Please do a search on these amps here in the forums. I have written much about these amps after owning them for over a year. And hopefully others have as well.
The CL150's were so highly praised in their time (1989) and to be honest, I just don't get it. The Counterpoint NPS series amps are one example of an amp that just walks all over these behemoths at less than half the price on today's used market.
If you want the rich dimensionality so often brought on by tube amps, it's not here. If you want great amounts of power reserve for tough speaker loads like Magnepans, it's not here. The 150w rating here is very misleading compared to other amps I have owned at similar or even less power output..... 150w does not always equal 150w. If you want a natural non-fatiguing presentation which is tonally coherent through the frequency range, again, it's not here. Sad to say: I never could identify a single attribute of this amp that outperformed the competition for much less cost. Enough said on this.
Perhaps someone else here has a completely different experience with these amps. I am not here to bash ARC amps as I had the 110wpc VT130 and this was so incredibly musical; I often wish I had kept this. I just feel the Classic series and the V70/140 that followed it to just be too analytical sounding to my tastes.
John
The CL150's were so highly praised in their time (1989) and to be honest, I just don't get it. The Counterpoint NPS series amps are one example of an amp that just walks all over these behemoths at less than half the price on today's used market.
If you want the rich dimensionality so often brought on by tube amps, it's not here. If you want great amounts of power reserve for tough speaker loads like Magnepans, it's not here. The 150w rating here is very misleading compared to other amps I have owned at similar or even less power output..... 150w does not always equal 150w. If you want a natural non-fatiguing presentation which is tonally coherent through the frequency range, again, it's not here. Sad to say: I never could identify a single attribute of this amp that outperformed the competition for much less cost. Enough said on this.
Perhaps someone else here has a completely different experience with these amps. I am not here to bash ARC amps as I had the 110wpc VT130 and this was so incredibly musical; I often wish I had kept this. I just feel the Classic series and the V70/140 that followed it to just be too analytical sounding to my tastes.
John