ARC LS27 vs ModWright LS36.5 for Pass Labs XA160.5's?


As the title suggests, looking for some opinions on which way I should head. Both can be had for the same price, but the ModWright will come with a 2yr warranty as it's an ex-demo unit from a dealer. What would some of you knowledgeable folks do? Anyone happen to have experience with either of these combinations? Unfortunately I don't have the opportunity to hear them in my specific system first. 

System right now consists of:
Pass Labs XA160.5 amplifiers (will be running balanced, 30kohm input impedance)
Focal Scala Utopia speakers
As-yet-undetermined DAC
No analog front-end at the moment

On paper, the LS36.5 is better in terms of impedance matching but I've read a lot of folks have great success pairing ARC pre's with Pass Labs (the editor of Tone Publications said the Ref5SE sounded amazing with XA160.5's for instance). I would assume the ARC is a better preamp based on price and pedigree, but folks say the ModWright punches way above it's weight-class. Just looking for some opinions from the audiogon crowd! I'm leaning toward the ARC but worried about a mismatch despite reading the opposite from some users online.
degen

Showing 1 response by degen

Thanks for the thoughts guys. One thing of note with the LS36.5 is that because it's a dealer demo the price is well over the average used price that I see them sell for. It would seem that the "value" is in favor of the ARC @ 50% off its retail price before taxes. If I were to resell the LS36.5 I might stand to lose quite a bit whereas if I resold the LS27 I might not lose anything, but surely not much if I did.

Re: the comparison with the MW vs LS26, supposedly the LS27 is a big improvement and ARC claims it surpasses the Ref3 in every regard and sounds like a Ref5 "baby brother".

One thing I like about the MW is the potential to upgrade to the external PSU at a later date. 

One thing I can't seem to find out is what type of volume control implementation the ARC uses, I know the MW uses a potentiometer which a lot of folks don't seem to like but none of the reviews I've read seem to complain about it.

It's a really tough decision for me... can't make up my mind!