Any Comparisons between VTL 7.5 & ARC Ref 3

Guidocorona,

I actually had a chance to look at the APJ you are referring to and the quote needs a couple of footnotes.

One is that Shane Buettner is the one who did the reviews of the ARC and Callisto, not Hardesty. Not sure if Hardesty had a chance to hear these units or not. Also, I believe Mr. Buettner was comparing these two units to his owbn VTL 7.5; I am not sure it was an upgraded MKII unit.

Small details, but I figured since I'd had a chance to look at it I'd let everyone know.

Cheers,
Jonas

Thank you Jonas, if the reviewer has truly compared the Ref 3 with the old and original VTL 7.5 v1, the entire conclusions of the article would be invalidated.

My Ref-3 is dead quiet, don't have any noise issues with any of my ARC components including a ph-7 and ref cd7.....Steve

If a component at that level is throwing noise into a system I would be p*ssed. I would look to the electrical before I looked to the component anyway.

I personally haven't had the please to ad a 7.5 to my system, but I can say my 5.5 quieted things down for me.

I believe Shane Buettner sold his original VTL7.5 to buy a REF3 about 1.5 years ago. I chatted with him when he had his VTL up for sale on AG and I know he ended up with a REF3 shortly thereafter.

I bought a brand new VTL 7.5 and used it for about a year. During that time period, I borrowed a REF3 (the upgraded version) from a local shop and used it in my system for about a week. I was using a Reimyo CD Player & Vandersteen 5A Speakers. I felt that both preamps produced wonderful sound, but I preferred the VTL 7.5. In my system, the REF3 added noticeable “bass boost” and seemed to just slightly add exaggerated sparkle on the top end. I preferred the “softer” sound of the VTL that I would describe as more accurate and/or natural (assuming such a thing really exists outside of my head).

Additionally, I had spent SIGNIFICANT time tweaking/fighting the VTL and found running it as VTL recommends works best. Valhalla PC directly to the wall outlet and sitting on a good isolation rack. I used the VTL for several months running into a Nordost Thor and this proved to be a bad thing. I mentioned this to the Nordost guys once at a demo, that convo did not go to well… I found that running the VTL into the Thor (and 4 other power conditioners I own) produced a very noticeable cold, flat and pretty much lifeless sound. I have heard many guys here on AG describe the VTL exactly that way and I wonder if the units they were using were running into power conditioners.

With the REF3, I plugged it directly into a wall outlet, using a mid level AudioQuest PC. I did not play with it anymore then this and I would agree that it would be possible to make subtle changes to its sound via tweaks, so yes, your mileage will vary.

About 10 months ago, I bought a new CD Player that has a built in volume control, a highly modified Esoteric UX-1. After a very short time, it was obvious that this Esoteric player sounds best with no preamp and thus I was able to sell my VTL 7.5. I really liked the VTL 7.5 while it was in my system and it worked 100% flawlessly from day one, which I can not say about the majority of high end gear I have owned.