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ARC or Jeff Rowland pre-amp?

I’m using Electrocompaniet EC-4.8 Pre-amp and AW-180 Mono-block power-amp about 5 to 6 years, I enjoy EC amp sound very much but recently want to try something new. I used listen to Mark Levinson No. 326S, Accuphase and several famous brands but they are not impressed me very much. Because I’m using Esoteric K-03X and Avalon Opus Ceramique speaker,  I know many Avalon speaker user are using JR and ARC pre-amp, and I heard a lot of good things about these amp , so I’m interest to give them a try, my target is ARC’s Ref 6 and JR’s Corus. Unfortunately I’m unable to compare them side by side at the same place because they have different distributor in my area.

 

I prefer natural, a little bit warm and sweat sound, not too fast but not slow, very good density and texture, good dynamic, wide soundstage, very high transparency and very good 3D dimension soundstage. I only listen to Jazz music, especially contemporary Jazz like Charlie Haden, Stan Getz, Bossa Nova, Pat Menthey, Enrico Pieranunzi…. which pre-amp you think is fit for my need?

 

Another important very thing is I will not change my EC AW-180 Mono-block power amp at this stage because no budget (And this power-amp drive My OPS Ceramique very well). So I need to know which pre-amp can work better with my power-amp?  THX!

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mmbl622
mmbl622 OP
58 posts
 

jafant

Electrocompaniet has a very good CD & SACD Player, model named is : EMC1 MK3 SACD Player. This is a good CD & SACD player, I’ve listened this palyer in their distributor show room last year, the sound is very good, same character with their amp, you won’t regret if you choose them. But I’m a big fan of Esoteric so I’m using Esoteric CD & SACD player (As I mention in my post, I’m using Esoteric K-03X).

I’m using a Furutech FP-Alpha-3 Power cable for my Esoteric K-03X, the IC is Zendo silver gold cable. These are not very expensive cable but very nice sound.

And I’m using Inakustik NF-1603 IC from my pre-amp to power-amp, speaker cable is Inakustik LS-1603. Inakustik is a German cable manufacturer, they make very nice cable.



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jakeman's avatar
jakeman
78 posts
 
I would keep the synergy of the Electro pre/amp combo. Spend your money on great music instead .
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,969 posts
 
TY- mmbl622
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,969 posts
 
mmbl622

did you own any of the other Esoteric spinners prior to the K-03X ?
mmbl622 OP
58 posts
 
jafant

I was using Esoteric X-03SE CD and SACD player for the last 6 years, it sound very nice. I’ve test many other CDP but I think Esoteric sound best for me. Their latest model K-01, K-03X…. has same sound character with my old X-03SE, but it sound much better : Better transparency, better 3D dimension soundstage, more texture and density, more soft like silk (This is the biggest improvement, because many people said Esoteric’ s CDP sound very hard, lack of emotion). And you have an option to use the up-conversion (Up-sampling) , PCM and DSD-filter for your CD music playback. There are nearly 20 different combinations you can choose.


Oh yes, I also owned an Esoteric G-03X master clock for my X-03SE, but I sold it together with my X-03SE at the same time.  My K-03X sound even better than this combo without an external master clock.


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