Galileo

Goddammit! Now I've got a huge ARC boner... that is serious audio porn. Saweeet lookin tubes.
 
Looking closely at some pics, the Galileo GS series has a pre/dsp amp, a power amp with those 150 egg tubes, and an integrated. But I don't see "Reference" on the labeling.

So very nice to see the new ownership seems to have some ideas about marketing and bling in today's world, hopefully not diminishing in any way from the engineering/sound quality that ARC has been steadily improving the last decade. I had a VS115, and my sweet wife loved the glowing tubes, bless her heart. I'd love a REF class product with visible tubes (OK, the 750s are out of my league.)
 
I am not sure I like the industrial design but guess have to see this in person. Be interesting to see where the Galileo series is placed in the line. My guess is below Ref series and above the V series. We'll see. I'll take an integrated with the KT-150 tubes :D
 
If you look at video in the Mono and Stereo link or at ARC website, the inspirations for the industrial design of the pieces for the pre is the SP-1, for the power amp it's the D-79 and I think they just melded the two concepts for the integrated. There is no Reference designation on the faceplates so my guess is the Galileo line may be the successor to the current V-series (power and integrated amp) and LS- series (for the pre) or maybe in between the Reference and the V- and LS- series in terms of pricing. The amps are based on the KT-150 tubes and the stereo amp puts out 150wpc which means the KT-150s are being used very conservatively and the integrated puts out 75wpc.

Not sure about the target market but the melding of the old-school look with modern lines and materials suggests an updating of the Audio Research look going forward. Clearly the industrial design capabilities of Sonus Faber via Livio Cucuzza who is now heading up industrial design for the Fine Sounds Group are being leveraged across the companies as he has clearly started to make his mark with the new look of the Wadia Intuition integrated/DAC, the 321 DAC, the ARC SP-20 pre and now the Galielo line of ARC products. It will be interesting to see if any updating to the McIntosh aesthetic is coming down the road with the introduction of new products there.
 
It would be great to see the KT-150 showing up in the REF75, etc. as long as the sound quality is there.
 
Makes my recent purchase of Ref75 / Ref10 seem like a bargain. Due for arrival next week. If it kills me I'm going to have music again by end of June (ok, maybe for the 4th of July!)
 
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Interesting. ARC has been pretty busy over the last couple of years revamping their line and adding new models. I just hope they don't over extend themselves.

Lets see how they position Galileo within their lines - above or below Ref?
 
cmalak said:
Here's AudioBeat.com's description from the Munich show with pricing info. Looks like they went for the jugular. Way too high on the pricing for me. I think they got this one wrong!

The GSPre will cost about $18,000, the GS150 will cost $25,000 and the GSi75 will come in at about $19,000.
Click to expand...

Audio Research GSPre, GS150 and GSi75 - The Audio Beat - www.TheAudioBeat.com
Click to expand...

Sadly the trend to day in audio and various other good is up-market. This isn't because the average person is getting rich -- it's because the top <10% are. That's one factor; the other is that short-run manufacturers have to keep there mark-ups high and really the only way to do that is to go after the top end of the market.
 
Nelson?

Do you know if the new Galileo gear is above or below the current Reference series?
 
It looks like the put two designers on the project one from the 1970's and the other from the 2020's. They couldn't agree and just cobbled the two together. I much prefer the Ref 10 design.
 
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