ARC Ref 75, MC275 or Manley Snappers ? ....
- Thread starter joeinid
- Start date
MDP
Behavior Moderator (be nice police!)
REF 75 :woot:
the professor
Well-known member
I've had both the ARC REF 75 and the Mc275 VI and both are great. Very different price points tho. Depending on your speakers and personal tastes both would be great additions.
I'm currently using the 275 with a pair of mini Maggie's in an office system and its great. I used the REF 75 with my Magico Q1s before I got my D'Agostinos.
I'm currently using the 275 with a pair of mini Maggie's in an office system and its great. I used the REF 75 with my Magico Q1s before I got my D'Agostinos.
highEndguy
New member
Ref75
No doubt about it
No doubt about it
iamhifi
New member
Joe the REF150 a bit more punch and sounds superb, not to say Stereophile Gem
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Hahaha!!! You do need another amp !! We all do..lol. What speakers are you going to use with them?
You know these snappers are settling in here and sounding so sweet now that im using these jj el34's. I can't get enough.
I've never heard the ARC. But I do have experience with the 275's and I would keep my snappers over them. Of course I never did a side by side.
Good luck Joe, if you ever need a listen I'm a quick ride down the parkway
You know these snappers are settling in here and sounding so sweet now that im using these jj el34's. I can't get enough.
I've never heard the ARC. But I do have experience with the 275's and I would keep my snappers over them. Of course I never did a side by side.
Good luck Joe, if you ever need a listen I'm a quick ride down the parkway
- Thread Author
- #14
Thanks Steve. I may take you up on the offer. I'm thinking the TADs might benefit from some tube love. With all Mike's ARC talk, I'm jonesing for stuff I don't have, yet. Ha! I hooked up my Dagostino back to my Evos. oh man. I really don't need anything else. Well maybe a Linn Klimax .... Thank God Mike is not a pharmaceutical salesman. Well actually that might be fun. I was just thinking back to college. Never mind. I kinda wish I had those Manley 250s now. I probably should have hung onto them. Oh well.
Joe my kef monitors aren't in the same class or the even the same school as your tad's and now I have moved them a little closer together about a foot and closer to the listening position about 10 inches, and I toed them a little more, the sound is off the hook.
I was daydreaming about putting tad's or pulsars in their place and I think it would complete my setup...... For now. Lol!!!!
I'm sure whichever way you go. Classic 3 , kleos, steelhead, it won't really matter which amps you use , your setup will be heaven!!!
I was daydreaming about putting tad's or pulsars in their place and I think it would complete my setup...... For now. Lol!!!!
I'm sure whichever way you go. Classic 3 , kleos, steelhead, it won't really matter which amps you use , your setup will be heaven!!!
dlb2
New member
I think you'll own two of the three by the time you are through. Did I say through? :snicker:
Start with the REF75. It will be an easy sell.
Start with the REF75. It will be an easy sell.
ARC REF75 biamped with a stereo ARC DS450. Sweet and thunderous!
http://www.stereophile.com/content/audio-research-reference-75-power-amplifier
Conclusions
The Reference 75 touched me on a deeply personal level. I enjoyed listening to music so much through it that every time I entered the listening room and saw its silvery hulk beckoning to me, I turned it on and played some music. More than with any other component I've reviewed, when the Ref 75 was in my system, I went out of my way to make sure, every chance I could, that music was playing.
I expect the Reference 75 will create some marketing problems for Audio Research. It has no flaws, and several strengths that exceed the performance of any amplifier I've heard in my home. And if it's true that amplifiers with a single pair of push-pull output tubes have a certain "magic" that can be lost when multiple pairs of tubes are ganged to create great power output, then I wonder how the sound of some of the higher-powered ARC amps will stand up to the Ref 75. And while the speakers I used with the Ref 75 were fairly efficient, I did play them at very loud levels in a very large room, and not once did I tax the amp's power-delivery capabilities. I would suspect that unless someone has very insensitive loudspeakers and/or a very large room, it would be difficult to make a case for why anyone would need an amplifier with more power than the Reference 75.
I wrote what was to have been this review's final paragraph some time ago:
"John Atkinson has said that there is no greater praise a reviewer can give a component than to purchase it for use in his own reference system. And although I loved my time with the Reference 75, and felt it equaled or exceeded the performance of my Reference 110 overall, I still love my Ref 110. With the decline of the financial-services industry in the recent meltdown, I'm earning a fraction of what I did 10 years ago, even as I have one child beginning college this year and another not far behind. I can't justify the luxury of purchasing a new stereo amplifier this year."
