VTL TL7.5 Linestage and Control Center
Contents
1. As a teproducer of music the 7 5 fulfills its promise truly synthesizing the best features of tubes and um those other things I was relieved to discover that I knew its sound before I turned it on because it is a replica of the MB 750 pure tube power amp in linestage form as if cloned from the amp and car rying its genes for delicacy with power clean and silky textures gigantic spaces densely populated with rounded images and uninhibited dynamic intensity It retains VTL s tight dual mono imaging focus adding the most grain free tex tures VIL maybe anyone has yet extracted from a preamp Music or speech hangs suspended before ultra black backdrops and details from the rasp of a jazz trumpet to the latching of a distant gate in a surround sound movie are delivered effortlessly into your listening space Effortlessness sheer auditory com fort is the 7 5 s hallmark Without masking recording deficiencies soften ing edges or limiting dynamics it caresses the ear as live music in a good hall does You enjoy a full measure of dramatic excitement while relaxing into the swells of sound unperturbed by 2 e THE ABSOLUTE SOUND 139 aggressiveness or edge contributed by the linestage itself It even seems to caress the spaces between instruments and the silences between notes if that s not too extravagant a conceit Of course a component has to reproduce the spaces i e have ultra fine resolving pow2. in the dirty box which sees no audio signal The only sig nals it sends to the sound box besides power are non digital low voltage DC control pulses that operate a bank of relays These select the inputs and atten uator resistor values that yield the desired volume and channel balance The sound box contains no digital cir cuitry no rotary potentiometers and of course no 120 VAC Its total tube com plement is two 12AX7s on a shock mounted circuit board The music sig nal sees only those contacts that route each channel through the appropriate volume resistors plus an output fuse Even in dirty Box B a single dial a rotary optical encoder under software control serves every needed function By the way the TL7 5 is very solidly fabricated with heavy gauge build Fully Good quality and top grade parts packed it weighs 90 pounds thing it s in two pieces Now this zs something different A remote computer running a separate purist preamp A passive preamp an alternate approach to purity has noisy controls but no gain Box A an inac tive preamp has gain but no noisy con trols This is how the 7 5 combines an uncontaminated amplification path with a control freak s banquet of switching and diddling functions It even boasts fully differential audio circuits for all the way through balanced operation not just at inputs and outputs Standard RCA coax connectors are also provided Des
3. triangle with ripe powerful bashes syncopations and bass drum and tympani Gershwin s jazzy swinging percussion show off how great this preamp is at rhythmic pace partly because it doesn t bury in noise the tiny contours of attack and decay Bass agili ty and support are evident in Virgil Fox s low bass rich organ recital Laserlight 15313 CD Not only are pedal tones full throated but the layout of the pipes is apparent with a cohesive lucid top to bottom organ sound and recreation of Garden Grove Community Church s vast spaces Now let s talk about pair bonding VTL claims the 7 5 s 25 ohm output pair bonds with any amp through any length of cable I can report that the 7 5 drives Herron M150s unusually musi cal tube like solid state amps to near perfection through 25 foot cables But it is in tandem with its genetic ancestor the MB 750 via 35 foot cables that the preamp s musical potential is utterly fulfilled The 7 5 was designed using the Brunnhilde and big daddy Wotan and this family reunion is sonic Valhalla The 7 5 and my Brunnhildes leapt into each other s embrace fraternal or some thing more provocative and snapped into a right tonal and spatial focus that in my system neither quite achieves without the other nor does the TL 5 5 750 combo enchanting though it was I haven t heard the 7 5 with Wotans but if size matters well you take it from there Thom Rotell
