VSi60 duly delivered the goods ldbeen waitint for

Yes, this is a spirited amplifiei somuch so that I almost felt I shouldbe testing it for psychopharmaco-logical drugs.What it does to musicis more than just make it excitint;you could say it has psychoactiveproperties. From the flrst bar, theARC puts its cards plainly on thetable. Bass is toing to be bi8, like itor not, and fast too, and tuneful toan extent that itt almost distractingif youte the sort who likes valvesto supply beautiful backgroundmusic, l f you were comparing valveamplifiers to musicians, most wouldbe Barbara Streisand, whereas thisis more like Lemmy. Even thevividBls, which behaved meticulously withthe Sugden, soundint impartial in thefinest monitor tradition, seemed tobe letting their hair down a bit all ofa sudden now. I iust couldnt get thisinfectiously catchy Sniff'nthe Tearsclassic out of my head.

lf the bass is vast and elastic,like an enormous bouncy castle,the midband fairly closely followssuit. lt! clean alright, even if there isthe stghtdst sensation of a tube-like

sepia tint here, and it spans a widephysical space. I wouldnt say the'60is peerless in the amount of low leveldetail it can throw out, but it doesthe high level stuff so well, you reallydont care. Like theVivid speakers, itloves to throw sunlitht on dynamicaccents, subtle or otherwise, andthe result is a riot of toe-tappint onthis or any other track.Treble is notthe ARCt strong suit nice as it is,there's always a hint of splash to hihats and a slightly curtailed feelint

Brothers.Yes,just as you'd expect, thatkjck drum 8ot the ball rolling withaplomb, signalling a declaration ofintent from this amplifier that, as thegreat SpinalTap would say,"toniShtI'm gonna rock you". Bass on thissong isnt quite as powerful, insteadthe focus falling to the superb tuitarwork (lead and rh),thm), and theAudio Research loved this.Whereasthe Sugden was terribly British andmauer of fact about this, theYank

'it's not a valve aficionado s valveamp, but rather a music lover's.,,"

to atmospheric music.The cymbalwork on this vinyl pressint soundedever so slightly'shut in', whereas theSugden was a tad more delicate andatmospheric.

Next on the deck just had tobe some more classic rock.ZZIop's'Gimme AllYour Loving' is a touch ontheAOR side of the Senre tranted,but thevsi60 manated to make leadsinger Bi l ly Gibbons' vocals soundmore like Slayer than the Doobie

amp was cooking on gas. I found itso much more rhythmically engaging;whereas ld listened with interest tothe recording details via the Sugden,I iust to! lost in the music via theAudio Research.

The same thinS happened withBob Marley! lamming'.The'60 waspure pleasure from beSinning toend, imparting that supernaturalrhythmic swint that this track hasembedded deep within. But via the

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t was back in 2OO3 that Ireviewed Audio Research'sVSis5 integrated 'tube' ampli-fler, concluding lhat it was asuperb product that wo{rldappeal to a completely new

sorr of valve amplifier enthusiast.My reasoning went that the'55 was

about as close the classic Naim solid-state sound as you could tet, butdone with valves.As such, you keptmany of the betuiling benefits of thelatter, whilst offerint up the energetic,

seat-of-the-pants performance of the

former,As American and British tanks

rolled dramatically into lraq in the

early summer of'03, I didn't somuch as reach for my television'on' button, such was m)r interest

in this amplifier. I ended up runninttheVSi55 for several months, takinggreat care to make sure their UKimporter Absolute Sounds contactedme to ask for it back, rather than

me foreshortenint its tenure in mylistening room by callinS them to let

them know ld finished with it.After a tood dme spent

with Perigee Acoustics FK-lF, itfound itself driving Quad ESL57Smodif ied by OneThingAudio, and

this combination sang like a bird. Iremember the Audio Research taking

the Quads up to very high levels (yes

really), with oodles of bass, space and

depth, allied to an utterly transfixintmusicality.True, it didn't guite haverhe subtlety of the best parallel sinSle

ended tube amps, Tunning ful l ClassA rather than thevsi55's mix ofAand B, but gosh it was fun. Nigh on

