Yes XV1, that's correct!
I will list the comparisons as clearly as follows and the issues I had with the ACT2;
I have mentioned this few years ago on another post but I'll reiterate just for you.
1. Huge amounts of hiss, especially from the left channel no matter what I did. Changed tubes, serviced several times, replaced with very high grade tubes, nothing but that annoying hiss, and sometimes both channels, can even hear it from the listening position. But when music plays, it obscures the hiss but on very quiet passages it's very apparent.
2. After about two years of usage, the ACT2 used to suddenly stop, sort of freeze / paralyse itself and on one side of the front plate, all the LED's would light up like a runway... No one was able to fix this, and thus was sent over to QLD on several occasions. On the last run, Jeff Fischel was contacted and gave tech assistance over the phone over several days. Finally several things were fixed, power supplies, internal power cords, connections etc, including grounding circuits but that problem wasn't fully fixed.
3. I was then later advised by Jeff himself that this was a fairly old unit, purchased second hand and may have had some trouble in the past... Hence advise to upgrade to the series 2, or go for the ET5, which just came out that year.
4. I opted for the series two upgrade and when I got the unit back and whiles it was working perfectly, I sold the dam thing off, not wanting to ever deal with repairs again!
5. Considering what I paid for at the time, which was nearly double of what I paid for the CT5, and given the superb high quality of the CT5, plus the upgrades conducted on the CT5 and absolutely ZERO hiss, the CT5 beats the ACT2 hands down, no chance whatsoever!
So with that said, I'm now listening to George Benson and Earl Klugh- Collaboration on LP, I've never had this level of refinement in performance and a true lifelike soundstage, superb, superb, superb!
Cheers to George Benson and his mesmerizing guitar playing, fantastic stuff, I want to get up and shake his hand! Might as well.
On a positive note, the chap who actually bought my ACT2, luckily has had no further issues other than a few caps & resistors that required changing... Good for him! Because I'm very happy after upgrading to a series two, that he has had trouble free operation over the years, somewhat...
To me with this level of refinement and internal upgrades, the CT5 offers near quality of the ART pre, which I know extremely well because I owned one, and it also offers all the wonderful virtues of the ACT2, nothing short of SOTA performance on any level.
Sometimes after careful planning and dedicated listening, the top of the line may be equalled in a particular system already having top tear components. It's just a matter of finding the right fit...
Have a good one mate, RJ