Conrad Johnson ACT2 against Audio Research Ref 3

"I am just happy that we have the choice between fine components such as the REF3 and ACT2."

I totally agree.

Jthimothya, your intriguing words tell me that -- while CJ ACT 2 may not satisfy one of my basic requirements for a fully balanced device -- I should renew my efforts to audition it. Perhaps once my Ref 3 has settled down and is fully broken in, I may contact the local CJ dealer in Austin, and see if he can arrange for a demo at my place for me and my fellow Austin audiofools. The challenge will be to do this while minimizing additional variables, such as ICs changes, that would contaminate the validity of any results.

Guidocorona: We are all very eager to learn how the Ref3 ultimately fits for you. It seems like this wait has been going on for what, 6 months now? Before you rush to bring the CJ home for an audition, I suspect you will be up late many many nights rediscovering your music collection with the Ref3.

I would like to comment on your requirement that the line stage must be a balanced design. I was caught up in this "need" for a long time but I think I ended up with the ARC, then BAT and then Aesthetix products not because they were balanced but because they got me into the music more so than their peers, many of which were not balanced designs. And to be honest with you, I suspect little of it had much to do with their balanced implementation. So far the only balanced product I have heard that severely suffers when NOT run in balanced mode is the Aesthetix Io. Rather than be too focused on what your mind says about what is and what is not balanced, it ultimately comes down to what your heart tells you is more involving.

A 10m RCA-RCA IC from my line stage to the amps works just fine. The CAT amps only have single-ended inputs which initially bothered me, but once I heard music with them, it was a moot issue. And any report that such lengths need to be balanced, at least in the context of my system, is simply not accurate.

John

Jafox,

Regarding:

A 10m RCA-RCA IC from my line stage to the amps works just fine. The CAT amps only have single-ended inputs which initially bothered me, but once I heard music with them, it was a moot issue. And any report that such lengths need to be balanced, at least in the context of my system, is simply not accurate.

Ditto for me, just sub VTL where you typed CAT. My single ended runs have no problems performance wise or noise wise.

I also agree the Aesthetix Io sounds better using the balanced out. In my case, only a one meter run to the Aesthetix Callisto.