So now exactly six years latet its

replacement (this, thevsi60) is backin my listening room, bashing the

Beryllium of myYamaha NS l000Ms,assaulting the aluminium of theVividBls and poking the plastic panels ofmy Quad 989s.As lplay, ' l 'm Mandy,Fly Me', from an old l0cc LB I'm

betinning to remember why I madeall the fuss. I love valve amplifiers,but l've had mixed experienceswith them in my room drivint my

speakers. But the ballsy nature of

the Audio Research is such that itl

not scared of anything I've got here

to try them with.And moreover, it!

iust as 'up for it' as I remember its

This locc track can sound a liltle

laconic via many amplifiers;even ones

as good as my reference SuSden lA4

(about the same price as the AR)

can make a meal of it. Not theVSi60though, whose rendition is as intense

an experience as listening to'Anarchy

In The UK'throuth a PA stack. lt hasan eerie way of elevatint the listening

experience, making the listener'feel'it almost as they would if theyd had

one more Jack Daniels than was

tood for them. But then you lookdown at the bottle in your hand and

realise itt only Evian you're switting!The company claims 50W RMS

per side for this amplifiei a fractionmore than its predecessor if I

remember rightly, and thatt a lot for

a valve amplifier. Physically it! almostpractically indistinguishable fromthe model it replaced, being quite alarge device at 356x203x406mm and

weiShint in at l5.8kg.The centrally

mounted mil led anodised aluminiumtop plate is available in black or silver

finishes, with a matching front Plate.The review sample was in 'retro

silveri but personally I prefer the

more purposeful black.The powder

coated steel casework is to a decent

standard, but not exactly lavish.The gently recessed front panel

features the same long LED volumedisplay as its predecessor, whichalso shows source selected and

whether muting is engaged or not.To the right is the bank of controlbuttons, includinS powei mute,

t"ggi;. *";;6i' *"five inputs, and volume up and down.All these controls are duplicated on

the supplied remote. I do like thefact that this is labelled in Entlish (i.e.'Up','Down') like the warning lightcluster onTriumph 2000 dashboards,rather than in universal international

tobbledeSook symbols. Round theback, there are five pairs of phono

inputs labelled CqTuneivideo,SEI and SE2, plus a ful l-rante mono

subwoofer output, voltmeter testpoints for setting bias, reasonablysized loudspeaker terminals with

both four and eitht ohm taps and anIEC mains socket.

The preamp section of theVSi60is passive, but with microprocessorswitched relays. On switch on, there!

a thirty second warm up phase whenthe speakers are automatically muted.

Audio Research say short paths areused, and there's a new J-FET inPut

state for low noise, with 6H30 driver

tubes.The Svetlana 6550C outputtube is used, as per otherAudioResearch valve amps, here running7dB of negative feedback.These are

mounted on ver/ sturdy valve bases(considerably more rugged thansome, I might add) and are said to

be soldered to heavy plated-throughcircuit boards, with "the finestaudiophile-grade parls" beinS used,along with proprietary Litz internal

wirint.The amplifier is completelyhand soldered and assembled, andone look under the hood testifies to

this;the wir ing isn't messy as such,but let's say it's laid out with theaccent on ruggedness rather thanaesthetic beauty!

SOUIID QUATITYGiven that I wasn't expecting the last

word in sophistication from this newAudio Research,l momentarily put

aside my prized pressint of Debussy!

