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Stupidgood: Ars Sonum

There are lots of "terms of art" used by audiophools to describe sound and equipment. I propose a new one - stupidgood - a piece of equipment that blows you away, as good as it gets (more or less), and the price or the looks of it makes you incredulous as to how good the equipment is. Of course, I did not come with the term; that would by Bobby P. (Mr. von Merlin) describing the Ars Sonum integrated amplifier. I've had separates from ARC, Joule, LAMM, and CAT, and I can tell you, the Ars Sonum is stupidgood driving Merlin VSM-MXes, which can driven very easily be this little 30 watt gem.
pubul57
pubul57 OP
3,712 posts
 
Trelja, have you tried any tube swapping with the ARS. I'm thinking of the little tubes (6922 and 5814/12au7s), I will leave the EL34s alone.
trelja
3,223 posts
 
Pubul57, no I have not. I have not bought or played with an ARS. My experiences are only related to my own listening impressions, and speaking to Bobby and the designer.

Based on the sound I hear, and the impressions of the owner, I am more or less comfortable with his choice of tubes. That being said, it's always worth swapping tubes if for no other reason than to satisfy the need to see if one is maximizing the performance of any component in their own system, though it's going to cost a bit of money to roll the small tubes in this application.
pubul57 OP
3,712 posts
 
I had to run home and try it. I replaced the Tesla 6922 (driver stage) with an Amperex White Label PQ (USA) and in my opinion an improvement. Seems better at microdynamics and presence -or put another way, it sounds beautiful. I'm going to settle on this for a few days, get to know the sound and then try some RCA Clear Top 12au7 in place of the pair of Phillips 5814 - not expecting as much of a difference there but will see. I can't see playing around with the JJ EL34Ls - the measurement and testing is so tight I don't think messing with them will help.
sherod
1,690 posts
 
Tell your wife how "Stupidgood" she looks today and she if she gets it.
bobbyapalkovic
729 posts
 
paul,
i caution you in one respect. although the capacitors are burned in for hundreds of hours before they get mounted on the boards, they have not played any music. secondly, there are so many new parts, power cord and tubes that making any effort to tube roll before you have...500 hours on the unit is imho, fruitless.
the unit gets clearer, more pristine and expansive sounding as it breaks in. the tube you prefer now, to the jj e88cc may be too much or too additive in the long run.
give it a chance to sound as it can and then try rolling a few.
best,
b
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