Conrad Johnson ACT2 against Audio Research Ref 3

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.

C'mon guys.

Now it is getting into a pissing contest

It is as I said before a flavor thing and all of us should be happy with what rocks our sonic boat.

Ref 3 for some. ACT 2 for others and Aesthetix for still others.

Whatever works is OK.

John, I have no intention of swapping the ref 3 out for any other linestage for a long long time. And no, it has not been 6 months. My quest for a linestage has started in 2000 and will finally end only in one or two weeks when the creatures is finally delivered to my doorsteps.
Yet, being the old software test engineer that I am, I know it is in my genes to practice at home what I have done at work for many years, hence my interest in evaluating the ACT 2.

Now about balanced: I have Rowland 7M, which according to Jeff Rowland himself respond best balanced. I have also the X-01 player, which best behaves balanced. Why not optimize the system? I tried the Ref 3 both balanced and single ended on my own system with AQ Sky ICs in and out of it. . . and it does sound a great deal better in fully balanced mode.

The truly interest test will be the insertion of a CJ ACT 2 on my own system, using Sky RCA instead of SKY XLR.