New ARC Reference system

[PHC1]

The new system is in the house!

I picked up the components today and after the somewhat time consuming task of removing all the covers off to install the tubes and buttoning everything back down, the system consisting of the new Reference 250's, 40th Anniversary preamp and Reference 2 phono stage was finally sitting on a rack ready to play. After letting the tubes warm up for 30 min, as per the manual, I checked the bias of the Ref250s and the KT120s and found one amp to be quite a bit off. A quick adjustment brought the bias back into the target zone and I let the music continue to play for another 45 min to fully warm up before coming back down to have a listen.

WOW! The system has only 3 hours on it, I can already say this, if the sound doesn't change at all after break in, I'll be very, very satisfied. If the sound does change for the better after the full break in, well.... I will be simply blown away.

Either the 40th Anniv. preamp is that much better or the new KT120s of the REF250s are that much different but I can say that I am even more impressed with what I am hearing out of the box than I did with the REF5 and 210s with 1200 hrs on them. The synergy between the new components is incredible. Simply gorgeous sound. I am hearing exactly what I was hoping to achieve out of this and these top notch ARC components exceeded my expectations with only a few hours on the clock!

I am also very happy with the way the REF250's look in person. I wasn't 100% on that but now that they are here, I like them a lot! The bluish meters are elegant and understated.

I'll play around with it more and get into more details as the break in progresses.

Here are some nudies for you guys to enjoy as well as a video in full 1080P.

[ame=http://youtu.be/7HiS4a-TcAU]ARC Reference - YouTube[/ame]