A little review..... mods I don?t quite know where to post it ?
I thought Ill share some thought on this pre-amp.
I used this little gem with a Plinius SA Reference and also an Audio Research D79.
I have owned and used the following ARC pre-amps: LS2, LS5 Mk1/2/3, Reference 2, Reference 3, LS10, LS16 and have to say
This is an AMAZING piece. It falls sort of between the Reference 2 and Reference 3. It is quieter than any with the exception of the Ref 3. It has the amazing big soundstage of the Ref2/LS5(modified).
It throws out a bubble..almost like you see in a Sci-Fi movie, almost palatable in front of you! The air is almost charged with music. Is this maybe also a positive addition of the super tweeters ?
Be careful, it?s so quiet that you open the volume up a tad too high and the music jumps at you! The bass is very good. Almost solid state, yet a little bit of the flowing, rumble one gets from a valve amp.
The treble is airy, really a lot of sparkle. Better than most preamps I have heard. Little better than the Hovland HP100. But you have to listen FOR it. Let me explain.... you sit and think" "What about the treble ?", you focus on it and...there...all the information is there...very much so, but it doesn?t focus your attention on it the moment you start to listen... it blends in with the strongest point of this preamp - the midrange. Try a bit of Satriani and you distinctly hear the notes, the organised chaos of an electric guitar...
But the mids.... oh yes. Tony Joe White scares you when he starts to sing. Again the music is softer and he starts right into the microphone...makes you jump a little...and the fact that he is in FRONT of the speakers! The tone is so right, so touchable. Female vocal too, really smooth and striking!
It IS the SE - Special Edition. And ARC doesn?t mess with an SE behind every 2nd pre-amp. They deliver on those two letters. This preamp has touches of the Reference 5 in it and I can hear it!
I love the preamp. Is it worth its new price of around R70k ? I would say in the US, definitely. We here in old SA just suffer from exchange rate. So Ill comment on US prices. $4500 ? It competes in the $5k-$10k range and I think does extremely well.
Is this like the LS5 days where the LS5 was so good there were significant less Reference 1 sales ? Yes in some way indeed. Yet a Reference 5 is more than $10k so there you buy into exclusive club too. Competition for LS26/27 ? I think so. Having a LS17SE won?t make you yearn too much for them BUT will motivate you to find a 2nd hand Reference 5.
I have yet to hear a LS26/27. I hear they are magic.... and that amazing Reference 5.
FRONT
BACK
INSIDE
I thought Ill share some thought on this pre-amp.
I used this little gem with a Plinius SA Reference and also an Audio Research D79.
I have owned and used the following ARC pre-amps: LS2, LS5 Mk1/2/3, Reference 2, Reference 3, LS10, LS16 and have to say
This is an AMAZING piece. It falls sort of between the Reference 2 and Reference 3. It is quieter than any with the exception of the Ref 3. It has the amazing big soundstage of the Ref2/LS5(modified).
It throws out a bubble..almost like you see in a Sci-Fi movie, almost palatable in front of you! The air is almost charged with music. Is this maybe also a positive addition of the super tweeters ?
Be careful, it?s so quiet that you open the volume up a tad too high and the music jumps at you! The bass is very good. Almost solid state, yet a little bit of the flowing, rumble one gets from a valve amp.
The treble is airy, really a lot of sparkle. Better than most preamps I have heard. Little better than the Hovland HP100. But you have to listen FOR it. Let me explain.... you sit and think" "What about the treble ?", you focus on it and...there...all the information is there...very much so, but it doesn?t focus your attention on it the moment you start to listen... it blends in with the strongest point of this preamp - the midrange. Try a bit of Satriani and you distinctly hear the notes, the organised chaos of an electric guitar...
But the mids.... oh yes. Tony Joe White scares you when he starts to sing. Again the music is softer and he starts right into the microphone...makes you jump a little...and the fact that he is in FRONT of the speakers! The tone is so right, so touchable. Female vocal too, really smooth and striking!
It IS the SE - Special Edition. And ARC doesn?t mess with an SE behind every 2nd pre-amp. They deliver on those two letters. This preamp has touches of the Reference 5 in it and I can hear it!
I love the preamp. Is it worth its new price of around R70k ? I would say in the US, definitely. We here in old SA just suffer from exchange rate. So Ill comment on US prices. $4500 ? It competes in the $5k-$10k range and I think does extremely well.
Is this like the LS5 days where the LS5 was so good there were significant less Reference 1 sales ? Yes in some way indeed. Yet a Reference 5 is more than $10k so there you buy into exclusive club too. Competition for LS26/27 ? I think so. Having a LS17SE won?t make you yearn too much for them BUT will motivate you to find a 2nd hand Reference 5.
I have yet to hear a LS26/27. I hear they are magic.... and that amazing Reference 5.
FRONT
BACK
INSIDE
