|
Audio Research State of the Art Audio Reproduction |
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#11
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
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. Sent from my iPad using A.Aficionado
__________________
Main: Wilson Alexia, D'Agostino M400 monoblocks, Ypsilon PST-100 Mk 2 preamp, Helix 1 turntable w/Lyra Etna SL cart and SAT tonearm, Ypsilon VPS-100, dCS Vivaldi DAC, Shunyata Triton v2 & Typhon, Shunyata Cyclops and power cords, Transparent Opus MM2 speaker cables and interconnects, Kubala-Sosna interconnects and power cords. Family Room: Legacy Focus towers, sub, and surrounds, McIntosh MC452, McIntosh C2500, DHC-80.3, Parasound Halo A-51, Sony HAP-Z1ES, AppleTV, OPPO BDP-105D, Sonos, XBox One, XBox 360, Shunyata Triton. Office: KEF LS-50, Decware Zen Mystery Amp, E.A.R. 868, Sony HAP-Z1ES, Sonos. Library: B&W 805 Maserati, JL Audio Fathom f113 sub, twin MC275LE, McIntosh C2500, AMG Viella V12 w/Lyra Etna cart, Sony HAP-Z1ES, Sennheiser HDVD 800 headphone amp/DAC, Sennheiser HD800 cans. Other: VPI Aries 3 w/Triplanar tonearm and Dynavector 17D3 cart, CTC Blowtorch, Vendetta Research SCP-2A, 2 MC30's, 3 MC240's, MC275 Mk V, MC275 Mk VI, 2 Bob Carver Black Beauties, EAR 890, EAR 324, Parasound Halo A21, Parasound Halo JC-1 monoblocks, Parasound Halo JC-3, Pioneer SX-1250, Pioneer SX-5590, Pioneer SX-1980, Thiel CS2.4 speakers. A man's reach should exceed his grasp, else what's there a Heaven for? |
|
|
Audio Aficionado Sponsors | |