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

[cmalak]

Congrats on the new amps New guy Looking forward to your impressions. Remember that the Ref 250s will require some 600 hrs of break in so make sure not to formulate your conclusions before that. Enjoy

[New guy]

Originally Posted by cmalak

Congrats on the new amps New guy Looking forward to your impressions. Remember that the Ref 250s will require some 600 hrs of break in so make sure not to formulate your conclusions before that. Enjoy

How do you accelerate 600 hours into 24 hours? I am only at 120 hours with my Ref 5se after 7 weeks. I normally put in about 2-3 hours of music a week. In the past few weeks I have been enjoying the Ref 5se and listened to music much more than usual.

[cmalak]

Originally Posted by New guy

How do you accelerate 600 hours into 24 hours? I am only at 120 hours with my Ref 5se after 7 weeks. I normally put in about 2-3 hours of music a week. In the past few weeks I have been enjoying the Ref 5se and listened to music much more than usual.

You can put a CD player on repeat and have it feed your preamp and amps a signal continuously and speed up break in that way. I personally prefer to let break in happen as I listen to the components and enjoy the ride, even if at times that ride might be strident or jarring or less than ideal at any point in that break-in period. I wouldn't worry too much about it except to try to pay attention to the sonic changes as they happen, more so to learn the different sonic aspects of your system. By the time the sound settles in, you will be an expert in how your system sounds and this way, if you decide to change a component, you will know how that new piece impacts the sound of your system much more concretely.

First and foremost enjoy the music

PS: With your equipment, you should be listening to music 2-3 hrs a day not per week Enjoy

[New guy]

I also got an ARC DAC 8 last week as well so I could use the DAC and a Mac to break in everything at the same time.

I agree with you about hearing the progression of improvement over time. It gives me better appreciation of the gear.

You are absolutely correct about increasing my listening time. I have more gear than time but I am going to put in more effort into finding listening time.

[Ritmo]

Congratulations on your new equipment New Guy!

Mike

[Barry1]

Originally Posted by New guy

How do you accelerate 600 hours into 24 hours? I am only at 120 hours with my Ref 5se after 7 weeks. I normally put in about 2-3 hours of music a week. In the past few weeks I have been enjoying the Ref 5se and listened to music much more than usual.

Well the easiest way is an FM tuner although I'm sure you could use a test CD or any CD on repeat. I personally didn't find much value to listening while breaking in except out of curiosity. The sound on the Ref 40 as the teflon caps broke in varied so much I can't say I could learn anything about the inherent quality of the unit other than the brief times it sounded wonderful up until about 450 hours. At times it was very phasey and not locked in image-wise; at others virtually no bass. I'd be better at guessing how much you weigh based on your last Audio Aficianado post.

[New guy]

I have received my Ref 250s and I don't know if I should use the 8 or 4 Ohms output taps since the speakers are 6 Ohms. Any suggestions? I suppose I could try both taps and see which sounds better.

[TOGA]

Waiting for your review of 250+Salon2. I will bring 250 to try with my Salon2/Sophia3 at
end of Feb or March.

Each tap will make different sound, and we can't say for sure which one is right, there's trade off between two taps. I read from somewhere that someone using LAMM Hybird class A/B amp with Magico Q3, and he tried 4 vs 8 ohm tap, he said 4 ohm make Q3 sound less dark. But 8 make violin sound more sparkling. I don't quite get what he wrote, but seem like there' s always a trade off between two taps that you have to choose and can choose or even swap taps from times to times to change sound.

Toga

[microstrip]

Originally Posted by New guy

I have received my Ref 250s and I don't know if I should use the 8 or 4 Ohms output taps since the speakers are 6 Ohms. Any suggestions? I suppose I could try both taps and see which sounds better.

You have to try as suggested by posters. Although during burn-in phase I would suggest the 4 ohm - you will have to increase volume gain and the tube current will be lower - two good things for this period.

[New guy]

I have the Salon 2s connected to 4 Ohm taps but it's too early to say how it sounds. It has about 8 hours so far but it does look like the ref250 has enough power to drive the Salon2s.