Bought an Audio Research Amp
I feel like i should preface this with a basic rundown of my system up til now:
Pre: ARC LS25 MKII
Amp: Legacy High Current Amplifier (rebadged CODA Stage 3.2)
Dac: SMSL M400
Transports: Auralic Aries Femto/Sony DVP-S7000
Speakers: LSA-10 Signature
Subwoofer: Recapped Velodyne Servo-1200
Anyhow, as the story goes, I recently acquired an old Yamaha RX-770 on the cheap, figured maybe I’d gift it to a friend. When I inserted it into my system to test it, I was shocked by how good it sounded. It sounded really close to my separates. Worse yet, the Yamaha actually made much better bass through my speakers (sub was off). It was louder, faster, and better controlled sounding. This was extremely distressing.
I thought maybe this was due to the age of my CODA, but the yamaha is actually about ten years older, so that didn’t make sense. The best I could come up with was just a poor match for my preamp. I can’t recall the figures off the top of my head, but i did some math when I bought the amp to ascertain if matching them was appropriate, in terms of both input sensitivity and impedance, and recall that both were toward the bare minimum.
Having read numerous times that the increase in synergy is substantial between ARC components, I started casually shopping online for an ARC amp. I briefly entertained a VT100 MKIII which seemed a good deal, but the price of retubing it currently is around $1000, and i just don’t think right now is the time for me to jump into tube amplification with the soaring prices of tubes.
A 300.2 caught my eye, but I couldn’t find any information online that convinced me that a Tripath class-d design of ten years ago would better a solid class a/b design, and I can’t really afford to buy an amp just to find out.
Fortunately, I came across a craigslist ad a week ago for a D400 located only an hour away from me, at a price that was a fair bit lower than similar models had sold for recently (as per Hifishark). Awesome.
I spoke with the gentleman who had listed the amp, and it turned out that he was the proprietor of a stereo service center, and was selling it for a longtime customer who had been using it, along with 2 D200’s and a D300, to power an eloborate horn speaker setup, but who had, due to the onset of Alzheimer’s, become unable to manage the complexity of his own system. This is, I have to say, extremely tragic. The store’s owner told me the amp was in great shape, had been well cared for, and due to being used in a high efficiency setup, had never been run hard.
Needless to say I was extremely excited at the prospect of owning a D400. Wasn’t able to uncover much in the way of reviews, but I was able to find that it shared circuit-design lineage with the extremely well-regarded d240 MKII, as well as reports from other users who’d paired it with an LS25 and reported extremely positive results.
So I made an appointment to bring my preamp down and auidition the amp. When I arrived, the store owner was extremely friendly, more than happy to take the time to talk audio with me, show me his personal system (Threshold/Altec VoTT), and all the amazing gear he had on hand, even though I showed up shortly before his usual closing time.
And the Amp? I really wasn’t prepared for how colossally huge it was… it really is a monolith, just beastly.As far as the sound goes, well, let’s just say that by the time I’d been listening to it for 5m, I already knew i was going to buy it!
Once i got it home (nearly destroyed my back getting it out of the trunk), and into my system, it sounded even better! Compared to the CODA, highs were more sharply focused, I gained more of a sense of instruments existing in specific “space”, and the bass/mid bass had tightened up considerably while also increasing considerably in terms of volume and impact. Overall, I’d say the sound is less on the warm side than the CODA, which I think is better for my speakers which have a pretty laid back character.
I will, say that the amp runs pretty hot, even at Idle. I don’t know if it’s biased pretty hard into class a, or what. Also, it does does take 2-3 hours of warm up before it sounds at it’s best. I’ve taken to power it up the night before if I’m intending to do a lot of listening the following day.
Really, I couldn’t be more ecstatic; I really feel like I took a big step toward being “there” with my system. Of course that just leads me to thinking about what I need to start agonizing over upgrading next, ha ha!
Big shout out to Kevin at The Stereo Workshop in Eugene, OR for being such a gracious host and giving me such a fair shake.
Hey, thanks for the kind words, guys. I really am loving it right now with my system. Some of your comments RE the synergy between ARC components were influential in convincing me to pull the trigger, even though they weren’t directed my way specifically, so thanks. I’m thinking maybe trying some different speakers might be my next move. If anyone has any thoughts on what pairs well with the gear I have in a small room mid/nearfield setup I’d love to hear them.
