Conrad Johnson ACT2 against Audio Research Ref 3

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.

I should add that, when I tried the ARC Ref 3 in single ended mode the test was unplanned. I turned off by mistake the balanced circuit on the remote, and for approx 20 minutes I scratched my head wondering why on earth the system was suddenly sounding so thin.

Guidocorona - Are you saying that the REF 3 sounds significantly different and better in balanced mode as compared to single-ended mode?

Guidocorona

considering you have all balanced system now I would stay with the REF 3, especially if you like the sound all ready. Going to all balanced or single ended will not end up in better sound, just a different flavour, regardless how we proud audiophiles beat our chest.
I know that all ready having bought the VTL 7.5 and tried all sorts of balanced amps including VTL's own MB750's.
Now after that expensive detour I am going back to cj pre and amp. They drive my 4.5 metre IC's just fine and sound quiet, nice and musical with fine detail and dynamics. The ACT 2 is very detailed, but is very even across the broad audio spectrum so longer term listening is more enjoyable.
The VTL 7.5 was a little weighted in the upper mid range/lower treble - long term that was more difficult to enjoy in my system with my tastes. It also erked me that the VTL 7.5 has a basic design flaw(at least in my opinion) where if you used the VTL 7.5 with any power amp of over 26db, you get huge amounts of tube gain noise. This makes the pre amp incompatible with many amps unless you use endler attenuators to reduce the gain. The ACT 2 on the other hand has the same high gain that the VTL has, yet is quiet with any high or low gain amp.

But then again Martin Colloms of hifi news fame has for a long time used cj ART and now ACT successfully with Krell balanced amps.

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.

A wonderful proposal and I envy the opportunity to be part of that listening session. Of course you are most invited to share observations with us, ideally referenced to specific musical passages so we can play along at home. But all that is down the road. Best wishes as you break-in and enjoy you new linestage.

I wonder if this thread has helped Ginas??