Anyone heard the new ARC LS17SE?

Hi Rgd,
According to my coversations with ARC, they are only offering the SE upgrades to the LS17 linestage, the Ref 2 phonostage and the Ref 5 linestage only. The retail pricing will remain at $3995 for the LS17SE and the others have increased to $12,995. The SE models will all be standard models going forward. My understanding is that the Ref 2 and Ref 5 will include power supply upgrades along with the coupling cap upgrade, while the LS17 upgrade is only the new coupling caps. Hope this helps clarify.

Thanks Bavarian05, I completely understand.
In your opinion , what does the LS17SE do better than the standard LS17? understanding you have not heard it in the context of your own system yet?
Just curious to see if it has more bloom, is smoother, or more detail or maybe larger soundstage, etc....

Thanks,
Lou.

Bav,
thanks for the dope on the LS-26 not being the upgrade path. Guess when the time comes it will have to be a Ref 3 or maybe an LS-27...

Hi Lou,
This is very preliminary of course, as mine has maybe 5 total hours on the new caps. For lack of a better term, the sound is more fluid and "continuous" to my ears. I have not had enough time with different types of music yet, but with classical and jazz, it seems to have zero stridency with strings and the bottom edges of bass notes sound better defined. Transients on leading edges of strings seemed defined, yet smooth (if that makes any sense). It is not a night and day difference at this point, but certainly a noticable gain. I also really like the look of the new silver metal buttons with the black faceplate (subjective of course). A little more contemporary look. I am anxious for run in to occur, as by virtually all accounts, things will only improve over the next 300-600 hours with the new ARC Teflon caps.

I plan to update this thread as time goes on. My LS17SE has about 40 total hours of run in time since the SE upgrade was performed, and approx 250 total hours of run in on the unit as a whole. I am certainly not talented with words, so take this for what it is worth. This is my opinion based on listening in the context of my current system running fully balanced connections and includes ARC Ref 110 with KT-120's, B&W 805D's, Bryston BDP-1 and BDA-1 using Audioquest CV-8 and Columbia cabling. I'm very pleased with this upgrade. Soundstaging is deeper and more defined as you go farther back in the stage, though overall width at this point seems to be very slightly reduced. The general ARC large sound field is still present, and I assume this will improve and loosen up a bit as break in continues. The most pronounced change to my ears is the sheer density of tone and notes. I hesitate to caller it richer, as that can imply more tubey sound and that it certainly isn't. The entire range is more there and very rooted in space. The presence of singers and instruments has improved quite a bit over the standard LS17. For clarity, I was not aware this was even an issue or lacking at all until the SE upgrade came into play. Presence was always a strength of the standard unit in my opinion, and this upgrade has served to increase it by a good margin. The bass region has more authority also. Surprisingly, it almost sounds as if I added a subwoofer into the system. Again, it was not previously lacking in this department IMHO, but the density, definition and power in the lower octaves gives the impression and feel that bass improved and was increased. This is just my experience thus far. Hopefully this helps if anyone is considering the SE upgrade. As a point of reference, my Ref 110 has only 151 total time on the clock, so it also is still running in.