I'm in a preamp pickle: ARC Ref 1 VS CJ 17LS

Wow! You could hardly pick two more opposite end of the spectrum candidates to choose from. The yin or the yang, chocolate or vanilla?

ARC is very fast, articulate and transparent, but can sound thin, brittle and hard in the wrong system. CJ is very sweet, warm, and musical, but can sound slow and lifeless with the wrong gear. Looking at your list of equipment, I would go with the CJ, as it may help to tame the Thiel's.

Cheers,
John

Good call John, I have always had CJ preamps in my system, until recently, with my Thiels. I never went higher up the food chain that a premier 14, I beleive the 17 started CJ into the more "revealing" sound.

I owned a 17LS2- if you can find the "2" I would say go with that. It was hands down the best preamp I ever owned. Before buying it I compated it to a very highly touted $16,000 preamp. It wasn't even close- the 17LS2 trounced the other preamp.

ARC stuff tends to be drier, but the 17LS and 17LS2 were CJ moving away from the quintessential CJ golden sound.

Like I said, a terrific preamp.

Thanks for your opinions. I think I'll look for a CJ.
Although I have heard that the ARC stuff can be harsh when listening for extended periods, I suppose I was just dreaming that they softened up with a "REFERENCE" preamp.

I've owned the CJ17ls and pretty familiar with most ARC gear.

Most people giving you advice aren't really knowledgeable about what they are saying.

Here's the first and PRIMARY questions to ask if you are considering the 17LS:

1. Will you be running long interconnects from it to your amp?
2. What is the input impedance of the amp?

Probably the only downside to the 17LS is that it isn't balanced and can't drive long cable runs to the amp as well as other CJ preamps like the ART. If you're using low capacitance cables and short runs, then the 17LS is a great option. You will be getting essentially the same performance of the legendary ART at a fraction of the price.

As for ARC gear, you can almost NEVER go wrong with them either. It will give you balanced outputs, which could be an advantage.

Both pieces would have more in common than dissimilar as they are true reference level preamps.

BTW, the 17LS has one other quirk that may bother some people. It's resister ladder volume control clicks at each change of volume.

Personally though, I'm wondering why you feel the need to change preamps from the Cary.