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Audio Research State of the Art Audio Reproduction |
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#21
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Passlabs first produces Xs series amp, Xs300 and Xs150. I have a pair of Xs150 so I know the sound. Xs amp has very warm and tube like sound, typical Class A amp.
When they developed Xs preamp, it was certainly voiced against the Xs amp. To balance the sound, Xs preamp naturally has a faster and tighter sound. So if you want to keep Xs preamp, you may want to try the whole set. Xs300 should have enough juice to drive your Q7. My Xs150 drives my M Project very well. |
#22
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It isn't in the same price league but I'm waiting for PS Audio's new preamp to see how it stacks up against the Ref 5SE.
Would love to see what Arnie Nudell and Bascom King have cooked up. It's still a tube preamp tho.. but with 2 tubes instead of 4, should be more cost effective particularly when u use HT bypass a lot. Thats one of the downsides of my ARC Ref5SE as well. I think more than half of the bulb hours are burnt on movies in HT bypass mode.
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#23
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#24
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Retubing costs 1%-1.5% of the price of ARC preamps. Doesn't seem like a lot. You would get many years of enjoyment for less than 10% of the unit. I am not sure why someone would be willing to buy the unit but not 10% more for long term use.
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#25
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That would be my #1 choice too. |
#26
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Ariess...not sure that's right (depends on model I guess). For my Ref 3, ARC is quoting me closer to $600 which puts it at 6% of original cost ($9,995) and $400 and change for my CD 7 which puts it at around 5% of original cost and $1,000 for my Ref 110 which is about 10% of original cost but that makes sense because of the number and cost of output tubes. Interestingly, I can get same tube complement from Tube Store at 50% of what ARC is quoting me for the three components to be retubed. Of course, the difference is ARC testing the tubes and throwing out those that don't meet their standards.
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#27
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keep the ref 40.
you can't beat valve sound. try different valves, and just accept the 'tube way of life'. if you are still looking, try the vtl 7.5 mk3. vtl pre has only 2 valves and is a good electronic match with gryphon power amp. try it if you can. |
#28
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If you look at The Tube Store online you can enter any ARC make and model and see the price of retubing. For the Ref 10 which is a $30k preamp, the price to retube is $371 which is like 1.3% of the purchase price. The others are similar with some more like 2%. If I am an audiophile as most of us are, I don't see coming up with 1-2% of my purchase every year or so as prohibitive. Now you can pay more by tube rolling, getting tubes from ARC, etc. But if you are cost conscious, those are not necessary. |
#29
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I have compared the NHB18B with my ARC REF40 using a Dartzeel NH108b amplifier and in my system I preferred and kept the REF40. People are still waiting for delivery of the new DartZeel preamplifier, that is supposed to sound better.
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#30
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Robert Koda
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