Cary v12 or Audio Research VS110

I have not heard the ARC, but I did have a Cary V12 go through the shop a little while ago as a used piece. FANTASTICO. Like most of Cary's new stuff I simply enjoyed listening to it. No analysis, nothing to jump out at you, just a great easy listening experience.

The old-time warm and inviting midrange was very easy to live with. It's a super piece and gives you some nice flexibility with it's switchable high/low power modes. I find that most of the time I prefered the lower powered setting for the nice harmonics and timbre. It was perhaps more tubey sounding and a little more 'alive' than my old ARC vt100. I did feel that my vt100 seemed to have a little more of an accurate sound to it though.

I owned one of the Cary V12's for over 2 years. I bought it right after selling an Audio Research VT130. Not owning any of the newer VS series of amps I can’t do a comparison. However, I have had several of the other Audio Research amps (D70, D115, D125, Classic 60, V70 and the VT130). As stated in the above reply, it was very musical, didn’t seem to have a shining character that one could point at and say there is no peer, it just played music with a nice sound stage, that would be expected from a tube amp, both front to back and side to side. The speakers totally disappeared. I did replace the stock Ruby EL34 tubes with Svetlana EL34 tubes with great results. The biggest difference was in the base region. I do believe that the ARC amps that I have owned did have better dynamics, that could be because the amps I used were 6550 power tube driven. I never tried the 6550 tube in the V12 although you can use that tube as well as the KT88 and KT90. I too ran it in the triode 50 watt mode. In the ultralinar mode if found it to be a little hard sounding, that could be my speakers. If you are buying used there are, I think, three different versions of that amp already, you might check with Cary, I had the very first version. Good luck with what ever amp you choose..........Bob

Both good but very different. V12 has a more liquid midrange and VS 110 has better base control and top end extension. Trade-off inherent in EL 34 vs 6550 and design philosophy. I have more exp. with VS 110; it is much improved with JJ KT88 in all aspect except cost and reliability of tubes. VS 110 is more neutral but V12 charm with female vocal and strng is difficult to ignore. Both amps more natural than many SS amps.