Conrad Johnson ACT2 against Audio Research Ref 3

Guidocorona

considering you have all balanced system now I would stay with the REF 3, especially if you like the sound all ready. Going to all balanced or single ended will not end up in better sound, just a different flavour, regardless how we proud audiophiles beat our chest.
I know that all ready having bought the VTL 7.5 and tried all sorts of balanced amps including VTL's own MB750's.
Now after that expensive detour I am going back to cj pre and amp. They drive my 4.5 metre IC's just fine and sound quiet, nice and musical with fine detail and dynamics. The ACT 2 is very detailed, but is very even across the broad audio spectrum so longer term listening is more enjoyable.
The VTL 7.5 was a little weighted in the upper mid range/lower treble - long term that was more difficult to enjoy in my system with my tastes. It also erked me that the VTL 7.5 has a basic design flaw(at least in my opinion) where if you used the VTL 7.5 with any power amp of over 26db, you get huge amounts of tube gain noise. This makes the pre amp incompatible with many amps unless you use endler attenuators to reduce the gain. The ACT 2 on the other hand has the same high gain that the VTL has, yet is quiet with any high or low gain amp.

But then again Martin Colloms of hifi news fame has for a long time used cj ART and now ACT successfully with Krell balanced amps.

Perhaps once my Ref 3 has settled down and is fully broken in, I may contact the local CJ dealer in Austin, and see if he can arrange for a demo at my place for me and my fellow Austin audiofools.

A wonderful proposal and I envy the opportunity to be part of that listening session. Of course you are most invited to share observations with us, ideally referenced to specific musical passages so we can play along at home. But all that is down the road. Best wishes as you break-in and enjoy you new linestage.

I wonder if this thread has helped Ginas??

Rgurney, yes the ARC REF 3 sounds extremely different if you defeat the balanced circuit while running true XLR ICs. The sound turned all together noisy, hazy, uninvolving and thin. . . all of a sudden it reminded me of my good old LS2B. When the 'accident' took place at Aris Audio in Salt Lake City last October we were running AQ Sky XLR from a Teac X-01 to the Ref 3, and AQ XLR Chita to a Theta Dreadnaught. A single keystroke on the remote returned the ref 3 to its former glory.

Downunder, the VTL 7.5 did not send me in ectstasy either. Very sweet and 'romantic', but transients were a touch too slow. To give you an idea, all grand pianos sounded like old German Bluthners, or as if grandma had thrown her heaviest quilted blanked on top of the closed lid of her prized 7ft Steinway Hamburg. . . and yes, I have played on a Bluthner several times and do not like the brand. Violins sounded also much tamer than in real life. Once again they sounded 'Bluthnerized' .

JTimothya, I will definitely post detailed listening comments when I have the opportunity to compare the ACT 2 with the REF 3, with detailed references to musical passages and performance issues, in the same slightly anally retentive style that I have already used in my analysis of the ref 3 vs VAC Ren Signature II on my thread at:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1123254379&openmine&Guidocorona&4&5&st0
starting approx the 17th of August 2005. If I recall correctly it was approx post No. 50 or so.

I haven't found that there is a "significant" difference in the Ref 3 in balanced v.s.
single ended mode. What Guidocorona said was that he had the wrong setting for the type of I.C. that he was using. You don't set it for S.E. and then use balanced cables or set it for balanced and then use single ended cables.

Agaffer, quite possibly. If I have the opportunity to test the X-01 to Ref 3 connection with one set of single ended Sky ICs and compare the result with the same balanced IC, I shall do so. Until such time, I will have to go with what my ears have told me this far.