VTV AMP Latest Quality? Any Recent Buyers?

[chezterarm]

Hi! I’m interested in VTV amps. Just wondering how the quality is lately?
Has anyone ordered recently? Hard to decide since there aren’t many internal photos on the site."

 

[Tom C]

I got mine three years ago. No problems thus far. Didn’t do a tear down, so no “peak and shriek” here.

 

[Mike_Trueman]

They look very professional to me. They have Hypex, Purifi and GAN amps.

I see they have the option "VTV Vacuum Tube Buffer" on their amps. Did someone test this and does it add alot of distortion?

VTV AMPLIFIER Stereo Purifi Audio 1ET6525SA Amplifier with VTV Vacuum Tube Buffer | VTV Amplifier

 

[Keith_W]

I see they have the option "VTV Vacuum Tube Buffer" on their amps. Did someone test this and does it add alot of distortion?

Now THAT is exciting! Not because I would want to buy it, but because I would love to see Amir test it! Compare a tube buffer vs. non-tube buffer VTV amp. That would be very interesting indeed.

 

[chezterarm]

How is the durability when Vacuum Tube Buffer? And if mainly watch movies, is a home theater suitable?

 

[Tom C]

IMO, there’s no good reason to want vacuum tubes in this situation. You won’t see the tubes because they are inside the enclosure. It most likely measures worse when compared to the standard version without the tubes, and the best you can hope for is that it is not audibly worse. So, all you gain, as far as I can tell, is the knowledge that tubes are in the signal chain, along with the solid state components. If that comforts you in some way, I guess it could be worth it, but it’s not for me.

 

[DVDdoug]

How is the durability when Vacuum Tube Buffer?

I don't have any respect for companies that build hi-fi equipment with 1950's technology. ...I'll make an exception for guitar amps which are not supposed to be hi-fi. Guitar players tend to favor them for they way they sound when overdriven into distortion.

A buffer is one of the easiest things you can make with an op-amp and it's super-cheap and super-easy to build an excellent one.

I think they are electrically more rugged than solid state. You can sometimes blow transistors or MOSFETs instantly by shorting-out the speaker terminals. I don't think that happens with tubes. But but they will break like a light bulb if you drop one. And sometimes you get a lose or intermittent connection since they plug-in.

But tubes do age. They deteriorate, their characteristics change, they "wear out" and eventually die.. I grew up in the 1960's and we had radios & TVs with tubes. In the 70's I had a 1950's car with a tube radio. Hardware stores and drug stores sold replacement tubes and they had DIY tube testers so you could pull all of the tubes out of your radio or TV and test them to find out which one was causing the problem Of course there were sometimes other failures but it was usually a tube (because they have limited life) and you could fix it yourself! They usually lasted many years but if you had a few radios with a handful of tubes and a TV with 15 or so tubes, failures were not unusual.

Tubes are also energy inefficient because they have an internal heater that has to be powered. A tube doesn't work until it's "warmed-up".

Not related to "buffers" but tube output stages (to drive speakers) need an audio transformer to drive the (low) speaker impedance. That adds more cost & complexity, especially if you want good sound quality.

 

[Ted B]

Hi! I’m interested in VTV amps. Just wondering how the quality is lately?
Has anyone ordered recently? Hard to decide since there aren’t many internal photos on the site."

I recently took delivery of two VTV Purifi 1ET9040BA monoblocks to power a large system in a very large room. A photo of the internal layout and construction is attached. The only observations I have is the EMI filter on the IEC receptacle is probably superfluous, and the VHR-2N connector used by Hypex for its power supply is limited to 16 AWG. The output wiring is all 12 AWG Mogamic OFC and the SpeakOn outputs deliver excellent objective performance as demonstrated by John Siau (Benchmark Systems), so all good there.

They look very professional to me. They have Hypex, Purifi and GAN amps.

I see they have the option "VTV Vacuum Tube Buffer" on their amps. Did someone test this and does it add alot of distortion?

I opted to evaluate the tube buffers out of curiosity with the aforementioned monoblocks I received in May, 2025, preparing to switch to solid state if dissatisfied. Following 100+ hours of subjective evaluation, I am staying put. The audible impact of the tube is subtle. It does not sound "syrupy," nor have I found it to audibly compromise the noise floor, which is dead quiet in this sytem even on the higher buffer gain setting. The provided current production "Genelex Gold Lion" is a balanced performer (I have swapped in some NOS as well), and my research indicates the 6N23P (6DJ8/6922) was an ideal type choice for this application. I am still evaluating both (21 vs. 26 dB) gain settings to see which I prefer in this system, as I detect a subtle but audible difference when the volumes are matched.

Overall, I am impressed with the results and most pleased that I went this route. I might add that I strongly doubt anyone can identify this as a class D amp from listening tests.

 

[RickS]

Appears that VTV did not learn much from earlier critiques of his wiring practices…

The AC wiring for the trigger module remains an uninsulated hazard. He runs the amp power rail cabling over the heatsink without any protective jacketing. As the heatsink is not about shielding, his questionable orientation also results in longer AC run to power it. Should be jacketed too.

Would also be interested to know whether he did any meaningful heat dissipation analysis with those tube buffers added. As @DVDdoug mentions, the tubes are mainly just a gimmick and just lower the reliability of the amp overall.

 

[Ted B]

Appears that VTV did not learn much from earlier critiques of his wiring practices…

The AC wiring for the trigger module remains an uninsulated hazard. He runs the amp power rail cabling over the heatsink without any protective jacketing. As the heatsink is not about shielding, his questionable orientation results in longer AC run to power it.

Would also be interested to know whether he did any meaningful heat dissipation analysis with those tube buffers added. As @DVDdoug mentions, the tubes are mainly just a gimmick and just lower the reliability of the amp overall.

Fortunately, the AC wiring isn't in any danger of being pinched, but it should be jacketed.

Heat is a concern with any tube with socket mounted directly to a PCB, but the tube in this setting has a low plate voltage and passes a small amount of current. I observed that it does not generate sufficient heat to create issues (in my opinion).

One change I did make was removing the switched 10A IEC EMI filter inlet in favor of a straight Furutech FI-06 IEC receptable. I also upgraded the 16 AWG internal AC wiring to the power supply board to 12 AWG during this operation. I did reinstall X and Y capacitors at the IEC inlet for additional leakage suppression, but omitted the series inductor of the original filter inlet.