G'day gentlemen & any ladies...
Experienced something interesting on Saturday afternoon. There is this store that has been in Melbourne for quite a while that I have never visited. Walked past the showroom and saw something worth listening to; New ARC Ref system & SF Strads.
I know I've had bad experience with ARC in the past but thought for what it's worth perhaps I'll give this one a listen at least.
Initially the chap had Australian made speakers called Ambience (ribbon design with built-in sub), hooked up to the ARC gear. It was the shiny new ARC Ref75 amp, top of line RefCD9, and top of line pre linestage. The sound was ok, good bass, powerful mids, and the usual ribbon highs. Overall, it was not coherent and the bass driver did not match with the ribbon element. Although I preferred the Ambience compared to Magneplanars, I asked for the speakers to be swapped to SF since with the Ambience there wasn't quite something right.
In the far corner was the new SF Olympica III that was somewhat neglected due to the much more gorgeous looking Strads and Amati's. Both of these I have had experience with, so I asked the chap to hook up those Olympica's. After a few minutes of warm up, the sound was very nice. Very smooth, great soundstage and well balanced. Good value for the price and cheaper than the Elipsa. Personally I prefer the Elipsa.
I went home with a smile thinking of that new shiny ARC Ref75. Then after listening to my system till nearly 4am that night, I was with a grin! I realised that the ARC system with SF was good no doubt, but it did not present what Quads can do with c-j gear. That glorious midrange, expansive soundstage and depth, plus the perfect balance is definitely something golden. In other words the absolute sound is all there. And this I believe can only be surpassed with its own ART series of amplifiers.
I also realised that only a few high-end companies have really achieved this perfect balance; the others have either way too much bass, or over-powering midrange (like horns) or the tweeters operate in outer space...
It's definitely a funny thing that only a handful of respected designers achieved this absolute sound way back in the 50's and 60's. And then perfected their designs in the late 70's and 80's. I believe thereafter no one really improved on their original designs. What we have now are technical improvements on materials and parts that no doubt improve sound effects. However, still to this day many new designers don't seem to understand what the perfect balance is nor have any idea of natural live sound. For those who do know, they have struck it on the mark and when this is achieved there really is no turning back.
Overall findings:
ARC Ref 75: great amp! weighs a ton, plenty of drive and very well balanced with KT120's (drawback: only has balanced inputs, no RCA type or SE)
ARC Ref CD9: excellent cd player with multiple playback formats and speeds. (personally prefer my McIntosh though at half the price, and not a huge difference in sound either).
ARC Ref Line stage: nice preamp with plenty of input/outputs for balanced connection & RCA.
SF Olympica III: very nice speakers, very well balanced and fantastic value for money. (personally prefer the Elipsa for bit more in price).
Overall a good match, though I must say I strongly believe that the above ARC system would probably present better sound with Electrostats...
Therefore yet to be discovered!
Thought I'd share this experience on this forum, and learn something new. As we never stop learning. Respect to the new ARC Ref gear, well thought out!
Cheers and Happy Easter!
RJ
Experienced something interesting on Saturday afternoon. There is this store that has been in Melbourne for quite a while that I have never visited. Walked past the showroom and saw something worth listening to; New ARC Ref system & SF Strads.
I know I've had bad experience with ARC in the past but thought for what it's worth perhaps I'll give this one a listen at least.
Initially the chap had Australian made speakers called Ambience (ribbon design with built-in sub), hooked up to the ARC gear. It was the shiny new ARC Ref75 amp, top of line RefCD9, and top of line pre linestage. The sound was ok, good bass, powerful mids, and the usual ribbon highs. Overall, it was not coherent and the bass driver did not match with the ribbon element. Although I preferred the Ambience compared to Magneplanars, I asked for the speakers to be swapped to SF since with the Ambience there wasn't quite something right.
In the far corner was the new SF Olympica III that was somewhat neglected due to the much more gorgeous looking Strads and Amati's. Both of these I have had experience with, so I asked the chap to hook up those Olympica's. After a few minutes of warm up, the sound was very nice. Very smooth, great soundstage and well balanced. Good value for the price and cheaper than the Elipsa. Personally I prefer the Elipsa.
I went home with a smile thinking of that new shiny ARC Ref75. Then after listening to my system till nearly 4am that night, I was with a grin! I realised that the ARC system with SF was good no doubt, but it did not present what Quads can do with c-j gear. That glorious midrange, expansive soundstage and depth, plus the perfect balance is definitely something golden. In other words the absolute sound is all there. And this I believe can only be surpassed with its own ART series of amplifiers.
I also realised that only a few high-end companies have really achieved this perfect balance; the others have either way too much bass, or over-powering midrange (like horns) or the tweeters operate in outer space...
It's definitely a funny thing that only a handful of respected designers achieved this absolute sound way back in the 50's and 60's. And then perfected their designs in the late 70's and 80's. I believe thereafter no one really improved on their original designs. What we have now are technical improvements on materials and parts that no doubt improve sound effects. However, still to this day many new designers don't seem to understand what the perfect balance is nor have any idea of natural live sound. For those who do know, they have struck it on the mark and when this is achieved there really is no turning back.
Overall findings:
ARC Ref 75: great amp! weighs a ton, plenty of drive and very well balanced with KT120's (drawback: only has balanced inputs, no RCA type or SE)
ARC Ref CD9: excellent cd player with multiple playback formats and speeds. (personally prefer my McIntosh though at half the price, and not a huge difference in sound either).
ARC Ref Line stage: nice preamp with plenty of input/outputs for balanced connection & RCA.
SF Olympica III: very nice speakers, very well balanced and fantastic value for money. (personally prefer the Elipsa for bit more in price).
Overall a good match, though I must say I strongly believe that the above ARC system would probably present better sound with Electrostats...
Therefore yet to be discovered!
Thought I'd share this experience on this forum, and learn something new. As we never stop learning. Respect to the new ARC Ref gear, well thought out!
Cheers and Happy Easter!
RJ