Audio Refinement Complete owners: amp power Q

Hi John,

I don't think you can go wrong with Signal Cable IC's for the price. I used the Analog 2 for awhile, and found it to be a solid performer.

Roy Johnson, who designed the Europa's, highly recommended Audio Magic Sceptor IC's. They were a bit out of my price range, but I did try the Audio Magic Excalibur II with my Complete, and found them to be a noticeable improvement over the Signal Cable. Smoother midrange, cleaner treble, and more detail. Of course, the Excalibur's were about $125.

Two other cables you might consider: Analysis Plus (also recommended by Roy), and Millersound. Millersound IC's are pretty rare, but they are essentially clones of JPS Superconductors and are only about $40-50 used. VERY neutral cables that are great for the price.

Its awfully hard to get around to actually listening to all of these, good to narrow it down. I really like what I see in the Unico too, but as you alluded to, it is a significant step up in price, a step up that may not be proportional to the benefits it produces.
I'm now pretty certain that the Complete offers plenty of power for the Europas, the feedback that I have had has been consistent.

Hey Eric,
Roy made the same recommendation to me. I certainly don't doubt his recommendation, I'm sure the AM's are excellent. But laying down that kind of money--$700+ for the Sorcerers--is a little beyond me. Plus, there is the hotel room I would have to rent when my wife found the bill!!
I'm pretty sold on Signal Cable for speaker cables, but I am going to consider some of the more affordable AM and AP IC's, with the Signal Analog2's as the value-fallback option. I am going to look into the Millersounds too. I enjoy buying from lesser known companies that put more resources and attention into their product than advertising and flash.
John

Stick with the ARC Int. I found that it sounds almost as good as my Aleph 2s into 4 ohms, but not quite as powerful.
So I had to spend $5k instead of $1k. Oh well. I've put this giant killer into several friends' systems (as well their GREAT matching tuner---but NOT the CDP!), and ALL have been extremely impressed. Nice remote, too.
It's ability to double down to 4 ohms is reasonable...somewhere in between the YBA one and two transformer cousins, at 80w/ch, probably adequate for your needs.