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My taste in music has become pretty diverse. When evaluating a new piece of equipment I tend to play Dire Straits’ “Communique”, Natalie Merchant’s “Tigerlily”, and Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumor’s”, but TBH the music I spend the most time with tends to be electronic. Daft Punk, Deadmau5, Purple Disco Machine, etc. A little while back I got bored and hooked up a pair of Onix Rocket stand-mounts that had been out of rotation since before I went to my current separates, and initially thought I preferred them to my LSA’s (which are just SO laid back) but after some A/B’ing and more careful consideration what I realized was that what I preferred about the Onix’s was their presentation of higher frequencies, which were a little bit hotter/more forward (not sure if this is a function of their having metal-dome tweeters vs the LSA soft-dome). The mids were somewhat drier and slightly recessed compared to the LSA’s, which I preferred more overall. On the other hand, I have a pair of Klipsch RF-5’s that were so forward and shouty that the vocals on Daft Punk’s “One More Time” fairly well ran me out of the room in less than a minute. Some reading has led me to think maybe Thiel might be worth trying out, either the PCS, or MCS1. Really I’m mostly looking for “food for thought” as to what to be keeping my eye out for as my bank account recovers from this latest upgrade. I’d imagine $2500 would probably be the upper limit on what I’d be willing to spend on a pair of pre-owned speakers. |
I’m finding that I tend to prefer a more cool/neutral sound; whatt I’ve read about the Sonus Faber sound tends to use words like “warm” “dark”and “lush”. Has that been your experience? Well that’s disconcerting… it was my understanding that ARC stands behind their heritage products regardless of age. I mentioned that the person who brokered the sale was a tech; he said that when his customer brought it in he opened it up for a bench test, and everything checked out within spec, so hopefully I won’t be ending up with a boat anchor anytime soon. I did ask him if I should be worried about the age of the electrolytics in the amp, and he told me that the “full recap craze” (his words) was a fairly recent development, and that he didn’t believe in replacing something unless it was failing/out of spec. It’s interesting that there isn’t a solid state amp in their current lineup. Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I was able to ascertain, their last solid state power amps were the DS series, which was over ten years ago. |
As a real rookie in this stuff, I don’t really feel qualified to offer advice. At the risk of making an absolute fool of myself, I’ll conjecture that it’s a vague possibility that your Pass Labs may share some distant design lineage with my CODA, as it was built by ex-Threshold alumni. As I stated above, the gains I’ve made by moving to the D400 have been phenomenal. As far as my research has been able to ascertain, in terms of solid state, the D240, 100.2, and D400 are the amps to look at from ARC. I went with the D400 BC even though it’s probably overkill for my current speakers, I find a certain security in having an amp that could handle any speaker I might throw at it down the line.
who did the mods on your pre? Mine is the MKii, with 2 6h30’s, so no tube rolling for me. |
@riaa_award_collectors_on_facebook Any idea which parts are considered unobtanium, and how prone they are to failure? Or any sort of preventative maintenance that could extend the life of my amp? Thanks, that is indeed informative. Some recent reading indicated that the Concertino is well suited to a smaller room. In any case, it looks like my option is try a bunch of speakers til I find what I’m looking for, which means judicious spending on the pre-owned market, so I don’t get killed on depreciation in the event of a necessary resale. Guess I’ll have my work cut out for me. |
I went to the ARC website and found the same list you posted. Thanks for that. I noticed that neither the d200 nor the d300 are on that list, which is curious, as they are the lower powered contemporaries of my d400. Also interesting is that I found a n authorized service center (High End Audio Repair, in Brooklyn) that lists the d400 as one of the amps that they service/upgrade. I’m not entirely opposed to the idea of a tube amp; as I stated in my OP, I had my eye on a VT100 mkiii that was on USAM. It was only $1800, which seemed a steal. I just couldn’t get my head around spending $1000 to re-tube it. Hopefully tube prices come down sooner than later. oh btw… jealous of your Wilsons. In my speaker musings, I’ve toyed with the idea of trying a pair of Tiny Tots on stands. thats just bizarre! I guess I just assumed that the unobtainium parts would be FETs or something, but capacitors?! I’m assuming that the caps you’re referring to are the 67000uF 75v ( marked c41, c42, c43, c44 on the schematic). Here’s one from Cornell Dubilier that’s rated up to 100v Is there any reason it wouldn’t work in this application? |
Everything I do in this hobby I have to do on a pretty tight budget. My friends all think I’ve lost my mind when they hear how much I’ve invested in my meager system. Having said that, you’re kind of making me wish I’d taken a chance on that VT100… You know, as I was turning this capacitor quandary over in my head, it did occur to me that perhaps it was the specific dimensions that was the issue. I did a little more digging last night (when I should have been sleeping) and came up with a spec sheet for Cornell Dublier capacitors wherein it lists a number of capacitors that meet the required spec in a variety of dimensions, in regards to both case size as well as terminal spacing. Unfortunately I only have the ARC part number for the stock caps in my unit, which doesn’t get me anywhere in terms of determining their dimensions. Losing sleep whilst obsessing over finding a replacement for a capacitor that for all I know is functioning fine. Whoo this hobby is a blast lol. |
