Conrad Johnson ACT2 against Audio Research Ref 3

Oneobgyn. Have your heard the ACT 2 or just stating ARC is best based on your upgrade from ref 2 to ref 3.

Dave b. No issues with noise with cj stuff especially the ACT2. I run 4.5 metre cables btween myj ACT2 and prem350's. I used to have prem16 and prem8a's and while they were't noisy, they required a bit more work on placement etc as hum could be a problem with bad placement.

Henryhk - cj pre amps place the music as a whole first, then detail where relevent.
ARC has more detail up front, IMO ARC can be more hi fi sounding.
Overall cj easier to listen to over a wider range of recordings.
let the flames begin:)

I have yet to read the new TAS. Valin is a long time lover of ARC gear. Pity he hasn't reviewed cj gear for some time. would have been interesting to hear his HP junior speak on the two.

Both cj and ARC very successful in their own versions of musical reproduction.

Guidocorona

considering you have all balanced system now I would stay with the REF 3, especially if you like the sound all ready. Going to all balanced or single ended will not end up in better sound, just a different flavour, regardless how we proud audiophiles beat our chest.
I know that all ready having bought the VTL 7.5 and tried all sorts of balanced amps including VTL's own MB750's.
Now after that expensive detour I am going back to cj pre and amp. They drive my 4.5 metre IC's just fine and sound quiet, nice and musical with fine detail and dynamics. The ACT 2 is very detailed, but is very even across the broad audio spectrum so longer term listening is more enjoyable.
The VTL 7.5 was a little weighted in the upper mid range/lower treble - long term that was more difficult to enjoy in my system with my tastes. It also erked me that the VTL 7.5 has a basic design flaw(at least in my opinion) where if you used the VTL 7.5 with any power amp of over 26db, you get huge amounts of tube gain noise. This makes the pre amp incompatible with many amps unless you use endler attenuators to reduce the gain. The ACT 2 on the other hand has the same high gain that the VTL has, yet is quiet with any high or low gain amp.

But then again Martin Colloms of hifi news fame has for a long time used cj ART and now ACT successfully with Krell balanced amps.