My story starts off that the 2011 California audio show. I heard a pair of speakers that peaked my interest, and had already been reading the Virtue forums nightly for almost 8 months or so. Having studied all the posts by owners, I was ready to order.
I purchased a Sensation 901 with the tube buffer and battery power, Jason installed Clarity Caps for me. A 12 AX7 PSVANE tube was also installed and turned the unit on. After listening for about an hour I came to the conclusion that it had a little better base and more air on top, than my current amp.
The next month or so I let it play all day while I was at work, and would listen a bit to it while working around house. Then I started to notice things I hadn't heard before on songs that I have listened to 100 times or more. A guitar riff would come along, and I would catch myself saying "dang that sounds good". Finally a few more months passed, and I drove down to the dealer that had demoed the speakers that had caught my interest at the show.
As luck would have it, he no longer had them in stock. However he had a used pair of Wilson Maxxes that he said cost $80K new but I could purchase for a discounted rate of $14K (what a deal). Now if I could only figure a way to move speakers around my house that weigh 1200 lbs each. Next he hooked up a pair of Parasound JC1 amps, which he informed me were only $9k a pair and a Mark Levinson Pre amp that was only $7.5K. I wasn't too impressed so he switched to a pair of Revel Salons, and told me to be prepared to hear a better sounding speaker, that was a much better value with a retail of $22k, that I could have for $17K.
I agree that the Revels sounded much better, next I asked the owner if I could hear them with my Sensation amp and he agreed. I brought it in and the cover was off, and he commented on the clean layout, parts and construction of the unit and asked me the make of the amp, so I told him.
He hooked up the amp to $30k worth of MIT cables, and I was curious to see if his amp and pre amp were an huge improvement over the Sensation or if the Virtue would be even close. What I didn't expect was the Sensation to sound better. The JC1 were more articulate in the mid range and top end, but the Sensation kicked the crap out of them in the bass and had a fuller sound and better tone, and more of a tube like sound which I prefer.
The owner commented a few times on how good the Sensation sounded, and that it held its own against his system. I didn't have the balls to tell him, I could fill all 11 rooms in mine and my neighbors house with Sensations for what his Amp and pre amp cost. As I left the dealer's store I had a big smile on my face, and thought he was lucky that no other customers were there to witness what took place.
On the way home I thought, if I had purchased his system and then heard the comparison with the Sensation I would probably want to beat my head against the concrete for an extended amount of time. Thanks to Seth and Jason and Cami for a great product and a great value.
Scott