4. Electronically Reprinted from Issue 139 EQUIPMENT REPORT the absolute sound DECEMBER 2002 JANUARY 2003 VTL TL7 5 Linestage and Control Center Arthur S Pfeffer he classy TL7 5 is VTLs first flagship linestage for more than a decade aiming to com plement the awesome MB1250 Wotan and MB750 Brunnhilde power amps Indeed the 7 5 uses such Wotan technology as sepa rate external power supplies for each amplification stage With the 7 5 VTL not only puts in for state of the art sta tus but also makes the point that VTL is not just a power amp company In reali ty its moderately priced tube preamps have always been prized by a coterie of finicky music and audio professionals At ten grand and zot moderately priced the TL7 5 doesn t just poshly upscale the single chassis TL 5 5 though it retains basic VTL traits like dual mono design and the trusty 12AX7 tube is baby is the compa ny s first hybrid According to the Talk well see about the Walk the 7 5 s tube gain stage offers linear voltage amplification with almost no feedback while its MOSFET output stage offers high current capability with low out put impedance Nevertheless the 7 5 had to overcome my taste for all tube preamps established over many years by the likes of Dynaco ARC Conrad Johnson Herron and VTL itself When an all tube manufacturer goes solid state tube lovers get nervous But this is a totally serious t
5. a s rock band DMP GOLD 9001 CD shows off the 7 5 s superb dynamic tracking and rhythmic resolution of multiple percussive and plucked notes and beats In Bring on the Night juxtaposed loud and soft notes of drum and bass guitar don t smear but emerge discretely in packets of time and space Likewise Blue Rodeos Nowhere to Here Discovery 77024 CD where the sudden silence after the huge climax that ends Save Myself gives way immediately to the soft burbling of Girl in Green with no trace of blur There s no type of music or speech that the 7 5 could not do justice to symphonic chamber rock vocal jazz and movies from the intimate to the gargantuan The 7 5 resolves those fleeting wisps of the performer and the instrument and ignores no significant spatial cues Expect to hear instrumental and vocal images with ample body and bloom all the way to the rear of the stage and the corners as well The 7 5 accurately catches the signature of every record ing site and sometimes with an espe cially good minimally miked recording from Reference Verve Living Stereo Mercury etc captures the grain of the air in the hall not electronic grain but the unique atmosphere at the moment of recording it s the sudden discontinuity in this grain that can make tape splices annoying The 7 5 can project or dis perse hall sound out into the listening room enhancing the Alon Circe s simi lar penc
6. bear market it must be included on any short list Like WIL s power amps the TL7 5 will perhaps appeal most to listen ers who 1 Listen to complete musical works or concerts at one sitting 2 Hear live music often 3 Hear music in their heads 4 Need to hear some music every day 5 Can identify instruments and types of voices by their sound 6 Don t expect to trade up every few months 7 Appreciate the differences between LP and CD or CD and SACD 8 Have coherent well balanced audio systems mingling few brands and sonic flavors and 9 Aren t lured by higher snob 2002 Golden Awards z Ear cachet or glitz factor Most such listen ers will shop contentedly among the enticing array of suitable linestage can didates with four figure price tags For those who can go to five the TL7 5 may very well Ze the short list MANUFACTURER INFORMATION VTL Amplifiers Inc 4774 Murietta Street Suite 10 Chino California 91710 Phone 909 627 5944 www vtl com email mail vtl com e VTL TL7 5 Linestage 10 000 lending traditional tube virtues with digital technology VTL s new upscale linestage delivers luscious state of the art two channel sound plus home theater audio management A tube solid state hybrid a first for VIL the hand some massively constructed 7 5 ingen iously restricts all switching control and display functions to a separate power sup ply chassis guaranteeing a short u
7. er before it can caress them A favorite LP illustrates this com fortable spaces effect soprano Victoria de los Angeles in Spanish zarzuela arias EMI HMV ASD 2415 Imagine a panoramic stage in a large theater where a gorgeous voice is centered in front of an orchestra with a small cho rus in the rear Airy atmosphere circu lates freely among above and behind them and floats out into the room In recordings with a soloist backed up by an orchestra chorus or other large ensemble the 7 5 expands stage depth by placing the centered solo closer to the front than usual and pushing the ensemble farther back Some preamps move the entire stage either forward or back but the 7 5 offers a most con