Anyone heard the new ARC LS17SE?

Hi Lougiants,
Sorry, I should have been more clear. The only reason I was considering an upgrade was to do justice to my recently purchased new ARC Ref 110 with KT-120's. I was not unhappy with the LS17 or its performance. I compared the LS17SE to the Ref 3 and while the size of the soundstage is definitely more spacious with the Ref 3, I found the sound to be very similiar in tonal quality. The ARC tagline of being cut from the same cloth is certainly true in my opinion. For me, taking into account the cost and the smaller size of my listening room, the SE upgrade seemed to make the most sense for me. Would I have liked a Ref 3? No question, as I would like to have had the balance control and tube hour counter, etc. but I couldn't justify the difference in cost for an older, used Ref 3 vs an upgraded relatively new LS17.

Hi Rgd,
According to my coversations with ARC, they are only offering the SE upgrades to the LS17 linestage, the Ref 2 phonostage and the Ref 5 linestage only. The retail pricing will remain at $3995 for the LS17SE and the others have increased to $12,995. The SE models will all be standard models going forward. My understanding is that the Ref 2 and Ref 5 will include power supply upgrades along with the coupling cap upgrade, while the LS17 upgrade is only the new coupling caps. Hope this helps clarify.

Thanks Bavarian05, I completely understand.
In your opinion , what does the LS17SE do better than the standard LS17? understanding you have not heard it in the context of your own system yet?
Just curious to see if it has more bloom, is smoother, or more detail or maybe larger soundstage, etc....

Thanks,
Lou.

Bav,
thanks for the dope on the LS-26 not being the upgrade path. Guess when the time comes it will have to be a Ref 3 or maybe an LS-27...

Hi Lou,
This is very preliminary of course, as mine has maybe 5 total hours on the new caps. For lack of a better term, the sound is more fluid and "continuous" to my ears. I have not had enough time with different types of music yet, but with classical and jazz, it seems to have zero stridency with strings and the bottom edges of bass notes sound better defined. Transients on leading edges of strings seemed defined, yet smooth (if that makes any sense). It is not a night and day difference at this point, but certainly a noticable gain. I also really like the look of the new silver metal buttons with the black faceplate (subjective of course). A little more contemporary look. I am anxious for run in to occur, as by virtually all accounts, things will only improve over the next 300-600 hours with the new ARC Teflon caps.