So I recently sold a Vision SET 120 power amp to a now retired audio reviewer. I was hoping he would like it.
Evidently he does! Here are his comments back to me.
Right out of the box, no warm-up ...
incandescent, beautiful. My Harbeth P3ESR's are very happy and so am I. I'll be listening a lot since I am recovering from surgery.
More thoughts later. Thanks, Frank.
The Vision SET 120 exceeds all expectations.
I had been using several integrated and pre/power combinations with my Harbeth P3ESR speakers. None were quite satisfactory, one reason being that these little speakers like power, especially solid-state power. They have this in common with many other mini-monitors, including the LS3/5A and the Sonus Faber Minima (which is back in production). On the other hand, these speakers seem not to require too much power.
The AVA/Harbeth combination is superb with well-recorded piano. I hear the leading edge, the attack of the notes in almost full, lifelike force, along with the decay of the notes: the air, the ambiance, the trailing edge, as it were. It is truly miraculous and anyone who says that mere hi fi cannot get close to live hasn't heard what great hi-fi can do. In the case of Frank Sinatra or Louis Armstrong or Luciano Pavarotti, it can raise the dead. I suppose that is what art is about: touching the transcendent.
You have captured what seems to elusive to other hi-fi designers: a lifelike, luminescent, illuminated from within quality. It is the difference between you-are-there and they-are-here, they being recorded performers who defy distance and time.
The Harbeth speakers with the AVA amp make a good case for hearing more by listening to less. Does one really need the new $236,000 Wilson speakers? When I turn on my system, I don't want to be blown away, I want to be drawn in, to be engaged, not entertained.[/i]