I guess I don't like the terms like "soft", "all tube", "tube like", and etc.....
Does it mean the sound of kick drum has no punch to it? No solid bass but great mid range?
I haven't heard the Ultra, nor any newer AVA product, but judging from the older product, the new ones should be even more accurate to the music and not supposed to be "soft".
I believe a good system should be good for all music, and not color one way or another.
It's probably a mistake by ME to try to expand on what Brian already said but here goes. A couple years ago I bought a used Super PAS 3i (built in 1995) after listening to mark funk's T5. The PAS was like opening a window and allowing the sound into the room. The best my set had ever sounded by a large margin. BUT the PAS was softer, more veiled, less extended at both extremes, and not as resolving as mark funk's T5.
The PAS still let through more music than anything I had previously had in my set. I eventually ordered a T8 without any audition. I choose the T8 over the Ultra for 2 reasons, price and I wanted to roll tubes and the rolling would have more of an effect in the tube T8 than in the hybrid Ultra. The idea of being able to slightly change the personality of the music presentation with different NOS tubes really appealed to me. It can become a very costly hobby in itself tho and Frank saved me a lot of money when he made the 6N1P(no tubes to roll) upgrade while my T8 was on order. I never heard the first T8's before the 6N1P but Brian who has, already described the difference as "absolutely a dramatic improvement". Next I borrow mark funk's Transcendence DAC and install it in my system with my T8 and Ultra 550. With Cd's now being properly converted to analog and the richness of the music coming through like I remembered vinyl, with the dynamic range, low end, and........that the digital format allows over vinyl, my set was really starting to "sing". BUT there was a SLIGHT softening of the musical attack overall and the dynamic range and low end sock were not up to the T8's which had 2 generations of upgrades over the Transcendence series. But after I returned that DAC to mark funk, within a month I had to order my own Ultra DAC. With the Ultra, being of the same vintage as the T8 and 550, there was no softening and actually it seemed to me even more dynamics and low end sock than without the DAC.
From my own experience, each new "generation" of AVA gear moves closer to "perfect". While it is hard to imagine with the current gear he makes, based on past experience, Mr Van Alstine is not finished, and the future just might hold gear even closer to "perfect".
As far as terms like tubelike and such, I thought The Absolute Sound said it pretty accurately; "Van Alstine may well have found the elusive sweet spot between the natural warmth and harmonic richness of tubes and the clean, clear, well-controlled sound of fine solid-state."
