WHICH ARC LINESTAGE TO REPLACE LS-15?

A few years ago, I sold my LS5 II to an A'gon member in the UK. Initially he investigated having such a unit modified through ARC but ARC told him he had to go through the UK distributor for such rework. The resultant cost was approaching a ridiculous $1k through the distributor as everyone always wants a large piece of the pie. Rather than play this game, he asked me if we could do this in the US before I shipped it. And with me being only minutes from the ARC facility, we did just that. The cost was $225 to purchase and have a different (220V) power transformer installed at the ARC factory. And it was done that day. Nice and easy.

So as I understand it, ARC is very good when the business is USA to USA. But outside of the USA, you're pretty much stuck with dealing with the overseas distributor.

And yes, Leonard is very helpful and friendly with such issues.

John

I recently purchased one which came with reference level modification from the Great Northern Sounds (GNSC). It also came with a quad of Siemens Falcon 6922s recommanded by Steve Huntley of GNSC. (The previous owner went all out with the mods) The LS-25 replaced the LS-2B Mk II that had been in my system for almost 8 years. In short, I was very impressed with the overall improvement. (I did not know my Thiel 3.6 was capable to produce that kind of bass and soundstage, and I had them for 10 years) The other day, we did a shootout between my modded LS-25 and a Sonic Frontier Line 3 SE. Everyone preferred the Line 3 slightly over the modded LS-25. But when I took out the Siemens and inserted a quad of Amperex white label USN-CEP 7308s, it was like we were listening to a different linestage! All 4 votes went to the LS-25 with Amperex tubes. The Amperex simply embarrased the Siemens! (I had tested those tubes on my TV7D/U tube tester when I first received the unit, so I know they are still OK)

Regarding the GNSC mod, I have been wanting to do a shootout with a stock LS-25 MkI to see how good the GNSC mods are. I sent out an invitation on Audio Asylum but got no response. I guess there aren't too many of them out here in the San Francisco Bay Area...

My next challange will be against a Ref 2 Mk I and a Ref 2 Mk II.

As for modifying ARC products from 110V to 240V, I have heard that it is a closely guarded secret and that ARC does not like to do that. Do a search on here and AA, I think there was a thread a few weeks ago discussing about that.

FrankC

I have to second the GNSC mods. A few years back I seriously considered replacing my SP9 MkII with an LS25 and spent some time listening to a loaner LS25. However, after talking with Steve Huntley, I decided to go with the Ref mod on my SP9 MkII preamp and am so glad I did. The improvements were substantial and obvious.

Steve does excellent work as many posts here and on AA will attest to. You just might want to give him a call before you dump the LS15. Definitely worth a phone call.

check out http://www.greatnorthernsound.com

The thing about after market mods is that you will never be able to recover the cost that goes into the mods. So before you decide to do it, make sure that you are going to like th changes and that you are planning to keep the unit for a long time. The GNSC reference level mod for the LS-25 costs around $2000, and maybe another $200 for the quad of Siemens 6922s. The unit I got was modded 18 months ago and I only paid $400 dollars over what the stock LS-25 MkI are going for on the used market. And this was through a dealer too!

FrankC

Just posted wanted add:

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/wtb.pl?preatube&1141657943

Thanks for your advices!