What is Audio Researches best preamp period

Meisterkleef,
I have to disagree with you. I loved my ARC LS5mkII, and it is maybe the best of the older models. Not having owned every one, or heard every one I couldn't possible say. I do know that it was left far behind with the REF 3.

First of all, to maintain the integrity of this thread:

I have owned an ARC SP9 and an ARC SP11, having fallen in love with a friends SP6C.

I would not say that the SP11 is overly warm, tubey or full of bloom, but it is a great preamp, a pleasure to own and I cant imagine trading it for any tweaky voodoo amp that would "destroy it" "BLOW it away" etc.

I have been tempted to audition an SP10 following steady rumours of the killer phono stage, but I really dont have the time for vinyl these days.

wc65 mustang

A R E Y O U A D E A L E R? By any chance?

As discussed in another thread recently, it really is a bummer when people jump in, OFF TOPIC, and try to jam product down this community's throat.

At least what used to be a community.

cwlondon

posting for years

thinking of signing off

Bbaxley2

Here is a great website for ARC material:

http://www.arcdb.ws/

Nah. I just dismissed the Ref3 after 2 weeks in the system. Same way I dismissed the LS5mkIII/Ref1/Ref2. To my ears they simply don't have the bloom the L5mkII has. Maybe it's because I'm driving two ARC SS amps (D-400mkII). It started with the LS5mkIII when they changed out the 6922 input stage tubes for JFETs. The Ref1/Ref2 were very similar circuits to the LS5mkIII. The Ref3 has a new basic circuit that to my ears sounds closer to the Ref2. Very clean and very good but not in a way that made me want to swap out my LS5mkII. But I definitely can see the appeal of all the Ref series pres. They are certainly outstanding and I'm glad you're enjoying yours. Although I can't imagine anyone NOT enjoying one of them.

Well tempers go here and there, ARC is not on my list anymore after hearing others either,, I did own the LS3 and a 7, one tube one solid state, both built very well and well just not the most emotional sounding or musical in a sense, but to be fair these models are only the mid grade, kinda dry to be honest, would I buy again?? Not sure but if it made magic in a given system sure, but I find the ARC sound to finicky and yes in my opinion a somewhat "House sound", really have found much more universally friendly preamps myself and even at far less money, but the big names will alway raise a fuss in the audiophile community, basically if we all believed that a Mark levinson amp is the end all be all for every situation and price then it would be a perfect world, so expand the horizons and use your experiance to tilt the tone of the system the way you want it. Go for ARC if you are simply happy with the unit you have and want to get more of it out of a model up the food chain, nothing wrong with it.