Preludes.The'Submerged Cathedral'would have to wait its turn in thequeue, until l'd exhausted mY suPPl),of nineteen seventies classic rock LPs

for which I knew this amplifier was

built. Sure enough, Sniff'n' theTears''Drivers SeaC, a slice of pre-Punk

1977 power pop went on the Sonytranscription turntable first, and the

26 Hl-FlW0RID SEPTEMBER 200s wwwh;fiworld co uk

REVIEW

lA4, it was suddenly as if a Sroup ofhithly proficient Japanese classicalmusicians had suddenly taken overthe instruments, sounding medc!-lously perfect but somehow not quite

as good as the real thin8. Bass wasa joy;via vinyl this song has copiousquantities of low frequencies (8ood

for moving stale air around the room,the morninS after the night before,| find), and the Audio Research waslike a dog with a bone - eager to

show me what it had iust found.Once atain, it was deliciously tuneful,and even at high levels through mytube terrorising NSl000Ms showedno sign of strain.Atain, midbandwas wonderfully expansive andinfectiously rhfthmical, while I satthere aghast as snare drum rim shotsjumped righ! out at me, whereas with

the Sugden they might as well havebeen recorded in the library downtrre road.

Highly revealing speakers doshow theVSi60 to be a flawed gem

all the same.There's a certain colourto its sound; an oranSey-brown tint

that makes different recordings, withtheir own acoustic signatures, seem

iust a little bit less distinct.The dry'tautness' of Compass Point (Nassau)

where Grace Jones recorded 'Private

Life' seems ius! a little closer tothe colourful warmth of a! Stax'sSouth Memphis studio where the

'Shaft' soundtrack was recorded,for example. Good solid-state ClassA amplifiers like the SuSden havean icy clarity that throws thesedifferences into sharp reliel but theAudio Research does not.Also, I wasnever completely convinced by theVSi60's treble performance.Althoughnot quite as 'clanty' as your averagesolid-state amplifier, so much more ispossible than its rather perfunctory

rendering of rhe sound of a cymbalbeing struck. To my ears, theVSi50'streble is just a little too crisP andsharply etched to be completelyinvisible, although at least it's neverharsh like some solid-staters.

All of this made listeningto classical music an interestingexperience, if not an accurate one.Yes, thisYank tank is riotouslymusical even with a sober DGdigital recording of Vivaldi's'FourSeasons', making the violins positively

sing for me and serving up asatisryingly capacioussoundstage in whichto place them. Butno, somehow I didntquite appreciate theinstruments'naturaltimbre as well as Ishould have - or couldhave via the similarlypriced solid-stateSugden. Still, switching back to jazz

in the shape of HerbieHancock's 'MaidenVoyage' and suddenlyall was forSiven, withthe VSi60 is rcllin8 metn no uncercltn termsthaq "it dont mean athing if ir ain't got thatswing".. .

coilclusl0llPersonally I love thisamplifie[ but willconceded that it'snot all things !o allmen. Probably one

of the most 'solid-state' soundingtube intetrateds around, it allowstransistor amp owners to go

lhermionic without leaving theircomfort zone.lt also lets people like

me, who know exactly what musicthey listen ta and ancillaries theyuse, to parachute in a valve amPlifierwhen normally only a solid-stater ispowerful enough. But what it won'tdo is please the full), paid up valvebrigade, who love to be cosseted,wrapped in silk and serenaded bytheir glowing Slass bottles. ltk nota valve ofcionddob valve amp, butrather a music lover! - or moreprecisely, a rock, pop or iazz musiclover!. Not having the AudioResearchVSi55 to hand any more,I cant comment authoritatively onthe relative chanSes, but I'd wa€erthat the newvsi60 is a fraction morepowerful and iust a touch moreopen and svelte sounding - all ofwhich are steps in the risht direction.This is a great product then, a trulycharismatic, distinctive amplifi eraimed at audiophiles who knowprecisely what they want-

Brcad shouldered, banel-chestedbruiser ofa valle amplifierwith a

TOR- exuberant naturc. viscelal power- supple, fluid rhythms. convenience, accessibility

AGA[{Sl- restricted tonal palette. unatmosphefic treble

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www.hi-fiworld.co.uk SEPTEMBER2009HI-FIWoRLD