[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by cmalak

Jonathan Valin of TAS had a preview blog on the Ref 250s here: Audio Research Reference 250 Monoblock Amplifier | The Absolute Sound

In the commentary section at the bottom of the blog, I asked him to compare the CJ GAT/ART combo which he reviewed so favorably earlier in the year with the Ref 5SE/Ref 250 combo (official reviews to come in the coming months) and here is his reply:



He pretty much thinks they are both at the top of their game. If push comes to shove and he was made to pick, he would go with the ARC combo by a smidgeon but to be fair he has been a long-time ARC fan. Hope this is an interesting read for folks.

I was especially interested to read that he found the ARC combo to be a bit more tonally dense/rich than the CJ combo because the ARC sound has traditionally been more about open, airy, 3 dimensional but somewhat lean sound whereas CJ gear has been known for its tonal richness but it seems that CJ and ARC's most current offerings have been converging in terms of sonic attributes.

Cyrll,
Thanks for posting this and for directing me to JV's reply on the TAS site.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to how he can compare the two effectively without simultaneous side by side comparisons and only from memory. Regardless, he's long been a fan of ARC, and it could be because he gets to keep their and Magico's gear "on loan" longer than other mfrs. Reminds me of the MC 2301s that HP's had on review loan for over a year and a half now. I"ve heard that he actually doesn't own any or much of the gear that comprises his "reference system" and that his listening room is quite small...who knows?

Regardless, it reminds me in a way of sport motorcycle reviews....what was hot last year has been superceded by what's hot this year. And so now last year's superb motorcycle is somehow less superb....