vincing reproduction of the actual stage layout The vocals in Sera Una Noche MA 052 CD also hover in space attended by bandoneon clar inet and other sinuously textured instruments All emit flowing tones with fluidly articulated edges and interfaces palpable but unthreatening presences whether of performers here or listeners there In the DCC Everest LP of Uzrapuru by Villa Lobos LPZ 1003 the 7 5 s bass power and speed allow me to hear clear ly and with body and ambient air the usually obscured soft spooky sus tained string bass note incorporating louder bumps in the right rear of the stage supporting a centered flute solo near the beginning The preamp parts the air serenely for this piece s ma
8. hant for two channel envelop ment The 7 5 defines stage depth not so much by layers as by individual instru ments I loved its cozy yet spacious pres entation of Johnny Hodges I Didn t Know About You and Cool Your 3 e THE ABSOLUTE SOUND 139 EQUIPMENT REPORT Motor Blues A Plenty Classic Records Verve MGVS 68358 LP the first a small group number and the second a full band Fabulous image solidity and stability in the sax trumpet piano bass and drums here An Afia Caram track Viola Fora de Moda Rio after Dark Chesky JD 28 CD scatters soft eerie jungle flutterings and whistles all around a deep studio acoustic The pre amp exposes a few formerly concealed beaks and feathers in the foliage Because of the TL7 5 s exceedingly high not thereness quotient its sonic fail ings are harder to identify than its strengths At times I detected an extra warmth or midbass emphasis but in the end was never able to pin it on the pre amp It came and went with individual recordings Classic Records Living Stereo classical LP reissues are slightly bass boosted and the 7 5 renders some of them with what seems an extra bass prominence but others with precisely the right and expected proportions My old favorite Rimsky Korsakov s Tsar Saltan London CS 6012 LP likewise has the bass warmth typical of the fss series but the 7 5 depicts it in perfect balance almost as if intelligently com pe
9. igned to serve as an audio only control center for an entire home theater system the 7 5 can automatically turn on and off any trigger equipped power amp programmed through Inputs 1 4 The 7 5 s 13 faceplate and 16 remote control buttons inter operate ingenious ly to do everything you need but at first in programming play modes and settings keep your user s manual handy Real time operations are generally easy and intuitive Now for the sound Advance press frankly set me up to expect the 7 5 to breathe heavily flex its muscles bran dish its weaponry blow me back knock my socks off and do all the macho stuff its price and appearance predicted in other words to sound grandiose and spectacular It did all right but behind the scenes Up front it sweet talked me It is the easiest preamp to listen to I ve heard in my system It made the music effortless as in live while socking me with dynamic punch and captivating me with sharp image definition fine resolu tion and the other surgical attributes ears greedy for inner detail require Antiseptic Analytical etched Never The 7 5 integrates rather Forget it than deconstructs the elements of music Brute strength Yeah definitely and airily dimensional spaces too but the big story is music that flatters the ears The 7 5 simply sounds right right in the critical midrange and right the same right not different rights from top to bottom
10. ncont aminated signal path in the clean audio chassis Quiet relays and resistors stand in for noisy rotary pots and software replaces switches The result is exceptional neu trality and purity imaging precision and dynamic freedom gain without pain Harmonic texture is relaxed and ingrati ating top to bottom consistency strik ing The unconventional two chassis engineering results in tube like sweet ness effortless dynamics and a brightly illuminated soundstage The 7 5 has the subtlety to handle chamber music and the dynamic clout for heavy rock and heavy Wagner Superb speech and soundtrack reproduction for home theater The 7 5 mates superlatively with VTLs own MB 1250 and MB 750 amps but with its very low output impedance easily drives virtually any other amp as well Myriad Arthus S Pfeffer features include a dedicated power supply for each fully differential gain stage trig ger AC control of connected components remote balance control and input selec tion input volume offsets signal polarity reversal fully balanced operation dual mono circuit design and a receptor for AMX Crestron and other control sys tems Programming and setup are a little tricky and require attention to the manu al but normal operation is fairly straight forward The 7 5 is destined to become a classic luxury preamp for very serious music lovers
