Mark Levinson 32 or Audio Research Reference 3

Hello Trance .. I owned the Levinson #320S and then went to the A.R.C. Ref 3 . The A.R.C.s sound was superior , but not it's built quality . It was less than 3 years old when I started to have issues with it . The A.R.C. just had more life , I have owned many Levinson pieces and the only negative I can think of is , they had a slightly dark sound . I am now using Ayre's KXR and cannot say enough about its sonic virtues . It seems to be a good match for my Levinson power amp .

I own a Levinson No. 32 preamp (includes phonostage cards). It is currently a back up unit (my primary unit is an Emotive Audio Epifania with remote control). I really like its flexibility and incredibly useful remotely controlled features. As far as the sound, frankly, there is something missing. Yes, it is a pleasant sounding unit and does not do serious damage to the sound (the same cannot be said of the pre-Reference 3 AR linestages which sound extremely bleached and unpleasant to me). However, the No. 32 is a touch too "polite" sounding to me and slightly less lively sounding than the better tube units.

I've only briefly heard the Ref. 3 and Ref. 5, so I don't know their full capability, but, I do know they are substantially better sounding, to me anyway, than prior AR gear.

If you can do without remote control, the Audionote (uk), Kondo, and Shindo stuff should be auditioned. These tend to be on the warmer side of neutral, but, don't suffer from being sluggish sounding as a result.

I only briefy heard the Veloce (battery powered tube linestage) at an audio show, but, what I heard was enough to make me at least think about it as a possible purchase (it is remotely controlled, a must for me).

I would be extremely reluctant to purchase an expensive used Madrigal product unless you have a solid preexisting relationship with them - there have been a lot of nightmare stories reported on this and other forums over the years about Harmon's service involving used Madrigal gear (it seems the problems started when the Madrigal facility in Connecticut was closed six or seven years ago).

That said, I tend to prefer top-shelf solid-state preamps over tubed ones because they layer space as well as the best tube pre's, but are quieter, the noise floor in amplification components being of paramount importance in the very high-resolution systems these pieces tend to be used in. While I understand that the Ref 3 is very quiet for a tubed unit, the 32 regenerates power and is dead quiet, something you will clearly hear and come to appreciate quickly.

I also run my non-tube amp components 24/7 and do not know whether the 6550 in the Ref 3's power supply would hold up in 24/7 use (very possibly, but I would need to know), and if it doesn't, whether it is absolutely safe at the time of failure, whether failure of that tube takes out a resistor requiring soldering, etc. I have no fear about the small signal tubes in that preamp, but output tubes are another matter and can arc and engage in other scary pyrotechnics when they die. Does anyone know what kind of voltage the 6550 sees in the Ref 3's power supply?

Finally, the vast majority of tube preamps (ones not using output transformers, which is 99% of them) have difficulty driving long interconnects to the power amp without causing bass rolloff, so if your power amp is more than, say, 3 meters away from your preamp, this could be an issue. Tube preamps also have much higher output impedances than solid-state preamps, causing mismatches with certain amplifiers that again result in bass rolloff. The ARC Ref 3 claims an output impedance of 600 Ohms, but as is usually the case, no frequency range is given with this spec - 600 Ohms is almost surely the nominal rating and it will be significantly higher at low frequencies. If the input impedance on your amp is above 50 kOhms, or if your amp is just a few meters from the preamp, then you're probably okay.

Here is one of many threads that addresses Harmon's service:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1281863487&read&keyw&zzmadrigal+used+service

A slight correction to Raquel's characteristically knowledgeable post.

Long interconnects will cause upper treble rolloff, not bass rolloff, if driven by a preamp having high output impedance (at high frequencies). The higher the capacitance per unit length of the particular cable, and the longer the length of the cable, the greater that effect will be.

Interconnect cable parameters and length have no relation to bass rolloff, at least to the extent that cable effects are technically explainable and predictable. As indicated, bass rolloff will result if all three of the following conditions are present:

1)Power amp input impedance is low, e.g., significantly less than 50K.
2)Preamp output impedance is high.
3)Preamp output impedance rises significantly as frequency decreases and approaches 20Hz.

Those three conditions most commonly occur when a tube preamp having a coupling capacitor at its output (as most do) drives a solid state power amp.

Regards,
-- Al

And I might add that there are tube preamps (with direct-coupled outputs no less) that can drive 100 feet of interconnect with ease.

So why is it down to just these two preamps? Is it a price thing?