CHANGING FROM AUDIO RESEARCH TO AUDIO NOTE SYSTEM 

@pfmaudio 

I’ve been down both roads. Ref5se/Ref75se/Wilson Audio Sasha 2/all transparent wire; Audio Note Tonmeister Meishu Silver (w/Audio Note 4300 tubes)/AN-e spe he/all Audio note wire.

They both have their pros and cons and I provide the following input only to assist, I have no vested interest and encourage you to hear the Audio Note gear in a familiar environment so that you can make the best decision for you.

Audio Research/Wilson thoughts: the pairing is hard to go wrong with. Alot of sonic strengths, some weaknesses and a few observations. no offense intended but I would rather have Sabrinas/Sabrina 2’s than Sophia 3’s. I never fell for the Sophias. The Sabrina is Just a more balanced, nuanced speaker. The ref150 isnt as sweet or musical as the ref75se either in my opinion. Hard to fault ARC/Wilson combo but it isnt as juicy or wet sounding as Audio Note. With that said, it strikes a nice balance between tubes and solid state. Goldilocks….

Audio Note thoughts: The Tonmeister/Audio Note An-e spe he is a fine sounding combo in the right room. Your room is fair sized at around 16 ft by 20 ft. IF your room and the audio note speakers couple correctly, it has tremendous potential. It will run out of volume on the Tonmeister if you listen at loud volumes and I found the AN-e spe he to be less efficient/sensitive that their stated specifications. I also found that this sytem can sound pretty good in almost any room but to get the best out of it requires more fussing with placement and toe in than you may think. Every move enhances one area(bass) and might adversely affect imaging and vice versa.   And this may be controversial but the Tonmeister (I owned it twice) isn’t as amazing as many would have you believe. I owned a Meishu tonmeister silver with stock 300b’s and another with the audio note 4300’s and I just didnt get it. I thought my initial Tonmeister wasnt very magical, I rdered another with the 4300’s and just couldnt see what the big deal was. It was nice, sounded on occasion special but in general…I couldnt recommend it to anyone looking for set magic. It doesnt sound that set to me. After my second Tonmeister silver purchase, I wish I had order the OTO se silver signature because I had an OTO se signature that was amazing. I wanted more of that magic and in my opinion the Tonmeister was a step backward. My 2 cents.

The Arc and Audio Note based systems can be exceptional but now for the real news: I found BOTH the Arc and the Audio Note systems were better with Devore O96’s. The O96’s were more beautiful sounding than the Wilsons to my ears on my Arc/Wilson setup and the dynamics and the colors were amazing and vivid. I found the O96’s more versatile and complete sounding than the An-e speakers on my Tonmeister system. YMMV. The thing about Audio Note speakers that is both a blessing and a curse: corner placement. Not only can they be placed in corners, you MUST place them in corners or the tonal balance is midfi to my ears. Others will tell you to not be afraid of pulling the e’s out into the room. Thats your call but they lose alot in my estimation. You are out of luck if you dont like the severe toe in required to get any imaging out of them.

I love each of the brands you are considering or have mentioned, they each have alot going for them in the appropriate system/room. I have moved on to other gear but I still own and enjoy Decore speakers in one system and Audio Note an-k spx se super K’s in another system. I may still order that OTO SE Silver Signature as I deeply appreciate the el84 tube strengths and that amp is likelt the pinnacle amp for that tube. Best wishes with your decision.

@pfmaudio

Since corner placement is of primary concern, AN-E’s are worth a try. In addition, the signature versions of Audio Note electronics are the sweet spot in the line up. I would take for example a silver signature level 3 over a base version level 4. You dont have to run silver interconnects or speaker cable but you can always upgrade to those later if you want to squeeze out more performance. The E-Spe’s are wired with silver wire but have copper voicecoils so you dont need to go crazy with silver ic’s and speaker cable unless you want to eek out the last 1-2% of performance. In my opinion, the 8wpc from a 300b set is barely enough for the spe he’s depending on your listening preferences. I listen at low levels but like dynamic snap when called upon. YMMV.

I also concur with @jasonbourne52 ​​​​@stereo5 that you havent heard how good your ARC gear can sound yet. Far from it. Frankly, your 5se preamp is so good you will have to spend $$$$$ to better it within Audio Note. You might even consider hanging on to your 5se if funds allow. Its a special preamp that will be in high demand for many years to come on the preowned market and maintain its value. And good luck finding another one if you change your mind and want it back.

