Audible Illusions Modulus 3 Audio Research SP-11

@ Mofimadness: Did the Audio Research really sound so much better? or was it just becouse Audible Illusions had bad service?

Arc gear really does sound good. I'd be hard pressed to think anything could clearly trounce it unless one prefers some special flavor.

09-24-14: Stefanovitch
It eats tubes?

Normally tubes in preamps are uncrictical? How often you did them raplce?
Stefanovitch (Threads | Answers | This Thread)

My friend would replace them every 1 to 1.5 years He would use it around 2 to 3 hours a day.
It's common knowledge that they eat tubes.

More talk on it over here.
[url]http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/amp/messages/19/196393.html[/url]

Cheers George

I owned a Modulus 3 years back. It sounded good but not better than my TAD Signature 150 preamp. Came with a brand new set of National 6922 tubes (not factory recommended I know). They were fried within 200 hours of use. What a tube eater. Sold it and never looked back. I question a tube circuit design that runs the tubes at their absolute limit. Not a good design regardless of how good it sounds. How are you suppose to swap tubes when the majority of brands can't be used. I tried contacting AI via phone calls and/or emails. Never did connect or get a response.

The Audible Illusions 3A is a damn nice sounding preamp. After installing it in my existing system I received many compliments from friends and family how excellent it sounded and how it improved the overall sound.

I think the reason that it got a reputation for eating tubes is because many owners were installing NOS tubes that don't have the durability of the Sovtek tubes that Audible Illusions recommends and sells.