The hell with it. I'm buying the Audio Research Reference 75.
http://www.stereophile.com/content/audio-research-reference-75-power-amplifier
Conclusions
The Reference 75 touched me on a deeply personal level. I enjoyed listening to music so much through it that every time I entered the listening room and saw its silvery hulk beckoning to me, I turned it on and played some music. More than with any other component I've reviewed, when the Ref 75 was in my system, I went out of my way to make sure, every chance I could, that music was playing.
I expect the Reference 75 will create some marketing problems for Audio Research. It has no flaws, and several strengths that exceed the performance of any amplifier I've heard in my home. And if it's true that amplifiers with a single pair of push-pull output tubes have a certain "magic" that can be lost when multiple pairs of tubes are ganged to create great power output, then I wonder how the sound of some of the higher-powered ARC amps will stand up to the Ref 75. And while the speakers I used with the Ref 75 were fairly efficient, I did play them at very loud levels in a very large room, and not once did I tax the amp's power-delivery capabilities. I would suspect that unless someone has very insensitive loudspeakers and/or a very large room, it would be difficult to make a case for why anyone would need an amplifier with more power than the Reference 75.
I wrote what was to have been this review's final paragraph some time ago:
"John Atkinson has said that there is no greater praise a reviewer can give a component than to purchase it for use in his own reference system. And although I loved my time with the Reference 75, and felt it equaled or exceeded the performance of my Reference 110 overall, I still love my Ref 110. With the decline of the financial-services industry in the recent meltdown, I'm earning a fraction of what I did 10 years ago, even as I have one child beginning college this year and another not far behind. I can't justify the luxury of purchasing a new stereo amplifier this year."
The hell with it. I'm buying the Audio Research Reference 75.
This is very interesting.....and mirrors my experiences too:
I mainly chose this recording to test the ARC's power capabilities. When my wife and kids are around, I play music at a lower level than when I'm alone—among my audiophile friends, I have a reputation for playing music at louder levels than most people like. I cranked up the volume to a level that was about the maximum I could stand, to hear how the Ref 75 would handle the two sections of the third movement, The Advent, which ends in simultaneously crashing pianos and full percussion blasts (footnote 1). The effect was startling, with no trace of strain, distortion, or compression. And the VU meters registered an output of only 25W.
Could that be? The loudest volume I could stand in my 10' by 35' by 11' (at its highest point) listening room was being created by only 25W? I decided to push the Ref 75 further. I put on "Walking on Sacred Ground," from Chad Kassem's remastering of Janis Ian's Breaking Silence (CD, Morgan Creek/Analogue Productions CAPP 027). (Time for reissues of this one, Chad, on LP and CD.) I turned it up louder than I could stand it. My ears started hurting and I ran out of the room. From two rooms away, I called my audiophile friend Dudley Smalls and told him I couldn't believe how loud the amp was playing. Dudley noted that the music sounded pretty clean and undistorted over the phone. He said he wondered how much power the amp was using. Holding my hands over my ears, I ran back into the room to check how far into clipping the meters were registering on the peaks—their scale far exceeds the Ref 75's claimed output of 75Wpc. "45W," they said.
I mainly chose this recording to test the ARC's power capabilities. When my wife and kids are around, I play music at a lower level than when I'm alone—among my audiophile friends, I have a reputation for playing music at louder levels than most people like. I cranked up the volume to a level that was about the maximum I could stand, to hear how the Ref 75 would handle the two sections of the third movement, The Advent, which ends in simultaneously crashing pianos and full percussion blasts (footnote 1). The effect was startling, with no trace of strain, distortion, or compression. And the VU meters registered an output of only 25W.
Could that be? The loudest volume I could stand in my 10' by 35' by 11' (at its highest point) listening room was being created by only 25W? I decided to push the Ref 75 further. I put on "Walking on Sacred Ground," from Chad Kassem's remastering of Janis Ian's Breaking Silence (CD, Morgan Creek/Analogue Productions CAPP 027). (Time for reissues of this one, Chad, on LP and CD.) I turned it up louder than I could stand it. My ears started hurting and I ran out of the room. From two rooms away, I called my audiophile friend Dudley Smalls and told him I couldn't believe how loud the amp was playing. Dudley noted that the music sounded pretty clean and undistorted over the phone. He said he wondered how much power the amp was using. Holding my hands over my ears, I ran back into the room to check how far into clipping the meters were registering on the peaks—their scale far exceeds the Ref 75's claimed output of 75Wpc. "45W," they said.