Quote:
Originally Posted by joeinid
Thanks Cyril. Interesting comparison. I don't know if I'd like the ARC gear being "forward". For my taste and speakers, forward would be too much. I guess I'd have to listen for myself. I do like the fact that ARC is balanced. I wonder how the REF 5SE would play on the 911's and XA100.5's? Thoughts?
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Joe...on the 911s not good! In fact most tube preamps will not be good with your 911s especially through balanced connections given the input impedance of the amp is so low (1 Kohms). I think you need a very low output impedance SS pre to match the 911s. I would stick with a Burm pre with your 911s especially through balanced ICs. I believe the input impedance through single-ended connections on your 911 is 10Kohms which gives you a bit more to work with in terms of partnering pres but still most tube amps will not do since they normally have higher output impedances.
The XA100.5s input impedance is 20Kohm/30Kohms (bal/SE) and ARC recommends a minimum 20Kohm load for the Ref 5SE, so I would say you are on the cusp there as well. If you look at most of ARC's power amps, the minimum input impedance is 100Kohms so they can play nice with their tube preamps.
This is all on paper. I don't think you should try out ARC with your amps. If you ever get the hunkering for it, I would try out an all ARC amplification chain and compare it to CJ or Dart or Burm but that's the only way I would recommend you explore that path
Joe. I think your SS amps are a bit too difficult to drive for most tube preamps (don't know the specs on your Dart amp though which seemed to play nice with the GAT).