Nice to see this tread alive and well. I just upgraded to an ARC Ref 5 SE. Pretty amazing pre, but I don't like the 40 second delay, mute and zero volume. I understand why, but after the delay, couldn't they at least unmute the thing and maybe set the volume to "1" if not the setting it back to the last setting? Sorry for the vent, but because of this, I am thinking about going back to SS.
I have a pair of Pass Labs XA-100.5 mono blocks. I am sure the XP20 pre would match up extremely well. My question, has anyone compared the XP20 with the ARC Ref 5 SE?
I do like that the ARC has a 12V remote, so when I turn it on, the amps come on. Since the XP20 is designed to stay on (similar to my Ayre K5 Xe mp) it won't have the 12v remote switch.
Thanks