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VTV Purifi shipped to Europe, any experience?

amarsicola

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I am on the verge of buying a VTV amplifier (Purifi Eigentakt Eval1 in my case) and having it shipped to Italy.
To my knowledge there is not one European brand selling a plain Eval1 implementation of Purifi, and DIY parts cost more than a VTV finished amp, so VTV seems a quite reasonable choice.
Has anyone had experiences of purchasing a VTV product from Europe and can share its thoughts: was the shipment ok? Packaging well dampened? Any custom clearance? Correct voltage settings? Overall satisfaction?
Hope this thread helps other people in my (geographical !) position
 
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conman

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While not in Europe, I had a pair of VTV amplifiers sent to Australia. They were well padded, shipped quickly, arrived in good condition, were not held up in customs, and appropriately set to our local voltage. The build quality is satisfactory but with the numerous extra holes in the base as seen in other examples here. Functionally I have no complaints with them though.
 

MCH

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Hi Amarsicola, as you might know the EU import VAT rules changed last July 1st. The new rules might be very beneficial for you if your order is less than 150eur but i suspect it is more than that, so you should count on paying vat at italian rate and import duties and probably a fee for the shipping company....
 
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amarsicola

amarsicola

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why not go for the european options like Boxem or Apollon?
All of them, also including Rouge audio and Audiophonics, only provide versions with their own proprietary buffer board.
Don't blame me if I prefer the Eval1 designed by Bruno Putzeys, which is also performing better as Amir tested (check the two reviews of VTV Purifi implementations with Weiss and SIL op-amps)
And incidentally Eval1 is also less expensive.
I would be more than happy to buy the Audiophonics implementation if it is objectively demonstrated to be better than Bruno Putzeys' one...
 

litemotiv

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There are a couple of great Purifi builds available in Europe, it seems counterproductive to import an evaluation board implementation from across the pond with the idea that it would somehow be better. Even if a VTV EVAL build would theoretically measure better, which remains to be seen, you wouldn't hear the difference in a million years. Also the VTV comes in a very generic Chinese case of lesser apparent build quality than both BoXeM and Apollon, and any warranty issues are going to be a real problem.
 
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amarsicola

amarsicola

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Apollon is touching 2000€, while Boxem is around 1700€, i would rather consider Audiophonics at 1350€ since paying for nice boxes is not my cup of tea.
VTV price + shipment is 1199$=1057€, then if you want to add custom clearance (22% for Italy) you are still below 1300€. This is why I am considering VTV and asking if anyone has had issues with shipments and/or defective units. Up to now we have a very limited population of 1 (his very first message)
 
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Willem

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You would be paying both VAT and import duty. My hunch is some 30-35% between them. Add custom clearance administrative charges from the transport company, and you would be paying more than a European offering.
 
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Audiophonics is a very reliable seller, and easy to contact. I would buy again there. Ships from France.
 

litemotiv

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You're not just paying for a pretty box ofcourse with the EU builds, they are well engineered custom builds using quality components. Also some implementations like BoXeM offer additional functionality such as automatic input sensing, which is very convenient as opposed to manually powering the amp on and off all the time.

If you do prefer a cheaper standard build, then you can also order an EVAL kit yourself (€800) and a Ghent case/kit ($250) and ask an enthousiast in your area to build it for you. I'm sure there are some people around who can offer to help you, and even if you paid them €100 or so for the labour you would still end up cheaper at around €1150 in total.
 
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chips666

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amarsicola

amarsicola

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Thank you very much Chips666, that seems a DIY exercise I can do on my own, not a proper company that can provide aftersales...
Anyway it is a good deal for anyone interested
 

RDSChicago

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If I were buying one I’d wait a short period of time until the more powerful Purifi module (7040) is released.
 

apg91

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why not go for the european options like Boxem or Apollon?
In my case the issue is with the payment method . I'm a client of Apollon but I want to pay with my credit card like a normal transaction and they haven't implemented such thing.
 

PhenixS1970

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If you are still looking I listed my EVAL1 in Ghent case in the classifieds (I‘m from Belgium).
 
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