Help renaming inputs on ARC Ref 40 preamp?

[wpascoe]

Originally Posted by speedmerlau

Hi wpascoe, I noticed that you have owned both the Arc ref 40 and the blowtorch and I was wondering if you could provide a comparative assessment of these wonderful preamps. I owned a ref 40 but it was stolen and I am now in the market for a replacement. I am looking at the possibility of another ref 40, VTL 7.5, Lyra or blowtorch depending on what comes available. If you can provide any insight based on your experience with both the ref 40 and the blowtorch this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Welcome to the forum, Speedmerlau!

I'm terribly sorry to hear about your having lost your Ref 40, and to a theft, no less. The good news is, a replacement may be closer than you imagine -- and if you subscribe to the forum (see Masterlu for details), I can send you a Private Message and point you in the right direction to an excellent Ref 40 that's about to go on the market very shortly.

As to the comparison:

Both are EXCELLENT preamps for two-channel listening. As a Ref 40 owner, you know about how wide, deep and tall is its sound stage; how full and rich and beefy its timbre is, without being anywhere near "butter;" how, well, musical it is. Aside from not being able to rename its inputs (!), I can find nothing unkind to say about it, and lots of nice things to say about it.

As far as sound goes, the Blowtorch's is better ... but only by a small margin than you might expect, given its legend. It's the quietest preamp I've ever heard, with a noise floor approaching Antarctica, so dynamic music just explodes. If all I ever did was use my preamp to listen to vinyl, I'd never have shifted from the Blowtorch. And I'd have gotten used to the lack of a remote, and the more than a bit clunky aesthetics. (It really is an eyesore, and fails miserably the WAF test, if that's a concern.)

Alas, residential constraints require me to get double duty out of my front speakers -- they must serve in both a two-channel and a HT system. The Blowtorch, designed by Curl, Thompson and Crump to be the best-sounding (not "best," and certainly not "most convenient") preamp ever, not only doesn't have a remote (another obstacle in the signal path!), it also doesn't have a unity gain input. (Home Theater? Through this preamp? Heaven forfend!) I tried doing it manually, but the moment I connected the second set of unbalanced cables, to run the HT signal from my Integra DHC-80.3 prepro through the Blowtorch and on to the amps, I got a loud ground loop.

And, as a consequence, it sits in a closet ... waiting for the day I can set it up in a dedicated listening room.

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