As to three REF 160s’s. My dealer got one and thought I would like it… so he brought it over. I instantly loved it and asked him to order me one. He left the first until I received my copy. So, a couple months later, my unit shows up. We swap it. My new one was great… but one of the meters was weak… not a big deal, no hurry… several months go by. My dealer drops by and asked what I want to do… have him replace the meter or get a new one. I say, I don’t care, what would you do? He says, “get a replacement”. He calls ARC, and a couple minutes later a new one is on its way. So, in a couple weeks, I get a new one.
I can’t remember why, but at the beginning of this year my dealer (who has become a friend over the last twenty years) brought over the reference 160m monoblocks… for me to compare. I love them, so he has been nice enough to leave them. So, I currently have both.
These mono-blocks were early copies… not long after they came out. I went down to his store to hear Bruce from Audio Research introduce them. I immediately realized it was finally time to get a tube amp. I decided then to get the stereo version when it came out. It took a couple years or so, but they did, and I did. But having these monoblocks in my system is really gratifying, not only because of how amazing they sound, but because these were the very ones that I heard that caused the pivot in amplification for me… so, important for how my system sounds today. This very amp probably caused one of the most important pivots in my system of all time. My system is now all ARC and exceeds all expectations I have ever had in owning an audio system.