Any of us who have taken a deep dive down the Audio Note rabbit hole will attest that its great gear, it does what it does very well but if you are buying new, it depreciates far more initially than you may think. A big haircut awaits if you want to reverse course. A really cool option for you might be for you to demo a ref80s amp with the audio note E’s. Then you could sell your ref150 and buy the ref80s. The ref80s has a triode mode and I would be very curious how that system would perform with the AN-E’s. If you are demoing the e’s and they don’t quite float your boat, you could reverse course and pick up a pair of Sabrinas...they are a bit more placement agnostic than the Sophias IMO. I have a friend who has Vandersteen Quattros(I dont recall the version naming conventions) with a similar ARC setup and given the adjustable bass on those speakers, he has them very close to the walls/corners with fine results.

Good luck and as always seems to be the case, be careful when your setup is predetermined by domestic/decor priorities. You will have a wide sweetspot with the E’s in your room but that sweetspot won’t be as sweet as you might think. They sound pretty good no matter where you happen to sit but all of that toe in that is required, I repeat required, for the Audio Notes will compromise your presentation in other areas. With the E’s in my systems and rooms, I found myself feeling that they don’t suck musically and are a terrific speaker for a normal domestic setting. Just please don’t slip into the trap that some of us slip into when we think we are going to have dedicated listening room performance in a non-dedicated listening room. That won’t happen.

@pfmaudio I agree with you and you are thinking about the right things. One thing you might consider, pick up the phone and call Mr. Devore. Tell him what you heard when you first heard his speakers, tell him about your room and your desires for placement. I have seen photos where John built front ported O96's for a customer. Heck, that may be all you need to get the sound you are after is to have a pair of O96's built that way.

My personal opinion is that if you are looking past the AN-E spe he then you should consider the higher models in the context of an all Audio Note system. Its the AN specific synergies where you milk the last bit of elegance from the system. I am far from an Audio Note expert as I determined real quick that it can be painful as you move up the Audio Note food chain. If it were my money, and it clearly isn't, I would upgrade to a ref80s and have some O96's built with front ports. You could stick with your existing Transparent cabling, experience some amazing dynamics tonal color and texture and sink in and enjoy your music. Besides, the O96's are absolutely built to an heirloom standard, they are beautiful in room and are terribly easy to live with. While O96's may not be everyone's cup of tea, what speaker is? One of the things I really appreciate about the O96's and Devore Fidelity in general, you will see them driven by inexpensive tube integrateds, class A solid state, SET's, lower power amps, higher power amps and they appear to check off boxes for those buyers. They really are versatile. With that said, you might find the transparency and texture that ARC delivers would mesh nicely with AN-E's and they might sound amazing in your room. Hopefully you have great dealers who will find a way for you to see which direction works best for you.

Best of luck...

@richopp if the OP remains committed to corner placement, there is zero chance Maggies ever darken his door. Secondly, its a bit of a strecth dont you think for you to recommend speakers like Maggies when the OP is considering 8wpc SET amplification?

@david_ten I have immense respect for your postings, which are typically quite mindful. Are you and @ethereal_beats merely stating that Living Voice speakers generally deserve a look? If that's what you are saying, then I agree. They are wonderful speakers worthy of consideration and Gary is a gentleman's gentleman. If you are saying the OP should consider these for his/her application, I vehemently disagree with suggesting a rear ported speaker such as Living Voice for corner placement (unless they were designed for such ala Audio Note).

@david_ten That's what I figured...also, we both recognize that no one speaker checks all boxes. 

@pfmaudio 

Disclaimer: The answer to your question is, of course, it depends. Since in my opinion, it is easier to segment the amplifier side of the conversation than the preamp side, I will offer my opinion there to start. There is no comparison on power/wpc, apples to oranges. My observations are in the context of a system with appropriately paired speakers.

The Audio Note SE versions and/or the SE Silver or Silver Signature versions of their amps will subjectively exceed the qualitative purity of performance of the ARC Ref150. PP vs single ended. For instance, I would take a P1/P2 SE Silver or Silver Signature over the Ref150 for tonal purity and texture. I would take a P1 SE Silver Signature over a the base P2 PP or base P3 Tonmeister. You really need to pick the speaker and then the amp, especially since Audio Note has so many variations of a particular theme.

