Preview of ARC's Ref 250 monoblocks from The Audio Beat...

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by PHC1

I've also owned 2301's, auditioned the ref210's twice for ample amount of time and now have the 250's. I only have about 10 hrs of play time so too early to tell what will really be but the 250's are pretty amazing and are already my favorites out of the three.

Argh......I'm dying......

[Jerome W]

Anyway,
We can't always have the best...
I think that I'm going to stay out from AA for a while....just the time for Serge to sell the Ref 250 !

[Rafale]

Originally Posted by C220MC275

Anyway,
We can't always have the best...
I think that I'm going to stay out from AA for a while....just the time for Serge to sell the Ref 250 !

Jérôme
It's just a question of time

[Etunes]

Sweet!!! Please post pics and congratulations..

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by Rafale

Jérôme
It's just a question of time

Philippe,
I'm very happy with the 2301's...
As long as I don't listen to the REF 250's, I'm safe !

[Priaptor]

Originally Posted by C220MC275

Philippe,
I'm very happy with the 2301's...
As long as I don't listen to the REF 250's, I'm safe !

Go listen. There is very good news. The MC2301s still command a very nice price on the used market. I think the difference in list between the 250s and the MC2301s are about 4-5K. It wound up costing me an 6K total to "upgrade", which may be the best trade in value I have ever received on a used piece of gear.

So do not be adverse to listening to the 250s if you are trading/selling your MC2301s. There have been few "upgrades" in my audiophile life as good.

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by Priaptor

Go listen. There is very good news. The MC2301s still command a very nice price on the used market. I think the difference in list between the 250s and the MC2301s are about 4-5K. It wound up costing me an 6K total to "upgrade", which may be the best trade in value I have ever received on a used piece of gear.

So do not be adverse to listening to the 250s if you are trading/selling your MC2301s. There have been few "upgrades" in my audiophile life as good.

Thanks for the advice. Will think about it !

[Dafos]

Just wondering, with the ref 250 officially unveiled and shipping in several markets, why isn't it listed in ARC's official website?

[TOGA]

That website is slow to update and even the promised to be 1 year limited offer REF 40 is still showing.

[SRT-10 Viper]

Originally Posted by markmck79

I'll chime in as a DAC8 owner...

As you've said you plan to have a REF CD8, I assume you intend to use the DAC8 for computer audio/hi-res (the CD player will cover the 16/44.1). In this area the DAC8 excels. I own 5 RR HRx titles, as well as 50-60 hi-res albums from download services and rips from DVD-As. All sound great through the DAC8 and hands down beat the CD versions on the CD5 I sold because I enjoyed the DAC8 (and I have systematically ripped my entire CD collection - 2500+ - to AIFF). For me, in my system, the DAC8 is resolving enough to be able to repeatedly discern a difference between AIFF and FLAC versions of the same album. I am an ARC guy, enjoy the ARC sound (especially in the recent vintages) and for me nothing really compared for less than double the price of the DAC8. Obviously there is great synergy with the other current ARC products.

I have had the opportunity to speak with an ARC engineer who help designed the DAC and he, and he suggested others at the company, felt it was near REF level. I would be surprised to see ARC release a REF DAC soon. I've seen this mentioned lately on a few other forums and I believe it to be an overzealous ARC fan trying very hard to drop the company a hint. My impression was that they believe that this DAC addresses the shortcomings of the DAC7 and releases after this point would likely be on the normal ARC refresh schedule.

I've heard from a pretty good source that ARC might show a REF DAC8 prototype at CES.