Ref 110
 

I am picking up a used Ref 110 on Sat.

It will be my first tube amplifier and I am excited to try it out relative to the Levinson. My Vandersteen dealer is also an ARC dealer and they sure sound nice together in the store...

Cheers

Congrats Karl. I hope you like it. ARC and Vandersteen are generally good combos. Let us know what you think :thumbsup:

Karl, congratulations. The REF110 is a great amp. Owned one for several years and it is a fabulous amp. Does it have K120 tubes? Mine had the original 6550's and I upgrade to the KT120 tubes. I believe it was a worthy update although I know of some people that had tube problems after the upgrade. Never created problems for me. Enjoy the amp!

Cyril --- will do! My brain says solid state is the way to go, especially after comparing Stereophile measurements of class a solid state versus class a tubes, but I am blown away by the musicality and dimensionality every time I hear the Ref. 150 on the Vandy 5A Carbons at my local dealer. So, logic be damned, it is time for me to try tubes. :-)

One question for you, actually: you note the HRS Nimbus isolation system in your signature, have you found that tube gear like the Ref. 110 is susceptible to vibration induced sonic changes? My audio rack is what you might call "corner loaded" and I am pretty sure it sees some serious bass over there.

It has the 6550s. My dealer asked if I wanted them to put new K120 tubes into the amplifier, but I told him to hold off....

I am finding that I love the journey aspect of this audiophile equipment thing almost as much as I love the music itself. I can try the K120s down the road.

In a nutshell, how would you say the K120s changed the sound?

Cheers

From memory deeper and tighter bass. The tube also increased the power to about 140 W but power in the 110 was enough so that in itself may not be an advantage (depending on your setup and needs).

http://www.audioaficionado.org/attac...1665664857.jpg

Couldn't wait until Sat. and picked up tonight. Apologies for the horrible iphone pic. First impression: VERY different than the Levinson.

Hmmm, "different" could be good or bad…

Looks great you will love it. Try the K120 tubes when it is time to replace the current tubes. It makes a nice over improvement.
Have you checked the tube bias? Really important for sound and tube life.

BillK:

In this case different is really just that. Both amplifiers have serious strengths, and they are just different. I'll describe more after I do more listening this weekend, but some of the differences in a nutshell:

ARC Ref. 110 -- musicality in spades; a touch bloomy in the bass; wonderful sense of dimensional spacing; it sings through the highs; more kind to less than perfect recordings; romantic.

Levinson -- neutrality in spades; very tight bass; incredible speed and clarity; analytical nature creates brilliant reproduction when the recording is quality, but can be tough on bad recordings.