Audio Research Ref: CD8

My CD8 has been now been playing almost continuously for 22 days approaching 500 hours. Happy to tell that after burn in the bright, sometimes almost edgy sound is completely gone.
During the burn in phase I had to remove the Valhalla cables from my system as they exacerbated the sibilants and splashiness, but today I could use them again.
One thing is sure - the bass control and depth are improved and it is more detailed than my previous CD7.
I will wait a few days more before borrowing my old CD7 to make a direct comparison.

Here is a pic of an upgraded CD-7 I got from a fellow member from Sweden:

Inside image CD-7 with 5881

I had the oppportunity to listen to the CD8 today at a dealers store with all the other ARC Ref. gear hooked up with it along with the Wilson Maxx Series 3 Speakers.Its been a long time since I sat down to listen to the latest ARC gear and with this set up I thought I was in audio nirvana heaven. I brought a special cut CD of Firebird Suite 1919 from a 96k 24 bit HD Track and I was spellbownd
at the utter bass slam and powerful dynamics of everything.The sound stage stayed stable at FFFF on the final cords of the piece.The images were layered perfectly
and the space occupying the overtones were so there.
I played the Riverdance sound track and I could feel the weight and the character of the stage the dancers were stomping on. A first in my life and I always thought when I went to see the live performance of them that no stereo in the world would be able to reproduce this. Well I was wrong. I can go on and on about what I liked,But my only question is .Is this from a combination of the entire system playing or just the REF.CD8?

76doublebass,
Can you tell us what cables and amplifier were being used in this system?
My CD8 is now approaching the target of 600 hours burn in. As soon as it stabilizes I will compare it to the old CD7.

Microstrip: The amps were ARC REFERENCE 210'S and speaker cables and IC'S were Transparent Reference Cables with their interface boxes of course. Also was used were the Transparent power conditioner filter device.I 'm not sure the model number,But this device alone cost 3.5K. I THOUGHT A PS Audio at half the price would do a better job.
Oh and for your info. I have never heard a CD7 or any ARC gear in several years so this was a real ear opener to me to say the least.
Later on I did get a chance to hear the ARC CD5 and could only listen for just a few minutes it was that much a sonic let down to me after being exposed to the Reference Gear from ARC.I'll need to give Lenord a call an compliment him. I use to own ARC SP-6A,6B,6C,SP-8,D110B Amp, and VT-60
amp. So u can tell its been awhile since I've been exposed again. So I'm in trouble an bit with the ARC bug again.
I'll be saving my coin for 1 year to able to purchase a CD8
and it would be worth the year wait from everything I heard from this incredible piece of gear.