VAC Statement 450
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Statement 450

For several years the VAC Phi 300 amplifier has been earning a reputation among perfectionists as of one the finest power amplifiers available, routinely matched with speakers in the quarter million dollar class. Lately we've been wondering, what would happen if we were to remove all of the constraints and design an amplifier without any regard to cost, without any regard to size, and without any regard to weight?


The answer is the VAC Statement 450.


The sound of the Statement 450 literally caused our jaws to drop. If the Phi 300 is one of the world's best amplifiers, then the Statement 450 is no less than the redefinition of the term "World Class". It is not a subtle improvement. It is a whole new world.


VAC President Kevin Hayes describes its sound as follows: "This is an absolutely startling jump in sound quality. The voices, images, and dynamics are as solid as a concrete wall, and there is an order of magnitude more detail being presented, which manifests not only in hi-fi terms, but in emotion and, for example, being able to picture the expressions that play across a singer's face. It's not a subtle difference, or even a moderate difference; it is a quantum jump."


VAC's "first principles" design approach led us to four critical factors in the design and voicing of the Statement 450: increased precision of control over the drive/output circuit; control over stray interactions within the amplifier; architectural control of mechanical resonances; and avoidance of electrically large, slow components. The result is, predictably, a design completely unique to VAC.


The Very Low Impedance Driver (VLID) circuit gains much greater control over the transfer function achieved in the output stage, improving linearity and increasing headroom. There is palpably more control, greater subjective power per watt, and increased detail.


The potential benefit of hand wiring is that the designer gains infinitely more freedom in "voicing" through the ability to select the brand, conductor material(s), insulation, size, and geometry of wires used to build the amplifier. This has been exploited in many previous VAC designs. However, the approach presented in the Statement 450 far exceeds conventional hand wiring and previous three dimensional techniques. Careful architecture and orientation of parts in 3D allows passive control of radiated fields to an unprecedented degree for an audio amplifier. Special consideration of the ways in which they interact with the chassis, sensitive circuit points, and each other increases purity and resolution.

Basic specifications: