Listen my children and ye shall here about the midnight ride of me and my tin ears. Seriously, I have a little story to tell so put on your boots and roll your pant legs up. As most of you know who have been reading anything I have written over time, I am an analog/tube lover. For those among you who count those as unforgivable sins, please read no more and go do something enjoyable like a double-blind test between two Class D amps or something.
I consider the heart of my stereo system to be my Counterpoint SA-5.1 preamp. Every signal passes through my preamp whether it is coming from a music server, CD player, R2R, or my turntable. Therefore, my preamp has a tremendous influence on the final sound of all my sources. My SA-5.1 has been back at Mike Elliott’s place since September 15th. I sent it back to have the final upgrades done which is a complete rebuild of the power supply including a new Plitron power transformer (I previously had the line stage and phono stage rebuilt and all the RCA jacks replaced). I am also having the volume pot replaced with a DACT pot. The bottom line here is that if you have heard a Counterpoint SA-5.1 in a previous life, my 5.1 is not your grandfather’s 5.1. I still think the original circuit was a thing of aural beauty, having it rebuilt with the latest and greatest passive parts just makes it shine more.
OK. So my 5.1 has been gone for quite some time and I probably still won’t see it until around February (Mike’s tech was killed in a tragic bike accident which threw his already slow schedule asunder). Several months ago I purchased a couple of components to hold me over until my 5.1 comes back. I bought an ARC LS-17 line stage and an ARC PH-3SE phono stage. I bought both components from the original owners and they were both in excellent condition (my LS-17 looks brand new). Total retail value when new was about $6,500 for both pieces. Not exactly chump change, but still chump change to some of you.
Now the ARC gear is many generations newer than my 5.1 and more expensive sans the upgrades I have had installed. It should be much better right? I mean time marches on and all of that right? The ARC gear is very quiet and thus clean sounding. It is also lean sounding. I do believe the upper bass and lower midrange are shelved down which makes the bottom end (20-40Hz) stand out as well as the upper midrange and high end. I found myself having to concentrate on enjoying my system and that makes no sense if you think about it. There is simply too much information missing with the ARC combo and I think the main culprit is the LS-17. Everything is too lean and clean and much of the musical message has been scrubbed away in the process. If you are one of those who can’t make a purchasing decision unless you have been blindfolded and tortured first, I bet you couldn’t tell the ARC LS-17 from a SS preamp. I doubt I could if you boxed my ears and tied the blindfold on me. Which should come as no surprise, as the LS-17 is basically a SS line stage which just happens to sport a pair of the Russkie super tubes. The power supply and all voltage regulation is SS. Does anyone wonder why ARC uses vacuum tube voltage regulation and even sometimes rectification in their top-tier line stages?? I’m not going to ask a Dolph like question here. The reason ARC uses vacuum tubes in the power supplies of their most expensive line stages is that it sounds better. And yes, it’s more expensive to implement.
So yesterday I was still at my brother’s house after our Christmas celebration and he offered to let me take his 5.1 back home until mine shows up. My bro’s 5.1 had the line stage rebuilt by Mike Elliott, but nothing else. Out comes the LS-17, but I left the PH-3SE in there as I didn’t want to make too many changes at once. Wow. Now instead of my music sounding like a paint-by-numbers painting that had too many numbers left with no paint on them, but enough that you could tell what you were looking at suddenly had all of the missing numbers filled in. Can you say relax and enjoy the music? I can and I did. I would say that the ARC LS-17 is sort of like being a vegan. Your all thin and gaunt while you proclaim how healthy you are (I have a sister who is a vegan and her doctor has told her she must now eat cooked foods and meat as she had become seriously ill due to her vegan diet). The 5.1 is more like a carnivore-it does eat vegetables, but it feasts on the meat as well which gives it plenty of meat on its bones. With the ARC LS-17, you pretty much just get the bones.
Now I’m hungry. Somebody please pass the meat and gravy to me as I’m over the vegan diet I have been on.
I consider the heart of my stereo system to be my Counterpoint SA-5.1 preamp. Every signal passes through my preamp whether it is coming from a music server, CD player, R2R, or my turntable. Therefore, my preamp has a tremendous influence on the final sound of all my sources. My SA-5.1 has been back at Mike Elliott’s place since September 15th. I sent it back to have the final upgrades done which is a complete rebuild of the power supply including a new Plitron power transformer (I previously had the line stage and phono stage rebuilt and all the RCA jacks replaced). I am also having the volume pot replaced with a DACT pot. The bottom line here is that if you have heard a Counterpoint SA-5.1 in a previous life, my 5.1 is not your grandfather’s 5.1. I still think the original circuit was a thing of aural beauty, having it rebuilt with the latest and greatest passive parts just makes it shine more.
OK. So my 5.1 has been gone for quite some time and I probably still won’t see it until around February (Mike’s tech was killed in a tragic bike accident which threw his already slow schedule asunder). Several months ago I purchased a couple of components to hold me over until my 5.1 comes back. I bought an ARC LS-17 line stage and an ARC PH-3SE phono stage. I bought both components from the original owners and they were both in excellent condition (my LS-17 looks brand new). Total retail value when new was about $6,500 for both pieces. Not exactly chump change, but still chump change to some of you.
Now the ARC gear is many generations newer than my 5.1 and more expensive sans the upgrades I have had installed. It should be much better right? I mean time marches on and all of that right? The ARC gear is very quiet and thus clean sounding. It is also lean sounding. I do believe the upper bass and lower midrange are shelved down which makes the bottom end (20-40Hz) stand out as well as the upper midrange and high end. I found myself having to concentrate on enjoying my system and that makes no sense if you think about it. There is simply too much information missing with the ARC combo and I think the main culprit is the LS-17. Everything is too lean and clean and much of the musical message has been scrubbed away in the process. If you are one of those who can’t make a purchasing decision unless you have been blindfolded and tortured first, I bet you couldn’t tell the ARC LS-17 from a SS preamp. I doubt I could if you boxed my ears and tied the blindfold on me. Which should come as no surprise, as the LS-17 is basically a SS line stage which just happens to sport a pair of the Russkie super tubes. The power supply and all voltage regulation is SS. Does anyone wonder why ARC uses vacuum tube voltage regulation and even sometimes rectification in their top-tier line stages?? I’m not going to ask a Dolph like question here. The reason ARC uses vacuum tubes in the power supplies of their most expensive line stages is that it sounds better. And yes, it’s more expensive to implement.
So yesterday I was still at my brother’s house after our Christmas celebration and he offered to let me take his 5.1 back home until mine shows up. My bro’s 5.1 had the line stage rebuilt by Mike Elliott, but nothing else. Out comes the LS-17, but I left the PH-3SE in there as I didn’t want to make too many changes at once. Wow. Now instead of my music sounding like a paint-by-numbers painting that had too many numbers left with no paint on them, but enough that you could tell what you were looking at suddenly had all of the missing numbers filled in. Can you say relax and enjoy the music? I can and I did. I would say that the ARC LS-17 is sort of like being a vegan. Your all thin and gaunt while you proclaim how healthy you are (I have a sister who is a vegan and her doctor has told her she must now eat cooked foods and meat as she had become seriously ill due to her vegan diet). The 5.1 is more like a carnivore-it does eat vegetables, but it feasts on the meat as well which gives it plenty of meat on its bones. With the ARC LS-17, you pretty much just get the bones.
Now I’m hungry. Somebody please pass the meat and gravy to me as I’m over the vegan diet I have been on.
