CHANGING FROM AUDIO RESEARCH TO AUDIO NOTE SYSTEM 

@pfmaudio I agree with you and you are thinking about the right things. One thing you might consider, pick up the phone and call Mr. Devore. Tell him what you heard when you first heard his speakers, tell him about your room and your desires for placement. I have seen photos where John built front ported O96's for a customer. Heck, that may be all you need to get the sound you are after is to have a pair of O96's built that way.

My personal opinion is that if you are looking past the AN-E spe he then you should consider the higher models in the context of an all Audio Note system. Its the AN specific synergies where you milk the last bit of elegance from the system. I am far from an Audio Note expert as I determined real quick that it can be painful as you move up the Audio Note food chain. If it were my money, and it clearly isn't, I would upgrade to a ref80s and have some O96's built with front ports. You could stick with your existing Transparent cabling, experience some amazing dynamics tonal color and texture and sink in and enjoy your music. Besides, the O96's are absolutely built to an heirloom standard, they are beautiful in room and are terribly easy to live with. While O96's may not be everyone's cup of tea, what speaker is? One of the things I really appreciate about the O96's and Devore Fidelity in general, you will see them driven by inexpensive tube integrateds, class A solid state, SET's, lower power amps, higher power amps and they appear to check off boxes for those buyers. They really are versatile. With that said, you might find the transparency and texture that ARC delivers would mesh nicely with AN-E's and they might sound amazing in your room. Hopefully you have great dealers who will find a way for you to see which direction works best for you.

Best of luck...

@ghasley

pick up the phone and call Mr. Devore. Tell him what you heard when you first heard his speakers, tell him about your room and your desires for placement. I have seen photos where John built front ported O96’s for a customer. Heck, that may be all you need to get the sound you are after is to have a pair of O96’s built that way

This is an excellent suggestion! Front ported O-96 speakers that will quite likely work with corner placement as @pfmaudio needs for his room. Get the Jadis 300b amplifiers to drive them and keep the ARC REF 5SE preamplifier. I can imagine this combination sounding splendid. Other combinations recommended here are also terrific options.

@ghasley

Your comments on this thread are very informative and interesting. Hi pfmaudio, Jadis amplifiers are beautiful looking and sounding. I’m sure they worked magic with their 300b implementation. I have zero doubt that the ARC REF 150 SE and Wilson pairing is very nice. But Jadis300b/O-96 I believe would be "special "😊👍

Charles

That’s a big change.  I’d be sure about it somehow before committing fully.  Can you keep the old stuff until the new stuff passes the grade?

The AN E's are a copy of the Snell Type E. I have a pair. I don't believe the hype that the AN E's are so great! Certainly not worth the high price! I'll take the 096's any day of the week! 

Just my opinion I've heard 096's, in a Shindo system, not in my own room. They sounded great but I prefer my AN-J's a real sleeper in the AN lineup.