Audio Research i/50

The I/50 is an amazing amp. Wonderfully warm and musical. The Zu DW look interesting. Efficient enough. The Lumin streamer, very well respected. It is hard to criticize. 

There a big difference in the MacIntosh sound and the Audio Research sound. I love the look of the Mac… I have repeatedly gotten motivated to buy one… gone in to audition and within 30 seconds gave that idea up. Macintosh is a very well respected brand, well made, keeps its value. Personally I think they sound fantastic with rock music and speakers that have a good amount of treble. But they do not have the detail and balance of Audio Research which plays to my values. Anyway, listen to determine which appeals to you.

I own an Audio Research DAC (ARC Reference CD9SE). For some reason, I just never thought of ARC when it comes to DACs. Until my dealer brought one over. I was not in the market… 30 seconds after I put it in I texted him to tell him to order me one… then I had the job of figuring out how to find the money. 
 

Since then, I had a Berkeley Alpha Reference 3 in my system. Both absolutely outstanding DACs. I was expecting to have to cough up another $5K to get the Berkeley. I was really surprised to find them virtually identical with an ever so slight (tiny) warmer more natural sound for the ARC and a slight (minuscule) more detail in the Berkeley. If they were the same price I still would have chosen the ARC.