Bought a New Van Alstine DVA SET 500

[Soundbaron]

Amp a few weeks ago, and it's amazing on a number of levels. First it's 250 wpc which is more than enough power for any foreseeable needs I could have. It's quite heavy, and has fairly large externally mounted heat sinks which always seemed like a good idea to me. Keeping heat away from other internal components is a plus in my book. The sonic qualities are as good as any I've personally heard and that's including stuff costing far more. There's great transparency and very solid, but well controlled bass. There's nothing bright sounding, or fatiguing about it, which I'm unable to speculate about because this is a company which provides few spec's. They've been in business for over 40 years and apparently this was a personal philosophy of their founder Frank Van Alstine, who sadly passed away recently leaving the company to two of his employees. This no specs deal nearly prevented me from buying their gear, as it made me suspicious until I bought one of their Spartan little integrated amps a couple of years ago, and that allayed my fears just in the listening. The Audiophiliac has done a couple of reviews on them.

Anyway, a very interesting attribute of this amp (DVA SET 500) is that it seems to produce very little heat even at louder volumes in 80 degree summer weather. This amazes me because rightly, or wrongly, I've always equated hot running amps with good sound. Well, judging by my experience with this amp, such is not the case, so I chalk this up as another win. Back in the early eighties or late seventies I bought a 100 wpc Hafler amp which could double as a stove if you needed. Unless I'm mistaken I believe both amps use mosfets so it's strange that the Hafler with less than half the power of the SET 500 got far hotter. The other thing from memory is that the Hafler didn't sound that great, but that may have been because I paired it with other components that didn't work well with it, such as an APT Holman preamp. It was just mix and match in those days, I had little idea what I was doing until a bit later.

So is anyone else here whose familiar with AVA equipment and what's your general impression? Oh yeah, the last thing that blew my mind was the price which was under $3000. In fact all their stuff seem like tremendous bargains, and I suspect it's because they sell directly to you, and in most cases build your gear when you order it from what I understand. In my case they just had the amp sitting on the shelf ready to go, but that might not be typical.

 

[Mechnutt]

Hi, I was friends with Frank Van Alstine and I did reviews of his equipment for him on the Audio Circle forum. I live 5 minutes from where he used to live. I reviewed the first couple of SET amps. They are fabulous for the money. I also own a few older pieces. His DVA DAC/Pre is the bomb. It is fabulous and I would compare it to DAC's in the $6K to $7K range. It is holographic and 3D sounding. It has a huge sound stage, good detail and is very musical. His gear is built to last and they have very few problems. They also still have great customer service. Mary who is in charge and part owner of the company is fabulous to work with. You can also message back and forth with Mithat their top designer and part owner with Mary.

 

[Mr Peabody]

Congrats.

I had a preamp, I think FET Valve, and a 600r power amp first gen. The first gen wasn't as nicely finished as later models. Both units sounded great and amazing for the price.

I bought one of the first of those preamps. It was interesting, at first I didn't like it, I told Frank I wanted to send it back. He told me to send it back but let him try something before he refunds the money. He sent the preamp back to me and holy cow that thing was a different beast, sounding much better. I like those simple preamps, just knobs, no micro processors and such.

The one thing I don't like about the power amp and I think the design is for several of his models, the binding posts are under like a over hang and made it difficult for me to get to. I typically connect units by reaching over the top. I don't need to see the back

The AVA gear seems to get out of the way and let music flow. Definitely a high value option.

 

[Soundbaron]

Hi, I was friends with Frank Van Alstine and I did reviews of his equipment for him on the Audio Circle forum. I live 5 minutes from where he used to live. I reviewed the first couple of SET amps. They are fabulous for the money. I also own a few older pieces. His DVA DAC/Pre is the bomb. It is fabulous and I would compare it to DAC's in the $6K to $7K range. It is holographic and 3D sounding. It has a huge sound stage, good detail and is very musical. His gear is built to last and they have very few problems. They also still have great customer service. Mary who is in charge and part owner of the company is fabulous to work with. You can also message back and forth with Mithat their top designer and part owner with Mary.

Yes, I have another two of their components and they are extraordinarily musical. You might expect me to be enthusiastic about a new gear purchase, but I'm old enough, and have been through enough components that it takes a lot to get me excited about a new purchase. This amp does it, by delivering true High End sound at a price most Audiophiles can afford. Lol, that sounds like an ad, but what can I say.

 

[Soundbaron]

Congrats.

I had a preamp, I think FET Valve, and a 600r power amp first gen. The first gen wasn't as nicely finished as later models. Both units sounded great and amazing for the price.

I bought one of the first of those preamps. It was interesting, at first I didn't like it, I told Frank I wanted to send it back. He told me to send it back but let him try something before he refunds the money. He sent the preamp back to me and holy cow that thing was a different beast, sounding much better. I like those simple preamps, just knobs, no micro processors and such.

The one thing I don't like about the power amp and I think the design is for several of his models, the binding posts are under like a over hang and made it difficult for me to get to. I typically connect units by reaching over the top. I don't need to see the back

The AVA gear seems to get out of the way and let music flow. Definitely a high value option.

I was starting to think I was the only one who ever heard of AVA because sometimes when I mention them I get the sound of Crickets. From what I'm told they don't advertise and they don't have Dealers so everything is apparently word of mouth. Now on this site I run into two people who go way back with AVA. Incidentally, I checked and the SET 500 doesn't appear to have that overhang you mentioned, so they must have realized it was a nuisance at some point. From what I've read or heard at one time their power cords were not detachable and enough people complained about it that they made them detachable. Thanks for commenting, now I don't feel like a lone voice in the wilderness.