ARC or other Pre?

I am in the UK and use an ARC power amp, the reference 75. I suppose the obvious answer to that is a second hand Ref 3 pre amp, but that is still likely to be a lot more than £3000. There is another option I use and that is a passive pre. I picked up the idea from the HiFi+ review of the reference 75, which was matched with the non reference, but still excellent LS27. Alan Sircom, who did the review, had a Music First baby reference and compared them. He thought they were different, more than one better than the other. The LS 27 having more dynamics, the passive more delicacy and neutrality.

I briefly heard the Ref 75 with the dealers Ref 3, when he bought the amp to my house, but only briefly. I would agree with the reviewers description and am very happy with my amp. It is in fact a clone of the MF baby reference, built by a technician, with the same transformers. If you wanted a listen, I am in South Oxfordshire.

The V140 amps are very special amps. I owned a V70 for many years and now own a Ref 110. IMHO only the recent Ref series amps are truly better than the Classic and V series. If you have not replaced the large caps, I would check them as they are about 20 years old now and could start to leak.

ARC has made significant improvements with preamps in the last 10 years. If it were me I would look for a nice used LS27. I would be a really good match with the V140s.

The ARC Ref. 3 is within spitting distance of the Ref. 5, so if you can't afford the Ref. 5, the Ref. 3 should tide you over until you can.

My friend has steadily progressed from the ARC Ref. 1, to the Ref. 2, then to the Ref. 3, (which was a big leap forward, IMHO), and then finally to the Ref. 5. So, I have a fair amount of experience with the ARC line up of preamps. The Ref. 3 sounds very close to the Ref. 5, lacking only a very small degree of quickness and transparency. Other than that, they are virtually identical sonically, IMHO.

Another good preamp is the VTL TL-6.5 Signature preamp. This is a hybrid preamp, with only two tubes, (2~12AU7 tubes). It is very similar to the ARC Ref. 3 and Ref. 5 sonically. It too is fully balanced. Basically it is a VTL TL-7.5 series 2 all shoved into one large box. (And I do mean a large box. I bought the TL-6.5 and it barely fits on my stereo rack.) Used it runs about $4-5K. (It beats out, albeit only very slightly, my previous preamp, the Ayre K-1xe, which is another good fully balanced preamp. Used the Ayre goes for around $3K, without the optional phono stage.)

Here is a link where someone compares the ARC Ref. 3 and the VTL TL-6.5 head to head.

ARC Ref. 3 vs. VTl TL 6.5

Good Luck in your search!

From what I have read, the LS 27 nips at the heels of the Ref 5 (not SE) and probably sounds a little better than the Ref 3. Don't see too many LS 27s for sale, but occassionally one or two hit the "for sale" sheets.

Is there really that much difference between the models, such as the LS27 and say the LS26? And the Ref3 versus the Ref5? We're talking mid-20th century technology here, folks -- there are no real breakthroughs happening here. Something about a company that is constantly releasing new models and new "upgrades" makes me a little suspicious. Are they simply playing games, because they know they have a group of core customers who will go out and buy every new model that is released? I am just asking the question. As opposed to a company that is so confident in their designs that they only release new models when they have something truly new to say (Pass Labs for example).

I'm not attacking ARC very much -- I own an LS16 mkII myself! (also own a Pass).

I'm just wondering if we are exaggerating the differences too much.