Project "Stealth" Tubes (ARC) and variety is the spice of life...

[TMcD]

You should do it for sure. The ARC stuff sounds so good together. I am listening right now and drinking a nice Cote Du Rhone. Does not get better.

[enatai252]

I don't think you can go wrong with the Ref 8/2/5/150. Unless you are thinking of another digital source however, there is no need for the DAC8. Don't get me wrong...the DAC8 is a great piece and I ordered one this weekend...will feed the Naim HDX into it...including hi Rez recordings. But don't waste the wonderful output stage of the Ref8 CD. I am still waiting for the Ref DAC...with tubes.

I have the 150 with Sashas....lovin it

[Jerome W]

Serge,
I understand your will for 2 flavors in your analog room.
Still, I 'm surprised at how fast you're looking for a "mistress" after you found the great love with Shindo.....

[cmalak]

Serge...enatai252makes a good point about a REF DAC or CD/DAC. My guess would be there is either a tube-based DAC or a successor to the CD8 that will have digital inputs allowing you to integrate a music server/PC into a reference and tube-based digital player. I would keep the Ayon CD player/DAC in the chain for now and wait until you get a one-box tube-based Reference CD/DAC player from ARC (which if I were a guessing man, is coming soon in next 6-12 months, as they have revamped the preamps in the past couple of years (Ref 5 and Ref 40 Anniv), and are refreshing the power amps now (Ref 150 adn 250 and probably 650 shortly). Just a thought.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by C220MC275

Serge,
I understand your will for 2 flavors in your analog room.
Still, I 'm surprised at how fast you're looking for a "mistress" after you found the great love with Shindo.....

Jerome, the addition of a second setup in the same room has absolutely nothing to do with Shindo! I am very much in love with my Shindo gear right now. I simply want to expand my system and have a few different tables, few different phono stages, few different carts and a different perspective on sound by comparison. It very well may be that the ARC stack will not keep me glued to the listening chair like Shindo but it will be fun to play around none the less and I have other rooms where I can shuffle gear to if need be and I find that I don't use the ARC as much. I am a tweaker by nature when it comes to audio gear and I love to experiment.

The Shindo MC phono stage is optimised for Shindo SPU and the target loading is an extremely low 2 ohms... Not going to work with much of anything modern other than a few cartridges out there. Again, it's that Shindo approach where certain few things work and when they do, WOW!!!! I'd like to have more arms/carts to play around with for sure!

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by cmalak

Serge...enatai252makes a good point about a REF DAC or CD/DAC. My guess would be there is either a tube-based DAC or a successor to the CD8 that will have digital inputs allowing you to integrate a music server/PC into a reference and tube-based digital player. I would keep the Ayon CD player/DAC in the chain for now and wait until you get a one-box tube-based Reference CD/DAC player from ARC (which if I were a guessing man, is coming soon in next 6-12 months, as they have revamped the preamps in the past couple of years (Ref 5 and Ref 40 Anniv), and are refreshing the power amps now (Ref 150 adn 250 and probably 650 shortly). Just a thought.

Hmm, that's something I need to think about. Not a big deal, I can certainly upgrade when the time comes but it would have been nice of ARC to add digital in like my Ayon does to the DACs and the tubed output stage all in one box! The Ayon also upsamples and it does do 192 but I prefer not to upsample myself, I find it sound more natural and smooth without upsampling. Only XRCDs and the new UltraHD at 32 bits sound great at the 24/192 setting on the Ayon.

[cmalak]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Hmm, that's something I need to think about. Not a big deal, I can certainly upgrade when the time comes but it would have been nice of ARC to add digital in like my Ayon does to the DACs and the tubed output stage all in one box! The Ayon also upsamples and it does do 192 but I prefer not to upsample myself, I find it sound more natural and smooth without upsampling. Only XRCDs and the new UltraHD at 32 bits sound great at the 24/192 setting on the Ayon.

Serge...just to be clear. I don't know if ARC is coming up with a replacement for the CD8 with digital inputs, I am merely assuming that it is likely both in terms of time for a refresh and given the trend in newer CD players to also include digital inputs. You may want to ask your dealer if he has any sense about this. Looking forward to see how this all works out for you.

[PHC1]

I'll be spending the next few days with the 210's and the REF5 with my Tanny's just to get a feel for tonal balance of that combo. Stay tuned.

[PHC1]

My, my how things have changed. Last time I had the 210s visit they had but a few hundred hours on them. The tube hours are now 1270. I assume they are fully broken in by now. Yikes! The REF5 and 210s are making some serious music right now.

Stark contrast to Shindo but stay tuned.

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by PHC1

My, my how things have changed. Last time I had the 210s visit they had but a few hundred hours on them. The tube hours are now 1270. I assume they are fully broken in by now. Yikes! The REF5 and 210s are making some serious music right now.

Stark contrast to Shindo but stay tuned.

Serge,
We need pics !!