I may be out of step with others but I would NOT purchase an Audio Note preamp below the M5 or M6 level coming from where you are coming from AND, even then, I'm not sure I would prefer it to your Ref5se. I will readily admit though that I prefer Shindo preamplification over ARC and ARC over Audio Note, especially in the context of a price band, so I am clearly biased. (I also prefer the Shindo Cortese 300b over the Tonmeister by a wide margin. Ive owned both and don't have any axe to grind.) I recognize that you are in Portugal and Shindo may be extremely difficult to source there. You may feel completely different though. For giggles once when I had the REF75se and Sasha 2's, I connected my 9wpc OTO SE Signature to the Sasha's and all the superlatives applied: the tone was superior, the bass was more musical, the midrange simply amazing. Normal listening levels...I was quite surprised. Now I'm not recommending this combo, it just showed the commitment to the Audio Note power supply implementation.

In short, if it were me, I would pick the new speaker, see how it sounds with your ref5se/ref150. Then drop in a demo audio note amp (or Jadis or whatever pairs best with the speaker you choose) of your choosing with the speakers and your ref5se and see how it sounds. I believe the ref5se is pretty special and you will have to spend alot of money in the Audio Note line to potentially exceed its performance. I say potentially because if the ref5se were being manufactured today, it would be a $15-20k preamp, its versatile, its fully balanced, it is warmer than current ARC pres, it has a really nice and linear remote volume control. It would be the flagship preamp for many manufacturers today.

I hope I didnt confuse the issue more but I would be remiss if I didn't strongly communicate that the strength of your present system is your ref5se.

@pfmaudio

an interesting experiment for you try, just for fun. A friend had a difficult room setup and had his Sasha Daws in a room that required placement closer to a wall/corner. They were boomy and completely overloaded the room, tonal balance all wonky. We devised a plan and fitted a flexible hose from a shop vacuum securely into the rear firing Wilson port and rerouted the port output to the front. The hose for each speaker was then terminated into a repurposed subwoofer enclosure where he could adjust the bass by adjusting the quantity of dampening fill in the enclosure. It shouldnt have worked well…but he still uses the contraption. People always ask what brand of subwoofer…LOL. Its an easy experiment to see if you can reclaim some floor space without losing the music.

This might give you some idea of room gain adjustability that your particular corners will project.

@perkri 

Cool experiment, I am envious of your skills…never could master the art of elegant soldering.

So, my oh so very inexpensive little SET amp will have to do some ongoing music duties before I make that change. 

If you like the sound of the el84 in your circuit it is technically a SEP (single ended pentode) just wait until you hear a true single ended triode well executed. As someone who has fallen into the SET rabbit hole, if you like what you hear, stop! It gets very expensive very quickly. Best wishes.

@pfmaudio

Your concerns over the speakers is understandable, it happens all the time when we analyze potential outcomes rather than just listening. Room acoustics and technology can cause alot of heartburn….when, in fact, you are about to learn a great deal. You will know fairly quickly if the an-e’s couple with your room synergistically. I would also recommend that you suspend disbelief until you hear it in your room. In no way at all do I agree with your characterization of the sophias as the audi, the audio note as Ford. New tech vs old tech as if new tech must sound better. The audio note speakers in the right system and the right room will sound exceptional. Same goes for your sophias. Dont let your new tech/old tech thoughts guide how you will hear before hearing. New tech cello vs old tech….new tech piano vs old tech. The audio note speakers arent meant to be inert like wilsons, they are meant to act like instruments.

@pfmaudio 

Listen in your room, make notes and then discuss it with your dealer. You assume the alnicos and the signature speakers would sound better in your room which may not be the case depending on amp selection and room interaction. For instance, the alnicos are less efficient and some dealers believe the alnico version pairs better with their 211 amps vs their 300b amps. The an-e spe he is the sweet spot in the e lineup, quite versatile given its higher efficiency and combo of silver wire/copper vocecoils. But let your ears decide.

Do I like the el84 amp in the se signature guise vs the tonmeister silver? Absolutely but thats what I like…others would get angry if they happen to feel otherwise. You might enjoy the audio note speakers buried in the corners with your audio research setup…they would for sure be more dynamic than anything youve experienced and who knows, the drive of the arc gear combined with the damping factor might combine wonderfully in your room. Have fun, forget your preconceived notions and just listen.