[George Prentice]

My audio guy and I discussed the Berkeley Alpha 3 vs the ARC CD9se. It seemed on paper a likely upgrade. He had got one and let me borrow it. My prediction was that it would be natural sounding but more detailed and that I would decide it was worth the $5K additional cost.

The first thing that struck me was how similar they were. Way more similar than I ever would have guessed. I was able to level match the two since the Aurender can simultaneously drive two AES outputs. I would try and just listen to the music and once in a while I would hit some instrument or other sound I thought would be better on the Berkeley and I would switch... and nope, the other would sound the same. I spent a number of days with them.

There is a difference...the Berkeley is a tad more detailed... a tad... a small, itsy bit... tiny. There is a very very slight more warmth with the ARC in the midrange and bass... giving a little more weight to deep voice or instrument. But tiny. I could not identify which was playing if I didn’t know.

I brought down my partner whom is a female and hence has better hearing although not the interest. She said, she could just listen to the Audio Research forever and never get tired of it... more so than the Berkeley... while I don’t think she heard more details per say she is very sensitive to any high frequency distortion. But she also agreed they were so similar she could never pick out which was which... just too subtitle.

For fun my audio guy had left a pair of Nordsost Odin2 interconnects for me to try. So a $17K interconnect on a $17K component. So I tried on the ARC... and noticed no difference. I tried on the Berkeley and started noticing an improvement on the attack transiences... very subtile. But I was starting to see there would be more to discover. Once I hear some improvement or defect, I find it hard to unhear... and I wanted to quit before I found more... I really don’t want to go down the full weave of Odin2 interconnects and the Berkeley. But thinking about it in a practical way... if you are listening to the music and not the system, I’m not sure this incredibly small level of detail improvement would ever be noticable. I mean great for reviewers, but not for music listening... at least for me.

But the value of the ARC Ref CD9se really showed. It would be 100% sideways. The amount of additional detail, at least to me was, absolutely inconsequential. And the slight loss of natural warmth not a good thing.

My rule of thumb has always been to at least double the cost of a component to upgrade... and you get a “wow”. Otherwise, it is questionable of just different. I think the rule has been confirmed at this level for me.