ARC ls26 vs.SF Line-3/se

If I am to believe you two guys, then there must be alot of hype on the Ref 3. Everything I read and most everyone here who owns one or has auditioned it thinks it is one of the finest sounding preamps made today.

No offense to your Line 3, but many would consider it a dated design and say comparing a Ref 3 to it is like comparing apples or oranges. Upgrades or not, it doesn't change the basic circuit, which, like the Power 3 amps, is nothing special. The designs of the Sonic Frontier pieces were hardly state of the art at their time, and there have been criticisms of poor board layout, where heat caused damage, criticisms of marginal circuit parameters where parts were stressed and then blew out. I knew two audiophiles who had SFL2 and Line 3 preamps where parts failed in both the power supplies and main units. So much for all the quality parts used in them. They obviously did something wrong in their implementation.

Chris at PCX is a salesman, just as he was as president of Sonic Frontiers, and he knows how to do it well.

Frankly, it gets tiring to hear defensive outcrys from SF groupies.

Fact in point, ARC (William Johnson, among his other designers) are veteran electronic engineers, unlike SF, which was just a company started by a couple enterprising individuals who farmed out the design of their circuits to engineers of no particular great talent. Some good reviews by Dick Olsher and others at Stereophile catapulted them to a position loftier than deserved. My take? Too many audiophiles with limited musical discernment boast of the supposed sonic superiorities of what are, at best, mediocre pieces.

To call the Power 2/3 superior to the VT100/200 is simply ludicruous. Neither are the ARC pieces top flight in sonics. It's just that the Power 2/3 are less so.

Here is what Semi states above: Which tube equipment does not have heat related damage?

The answer: Most tube equipment doesn't have heat related damage, particularly tube preamps, which produce limited amounts of heat. You want to know what was wrong with SF designs? Ask the head guru, Chris at PCX. PCX started doing mods on the SFL2 where they actually cut out small ovals of the circuit board material itself, claiming it eliminated heat damage to parts. Now, does this sound like a well executed design? Cutting holes into circuit boards to correct this?

You can have their mods; I want no part. As far as personal experience with their products, I do. My friend's SFL2 developed noises, and SFL found numerous parts that had become noisy and/or defective. Remember their highest quality parts philosophy?

I personally compared this unit to modest preamps, like the Rogue 99, and the SFL2 sounded dry and lifeless.

I owned an Power 2 and a VT-100 at the same time. Despite any tube changes I made, the Power 2 was too distant in the midrange, lacked air and definition, and had virtually no tube-like sonics to it. Others agree with this assessment.
I spoke to a very famous tube designer who laughed at SF designs, saying these guys were copying old textbook circuits that were like sow's ears, meaning no matter what parts you put in them, you were just putting lipstick on a pig.

I don't mean to imply the Power amps were bad sounding units, but they just didn't have anything special to offer, other than beautiful looks.

I agree that the VT series circuits were run at too high voltages, pushing components to the upper ends of their limits. ARC has had their own issues, and I'm not tooting their horn. In fact, I don't own any ARC products

Yes, I don't have first hand experience with their latest LS26 or Ref 3, but when I hear source after source talking about how good they sound, these pieces definitely deserve a listen. Which is what I would recommend to Spaz.

I'll admit I haven't personally evaluated a Line 3, and it has had a following, but there has also been written enough criticisms of it being dry and analytical, which is similar to the SFL2, which many considered the most musical sounding of the SF preamps. Not an opinion I share with them.