Anyone heard the new ARC LS17SE?

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.

I plan to update this thread as time goes on. My LS17SE has about 40 total hours of run in time since the SE upgrade was performed, and approx 250 total hours of run in on the unit as a whole. I am certainly not talented with words, so take this for what it is worth. This is my opinion based on listening in the context of my current system running fully balanced connections and includes ARC Ref 110 with KT-120's, B&W 805D's, Bryston BDP-1 and BDA-1 using Audioquest CV-8 and Columbia cabling. I'm very pleased with this upgrade. Soundstaging is deeper and more defined as you go farther back in the stage, though overall width at this point seems to be very slightly reduced. The general ARC large sound field is still present, and I assume this will improve and loosen up a bit as break in continues. The most pronounced change to my ears is the sheer density of tone and notes. I hesitate to caller it richer, as that can imply more tubey sound and that it certainly isn't. The entire range is more there and very rooted in space. The presence of singers and instruments has improved quite a bit over the standard LS17. For clarity, I was not aware this was even an issue or lacking at all until the SE upgrade came into play. Presence was always a strength of the standard unit in my opinion, and this upgrade has served to increase it by a good margin. The bass region has more authority also. Surprisingly, it almost sounds as if I added a subwoofer into the system. Again, it was not previously lacking in this department IMHO, but the density, definition and power in the lower octaves gives the impression and feel that bass improved and was increased. This is just my experience thus far. Hopefully this helps if anyone is considering the SE upgrade. As a point of reference, my Ref 110 has only 151 total time on the clock, so it also is still running in.

Thanks Bavarian05 - when you say it is more dense, but not richer. Is that maybe a blacker background and maybe a veil has been lifted somewhat?

Hello Lougiants,
Truthfully, I am not certain how to describe it. Richer would likely make sense, though in my experience, richer can be misconstrued to mean colored or having more bloom. It doesn't sound tubier and richer in the typical sense. The sound is more complete and is better defined, seeming to have a larger color pallete overall. This is perhaps an overstatement, but for lack of better analogy, its similiar in difference between 720p and 1080p. This could be due to or enhanced by a quieter background, though I dont really know how much coupling caps can effect the S/N ratio, etc. I dont want to speculate here, as my electrical knowledge doesn't run that deep. Overall it seems the colors are simply deeper and better defined. I hope this helps more than confuses. I will update again as I get more time logged with it.

As between Ref5se and 5, there is a greater palpability of all images. To the extent that prior ARC gear could be characterized as slightly on the lean side, the new caps fill in the boundaries of all images for a more natural and dynamic presentation. Images still "float" as before, but just a bit less so because the images are more rooted in their spaces. A very worthwhile tradeoff. I assume the differences described above apply to all ARC se upgrades which involve among other things-the new caps.