

He needs to update his pics on the website, as they are now all point to point wired with no circuit board.

They are fully customizable/upgradable to fit your needs. Resistor upgrades, supply bypass caps, and put whatever coupling caps you want in them. I have the Duelund's in mine currently, and the sound is soooooo sublime. A very strong 60wpc with KT88's. Likely 10 or so more wpc with the KT150's.

I use KT88's here with GZ34 rectifiers, Mullard 12AX7's, and CBS 7318 (12AU7 variant) phase splitters. Quick and very dynamic amplifiers with tons of bass slam. I have yet to hear a solid state amp with as focused bass as these have. They are just so right and capable of throwing a very large 3D holographic soundscape, so long as your source is up to the task. Everything is overkill in them. The Iron is all custom with choked supply. Input tube and phase splitter are direct coupled. Only 2 caps in the signal path. Very honest and very musical amps.

His preamp is world class also (the NBS). Class A single ended with no feedback or phase inverting. Linestage has only 1 tube and 2 caps in the signal path. He also makes a linestage only version and can add a cathode follower to either the full featured pre or the linestage only version to run some of the more demanding solid state amps. The amps and pre are absolutely dead quiet with regards to noise floor, and this preamp is dead neutral and very transparent. It truly only amplifies the source, and is how a preamp should be.

PM me if you want to get into a set. The price is ridiculously good for what you get here. Excellent guy to deal with and turn around is very fast for custom work. I also think these amps would be absolutely perfect for any speaker in your lineup.

[DaveC113]

paul79, those amps look great and are exactly what I'd want if I were to build a pp tube amp. 

I like the idea of a big SET better but it's far less practical.

[paul79]

Hey Dave,

I been down the SE amps with sensitive speakers road. I determined after all, that it just was not for me ultimately. As Ryan has stated, if you want amps to go to sleep to, SE is the way to go.

The VRD's give most, if not all of that SE midrange magic, no compression that I can hear, with the ability to let loose with realistic dynamics. I found my happy place with them.

[lowtech]

Hi Colin, don't worry about Norman's response that I removed.  There aren't any differences left, it has long since been settled.  Apparently Norman was stalking us because he wanted me to remove mention of Arte Forma off our website.

For whatever reason, censorship seems to be unusually high in this "circle".  Feel free to censor my observation...

[DaveC113]

Hey Dave,

I been down the SE amps with sensitive speakers road. I determined after all, that it just was not for me ultimately. As Ryan has stated, if you want amps to go to sleep to, SE is the way to go.

The VRD's give most, if not all of that SE midrange magic, no compression that I can hear, with the ability to let loose with realistic dynamics. I found my happy place with them.

Yeah, the speaker I'm working on and thinking of what amps to use with it is going to be around 96-98 dB... sensitive but not so sensitive a small 5 watt SET is going to cut the mustard. A 40 watt SET though... probably, maybe... but the speaker will be able to take more. I think an amp like the one you posted would be a great match... I might go for a trafo based phase splitter (would cost more) but I really like the amp and want something like it...  The woofer is the AE TD15H+, which might be familiar to some folks around here. 

Also, my SET amp does not fit that description at all. Most SET amps have substandard driver sections, I'm currently using an Aikido with it's own power supply as the driver and it is far more lively and clean than a SET with a single triode driver. IME, the driver is key to getting excellent results out of a SET.

[Vapor Audio]

Yeah, the speaker I'm working on and thinking of what amps to use with it is going to be around 96-98 dB... sensitive but not so sensitive a small 5 watt SET is going to cut the mustard. A 40 watt SET though... probably, maybe... but the speaker will be able to take more. I think an amp like the one you posted would be a great match... I might go for a trafo based phase splitter (would cost more) but I really like the amp and want something like it...  The woofer is the AE TD15H+, which might be familiar to some folks around here. 

Also, my SET amp does not fit that description at all. Most SET amps have substandard driver sections, I'm currently using an Aikido with it's own power supply as the driver and it is far more lively and clean than a SET with a single triode driver. IME, the driver is key to getting excellent results out of a SET.

Not even the 4ohm TD15H+ will get you 98db sensitive system, maybe 96 if you place it close to the floor and have little baffle step. 

We did run the Nimbus at RMAF in that massive 26'x75' room with a 3.5w 2A3 SET and believe it or not, it sounded really good.  Yes, there was definitely some truncation of the dynamic range, and bass thinned out a bit, but in that massive room we were all surprised. 

The 40w 805 SET's were a very nice match, and powered them to just about any reasonable listening level.  With Infected Mushroom and driving dubstep however, I would like a bit more overhead in case the need arose.