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Stupidgood: Ars Sonum

There are lots of "terms of art" used by audiophools to describe sound and equipment. I propose a new one - stupidgood - a piece of equipment that blows you away, as good as it gets (more or less), and the price or the looks of it makes you incredulous as to how good the equipment is. Of course, I did not come with the term; that would by Bobby P. (Mr. von Merlin) describing the Ars Sonum integrated amplifier. I've had separates from ARC, Joule, LAMM, and CAT, and I can tell you, the Ars Sonum is stupidgood driving Merlin VSM-MXes, which can driven very easily be this little 30 watt gem.
pubul57
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Of course, what I mean is I'd like to hear one!
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signaturesound
83 posts
 
Give me or Bobby @ Merlin a call. While we will probably not be able to get one for you to listen to at your home (a back order of close to 20 units prevents that), if you make a trip upstate NY we may be able to arrange a listen.

BTW, I coined the term Stupid Good years ago! :-) I can still remember the look Stu McCreary gave me when I used the term to describe the Golden Tube SE-40. :-) In fact, I used the term in print in my follow up comments to the First "Tube Fest" article in Vol 5, No 3 of Positive Feedback magazine waaay back in 1993! Sorry for going OT... can't beleive its been almost 15 years!
fstarsinic
1 posts
 
I just picked up a used Ars Sonum amp that I use with Reference 3A De Capo's and it's amazing.

I was using a Rogue Metis and Winsome Labs Mouse before and I was also extremely happy with that setup for the price.

The Ars Sonum takes it to a whole new level. A complete no-brainer.
pubul57 OP
3,712 posts
 
If 30 watts is enough, you would need a real good reason to buy separates 3x-4x more, or more. Ultimatley I prefer $20,000-$30,000 Joule or CAT gear, the fact that I can enjoy the Ars in that context suggests how darn good this little integrated is and what a screaming value - though it might nor seem like one on size and specs alone; obviously some very good design work and choices went into the Ars. If you know how fantastic Bobby's speakers are, you get an idea of what he thinks about this amp performance.
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