11. nsating for the boost I had an identical experience track ing down a slight silvery glitter in high volume highs present in a few record ings but not in most Bottom line The 7 5 candidly exposes what is in the recording or in my cartridge s VTA and by respecting each recording s inherent balance calls attention good naturedly to subtle frequency and texture varia tions This is the inevitable tradeoff in a revealing component Nevertheless the 7 5 s ability to illuminate the stage implies a conscious design effort to counter the dark label applied to some VTL products The 7 5 certainly enjoys a brighter and livelier character than its predecessors but the glow happily emanates from within the music Listeners who like their VIL gear tend I believe to live with it and with their other components for a long time The brand appears to attract what founder David Manley called audio musicophiles and the company s values EQUIPMENT REPORT stress long term musical satisfaction at a purchase price typically below that of comparable equipment The TL7 5 is no departure in this regard Its level of sonic performance engineering and construction actually make it a bit of a bargain even at its exalted price In a class by itself In Control Centers for Home Theater with State of the Art Sound quite possibly Among audio only preamps for those who enjoy the good fortune to command a good fortune in a
12. ny jolting bass and kettle drum shocks The envelope of percussive attack and decay has remarkable accuracy and emo tive force Same is true of the gutsy bass guitar in Rickie Lee Jones Cycles Irs Like This Artemis 751054 CD Would Rickie Lee be entirely happy if she knew how intelligibly the 7 5 transmits her slurred words No doubt about what gospel communicator Aaron Neville is saying in I Bid You Goodnight Warm Your Heart A amp M 215354 CD where each of the back up voices including the resonant bass has its own distinct har monic and spatial identity Like the MB 750 the 7 5 reproduces strings loud or soft wonderfully well with a light yet incisive attack and feathery sustained tone The word lus cious came to mind as I listened to an inauthentically but beautifully string rich performance of Haydn s Symphony 100 Vanguard SRV 109SD LP or SVC 14 16 3 CDs The 7 5 sheds new light on mysterious imaging flaws in the fine old Aubort Nickrenz Vox recording of Gershwin s Concerto in F in Classic Records DAD transfer DAD 1018 2 DADs Despite a spectacularly truthful rendering of St Louis Powell Hall its cubic acres wall to wall with instru ments the solo piano in the DAD flips and fragments oh so clearly between right and left The 7 5 tells me that the old LP Vox QSVBX 5132 was more successfully mixed In both media the 7 5 combines gleaming tinkles of glock enspiel and
13. otally thought out totally handsome effort The TL7 5 doesn t break with VTLs past technical and sonic achievements but builds upon them blazing a new trail toward an old goal Luke Manley and his engineering team aimed the 7 5 at both the audio purist and the home theater fan two species often fused in a single befuddled crossbreed myself for example Befuddled because home theater needs complex switching input and signal routing and loudness management all anathema to the sonic purist seeking to abolish every switch and control from the signal path Folding a high end con trol center into a high end linestage is a daunting challenge VTL solution is to start with a two box design Box A is the clean audio box where the sound goes in and comes out For low noise and an unob structed signal path AC power and all control functions including the display have been banished physically and elec To subscribe to the absolute sound call 888 475 5991 US 760 745 2809 outside US or visit www theabsolutesound com 42 for six issues in the US 45 Canada 75 outside North America Posted by permission from Absolute Multimedia Inc All rights reserved Any unauthorized duplication of this article is strictly prohibited en ee a REPORT trically to Box B the power supply and control unit Box B digitally administers inputs volume balance and signal polarity All the yucky stuff takes place way off premises
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