CJ ACT 2 v. VTL 7.5 v. ARC Ref 3

I also was able to auditon both the CJ and the ARC Ref3 in my system at the same time from two different dealers. I found them both to be first class pre amps. However, I went with the ARC. As good as the Act ll was, it did have the CJ house sound which is a little to warm for me while the ARC simply disappeared.

Guidocorona,
ARC3 had better image density, presented lager, deeper soundstage and had better harmonics. On some CDs instruments seemed better separated with CJ. But overall Ref3 was a clear winner.

There were two more candidates during my test – Aesthetix Calisto Signature and dcs Elgar DAC with variable output. Aesthetix couldn’t compete with others with its factory Sovtek tubes. In regard to dCS Elgar, it was connected directly to CAT JL2 and on some good recordings surpassed my system with Ref3 in it. But that was only with two CDs out of ~ 30 good recorded CDs I played those days. dCS could never play piano right and didn’t present soundstage as good as preamps did.

Other components during auditioning were:
Avalon Eidolon
CAT JL2
Meridian 508.24
Stereovox IC and speaker Cable
Nordost Vishnu, Shunyata Anaconda Alpha and NBS Serpent power cables

Thank you Eugene for your findings!