Having had about 8 different chip/gainclone/LM3875/LM3886 type amps, I recently bought a pair of the VMB-1 mono blocks. I bought these on the recommendation of a friend who also had numerous chip amps. He suggested that the CI VMB-1 was superior to all others, though allowed that each of the others had their own virtues. Now after three weeks burn-in (the VMB-1 was near new when I received it), I concur with my friend. The CI has the greatest extension and detailed bass and treble and a very clear and detailed midrange. It is more discriminating of recording quality, yet remains most liquid in texture. Also it seems to hold complex orchestral music together without blurring. All of the other chip amps seemed to have rather simple powersupplies, which is where the CI goes a different route, I believe.
I've one question about speaker loading. Presently, I'm using 8 ohm single driver speakers, but was thinking of building a dipole with the result being a choice of either a 4 or 16 ohm load. Is there any concern with either of these two speaker loads.
~Tom
