Avatar

VAC Quality To Fit The Smallest Spaces And Budgets

It's easy to see why integrated amplifiers have become one of audio's fastest-growing product categories: combining pre- and power amplifiers on a single chassis offers dramatic savings in both size and cost. More importantly, by controlling the interface between the two components and eliminating the need for interconnects, significant sonic advantages accrue to the integrated approach. Unfortunately, most integrated amplifiers have been designed with price, rather than sound quality, as the principal criterion. Until now.

Introducing Avatar, the only integrated amplifier worthy of the VAC name. A distillation of everything we have learned about sound, Avatar's 60 watts-per-channel are supplied by pairs of EL34 output tubes operated in push-pull, with user-selectable triode/ultra-linear operation. The discrete preamplification section boasts a superb phono stage, for true high-end performance with both MM and high output MC cartridges. Extensive input switching facilities - including a tape monitor loop - support all conceivable source components, while a home theater bypass mode assures Avatar will flourish in the most sophisticated multichannel systems. Highlighted by a softly-lit bias meter, Avatar's retro styling provides the perfect visual complement to the unit's superb sonics. With its sculpted, 3/8" aluminum faceplate, extensively braced chassis and custom-machined knobs, fit and finish are everything one would expect from a VAC component. Remote control is standard..

Avatar offers a level of quality and performance previously unattainable at its price. For apartment dwellers, budget-conscious music lovers, or those individuals fortunate enough to contemplate a second system, Avatar is, quite simply, the finest integrated amplifier ever made.

Avatar. Only from VAC.

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VAC Avatar Provisional Specifications

Type: Integrated vacuum tube amplifier with MM phono stage and home theater (direct power amplifier) mode.

Options: External MC step-up.

Power amplifier ("Home Theater" direct mode):

Output matching: 4 or 8 ohms nominal

Power output: 60 watts/channel ultra-linear; 27 watts/channel triode

Frequency response: 9 Hz - 35 kHz +0 / -0.5 dB 3 Hz - 71 kHz +0 / -3.0 dB

Power bandwidth: 11 Hz - 63 kHz + 0 / -3.0 db ref. 50 watts

Gain: 25 dB ultra-linear; 23 dB triode

Residual noise: 1.5 mv at 8 ohm output

Channel separation: -72 dB @ 1 kHz; -60 dB @ 10 kHz

Line stage preamplifier:

Gain: 24 dB

Maximum input signal: Infinite (attenuation precedes line stage)

Noise contribution: Approx. 0.1 mv at power amplifier output

THD contribution: Approx. 0.04%

Tape output: Unity gain from selector, non-inverting

Phono stage preamplifier:

Gain: 37 dB (measured at tape output)

Residual noise: 3 mv at output (S/N ratio approx. 69 dB)

Overload: 117 mv @ 1 kHz = 8 volts RMS output, 460 mv @ 10 kHz

Frequency response: RIAA +/- 0.25 dB

Notes: Does not invert absolute phase.

General:

Tube compliment: 2 x 12AX7 low noise (phono) 2 x 12AX7 (line stage) 3 x 12AU7/6189A (power amplifier) 4 x EL34 (power amplifier)

Dimensions: 17.5 inches wide, 8 inches high, 15.3 inches deep (+ knobs & connectors)

Shipping weight: 61 pounds

Warranty: Three years parts and labor, excluding tubes.

Specifications subject to change and improvement without notice.

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