Tubed Pre match with a Spectron Musician IIISE?

I had an ARC Ref 3 for a while with a single M III and the bybee /vcap upgrades and did not like it at all - very bright and hard. I reverted back to my supped up Sonic Frontiers line 3SE++ and I am quite satisfied with the noise coming out of this combo.

A second M III arrived on Thursday and after 48 hours burn in, today I am going to hook them up as mono blocks using XLR Y-cables! Yippee!

Dev, it is early days yet to report on the monoblock configuration - but as soon as I have a view I will post an update. Unfortunately I won't be in T.O., but on the slopes at Tremblant!

As to the Ref 3 I am assuming it is purely an impedance miss-match or such.

I really enjoyed the Ref 3 with my Sonic Frontier Power 3's prior to me getting the M III and for a while (contrary to lots of opinion here) I thought the ARC PH-3SE with NOS tubes was a great sounding phono stage prior to my Aesthetix IO SIg - so I quite like the sound of ARC gear and would always say that the REF 3 is a highly recommended world class preamp and I was sorry to see it go - just didn't have the synergy that my Line 3 has with the M III. I did think the Ref 3 display was ugly though!

I must say that a tube pre with the M III is a good way to go, especially with a tube based vinyl front end. Having said that, I would be really interested in a Sim Moon P8 with the M III. I used to have the P5 LE and only sold it because it had just one balanced out and I prefer at least 2 XLR out for my set up. That P5 was very sweet sounding and dead quiet.

Steve

Don't want to go off topic, but last night I got the MONOBLOCK MIII's up and running with my tubed SF Line 3. I am sure there is a lot of settling down to take place as I have also had to add new Y-cables and different speaker connections and a new power cord set up BUT first impressions are WOW. Big difference in width of soundstage and uncanny spatial location of instruments - it sounded like a the guitar player was sitting on a stool tight on the left hand corner of the stage! Very holographic. Musically I noticed more flow and pace, maybe better definition or detail, but that was just the first take. More to follow, possibly under a more appropriate thread.

Dev, I will try to be succinct. The Spectron is a very revealing amp; my first one replaced tube Sonic Frontier Power 3's and the increased clarity was obvious from day 1. Over about 500 hours the amp settled in to become clear, open, coherent and presentation was the most lucid I have heard in my system. As time went on I found that as the Spectron opened up, there were was a degree of stridency I was previously unaware of in combination with the REF 3.

During this time I did change my speakers as well to another self-built design based on the GR Research OBI 7's, which are dipoles and also extremely transparent and lively. When I exchanged the REF 3 for my Line 3 (I owned both at the same time) I was able to compare directly and the difference was immediately obvious and I could not go back to the REF 3 without feeling it was edgy, brittle etc in comparison to the Line 3 which has always been a great controlled neutral pre and suddenly the Line 3 becomes really alive and the REF 3 is over the top for me in my system.

I truly believe the REF 3 IS A WORLD CLASS PREAMP, but as the Spectron found its groove, the REF 3 seemed out of place. I now believe my Line 3 has a much better match as the music just flows - not a highly quantitative assessment I agree, but emotionally I have a clear preference. Since the REF 3 goes for 2 X the $ of the Line 3, I sold it. Based on my experience I would tend to recommend a preamp for the Spectron that is "smooth and neutral"" (whatever that means) versus one that is forward and bold. The ARC house sound has not shifted that much over the years and there are many comments here on that - BTW, I am still a big fan. I know Simon likes the BAT gear to with the Spectron and now I see (hear) why. If I was looking at SS, based on my limited experience I would choose a Sim Audio P7 or P8 rather than a Classe for example. I hope you get the drift.

So much depends on other system components it really is hard to compare. I tend to use silver IC cables for example because I favor an open transparent, energetic sound, rather than a bloomy, softer sound. Most of all I value coherence and tonality and I don't like a smeared or distorted sound such as SE Triodes - that should trigger a couple of flames!

As to changing PC's and speaker cabling etc; that is inevitable when you go from stereo to a monoblock configuration as I have just done. I should add that in the stereo mode I used the remote sense cables, no idea if that had any impact on the REF 3 presentation.

Steve