Tubed Pre match with a Spectron Musician IIISE?

I had an ARC Ref 3 for a while with a single M III and the bybee /vcap upgrades and did not like it at all - very bright and hard. I reverted back to my supped up Sonic Frontiers line 3SE++ and I am quite satisfied with the noise coming out of this combo.

A second M III arrived on Thursday and after 48 hours burn in, today I am going to hook them up as mono blocks using XLR Y-cables! Yippee!

Congratulations Steve - you are for the treat!
I know for the fact that Simon from Spectron never recommended AEC Ref preamps. He liked BAT and, of course, now he is going "nuts" on newest Joule-Electra...

All The Best
Rafael

Radicalsteve, what does the rest of your system consist of.

You said the ARC REF3 sounded "very bright and hard", I have to say that's the first time I have heard that and I have never ever had such an experience and I have tried endless amp combos with the REF3 and my set-ups are very re-veiling, I'm currently using MBL 101E speakers.

Something was going on so I would not put blame on the ARC REF3 and look elsewhere within the system, that being said when I spoke to Simon about the match compatibility he mentioned to me that it would be a great, in his defence he did also mentioned the BAT REX.

Look forward to your thoughts regarding mono block configuration hooked-up and what the differences are from just having a single stereo unit. Do your amps have either of the two upgrades available.

Radicalsteve, I over read and see that you have both upgrades, I guess I was just paying too much attention to your reference of the REF3 being bright and hard.

I also read some of your other threads and see you are in the area "Ottawa", you wouldn't happen to be coming to T.O. during the holidays for a visit would you.

I would really love to hear those in my set-up.

Dev, it is early days yet to report on the monoblock configuration - but as soon as I have a view I will post an update. Unfortunately I won't be in T.O., but on the slopes at Tremblant!

As to the Ref 3 I am assuming it is purely an impedance miss-match or such.

I really enjoyed the Ref 3 with my Sonic Frontier Power 3's prior to me getting the M III and for a while (contrary to lots of opinion here) I thought the ARC PH-3SE with NOS tubes was a great sounding phono stage prior to my Aesthetix IO SIg - so I quite like the sound of ARC gear and would always say that the REF 3 is a highly recommended world class preamp and I was sorry to see it go - just didn't have the synergy that my Line 3 has with the M III. I did think the Ref 3 display was ugly though!

I must say that a tube pre with the M III is a good way to go, especially with a tube based vinyl front end. Having said that, I would be really interested in a Sim Moon P8 with the M III. I used to have the P5 LE and only sold it because it had just one balanced out and I prefer at least 2 XLR out for my set up. That P5 was very sweet sounding and dead quiet.

Steve