WHICH ARC LINESTAGE TO REPLACE LS-15?

The LS16 is not going to do much over what you have right now.

I have said so much on this site on the LS5 so I will simply say that with the VT130 for which I also owned and ran with, the LS5 was an awesome match....especially with the VT130 loaded up with KT88's. The LS5 does come with an optional remote for volume and this works mighty fine.

As for the LS5 having only balanced ins/outs, since your VT130 only has balanced inputs, this is not an issue. And just about every source out there today has XLR outputs....some of which are truly balanced. I liked the LS5's all-balanced topology since it did not have all those klugey circuits to convert to/from single-ended which results in sonic degradation.

If you are seeking something in the $1800-2300 range, the LS5 II/III has no peers IMO. The Ref1 is way over priced and for all the LS5 owners I knew that also auditioned the Ref1, we all kept our LS5 II's and III's.

I did not hear the Ref 2 Mk I but this was the last ARC line stage to use the 6922 and this just may be worth hunting down. And then look into dropping Mullard 6922 tubes in this. Wow, could be mighty good! Whatever you do, if you end up with a 6922 tube-based model, donate the Sovtek tubes to charity. They put a most un-natural bite and fatigue to the sound. And no amount of circuit design or correction can resolve this whether it is an ARC, CAT, Aesthetix, etc., product.

John

A few years ago, I sold my LS5 II to an A'gon member in the UK. Initially he investigated having such a unit modified through ARC but ARC told him he had to go through the UK distributor for such rework. The resultant cost was approaching a ridiculous $1k through the distributor as everyone always wants a large piece of the pie. Rather than play this game, he asked me if we could do this in the US before I shipped it. And with me being only minutes from the ARC facility, we did just that. The cost was $225 to purchase and have a different (220V) power transformer installed at the ARC factory. And it was done that day. Nice and easy.

So as I understand it, ARC is very good when the business is USA to USA. But outside of the USA, you're pretty much stuck with dealing with the overseas distributor.

And yes, Leonard is very helpful and friendly with such issues.

John

"By the way, I think the general consensus is that the LS-5 Mk II is better than Mk III?"

"Better" is always a tough term here as it provides little if any objective value.

There is one A'gon member (name escapes me) who prefers the II. But myself and two local (Minneapolis) previous owners of the LS5 disagree. In 1997, I went to my ARC dealer with my LS5 II to compare to the III. The III had a far more tonally coherent presentation. There was also more resolution in the mids and lower trebles with the III. The 3-dimensionality characteristics were otherwise identical. Had this not been the case, I would have eliminated the III from the running as this was what got me addicted to the LS5 in the first place back in 1995. I would have gone for the III but the $1500 upgrade cost was simply not a good value at the time. The amp used was a VT100. I do not remember the source or speakers.

When I took my II to a local audiophile's home to hear the III again, the same results: we both prefered the III. In time the II can be a little fatiguing due to an unnatural overshoot in the trebles. The amp then was also the VT100 driven my Theta DAC - speakers were Wilson WP. This system had phenomenol resolution and imaging.

And a few years later, another local audiophile who was selling a III, brought it to my home. Same results. After listening to the III, the II is tough to go back to because of the treble fatigue. The II however rendered a little more low-end extension/presence than the III. Whether or not this was accurate, who knows. Without being able to directly jump from one to the other in the same system, these differences would likely not be detected. The amp was the VT130 driving Magnepan 3.3.

He also brought over his LS15 and both LS5's smoked this instantly. The LS15 was eliminated in a matter of seconds for its dull portrayal of space and decays.

The one benefit of the II is that it has 30db of gain vs the III being configured as 12 or 18db. The latter requires a change of 8 resistors. If you use a phono source and your phono stage is not so high in gain, the extra gain of the II can be beneficial.

Hope this helps.

John