Audio Research DS 450 amp......thoughts

I came very close to buying it. My local dealer didn't have the DS450 for me to demo, but he did play the DS225 for me with some Proac speakers. I thought it sounded impressive, but in the end, with so many quality SS amps out there, I just didn't want to drop that kind of money on a class D amplifier. (Ended up buying a simaudio evolution W8). During my research, I did get a chance to speak to one of the head guys at ARC (forget his name), and they are quite proud of their DS amps.

I purchased the DS450 (along with the LS27) about 6 weeks ago. Did extensive listening including McIntosh and Ayre. Found the transparency, musicality and soundstage on the DS better to my liking. The McIntosh had a deeper bottom end - but not by much.

I'm driving a pair of Revel Salon 2s with the DS450 and I'm very happy with the results so far.

Enjoy!

There are ARC D450 mono's in the works .

Yes, I've read that recently in the TAS. Paired with the Ref 5 or LS27, that should be a nice combo.

I'm using a Ds225 on Magnepan 1.7s and soon on 3.7s. I find that the amp is very transparent and really reacts to any upgrade connected to it. I've grown to like the amp after selling my ARC SD135. Its taken some time to understand this amp, It has many qualities, but get the best fuse, power cord, cables and front end you can afford as the DS series amps are VERY unforgiving and will fault towards bright / grainy with less refined stuff surrounding it, but as it's said, "Don't shoot the messenger".