Anyone have any luck with Audio Research gear?

[Jussei]

Ive been looking to make some changes in my speaker based audio setup and I was wondering if anyone has owned/does own any Audio Research gear? Ive read some things about the company and it seems to be top notch equipment, but I figured Id come here for some more first hand experience.
Now, the prices of Audio Research stuff is all over the board and Im not considering any of their extremely high dollar gear as it's way out of my league, but Im thinking about checking out one of their mid-line preamps and/or poweramps...
If youve got experience, let me know what you think

 

[jimmyjames8]

Not sure head amp forum is the place to post your ? but ARC was top shelf gear some years ago. Not sure anymore. They built some classic pre amps (tube and SS, LS2 and LS 3) and some classic tube amps: VT100 and VT200.

 

[883dave]

Their new CD7 is said to be a great sounding unit, 10,000+ however.

You might want to try AudiogoN and do a search on the discussion forum under amps and pre-amps or digital

 

[BennyBoy]

I worked at a hiEnd audio shop in the late 80's and we sold a lot of there stuff and most were very happy with it. The thing I really liked about it was the build Quality, Very high grade stuff. If your looking for older classic gear?
look at Conrad Johnson. Real sweet sound.

 

[mrarroyo]

 

[edisonwu]

My father has a SP10 MKII working in his speaker system for years, sounds REALLY good with some NOS tubes, one of the best preamp ever made. I am now keeping my eyes on the reference series.

 

[glacier_1998]

ARC tube gear has the rep of being quite neutral and not classically tubey ala Conrad Johnson. They also made a GREAT solid state amp in the 100.2 which is terrific with a tube preamp. If you need current, this is the way to go. If you want to soften the sound of your system, go CJ! Both companies make very nice gear, just very different in the way they present music. There are also other viable alternatives in that price range.

Jeff

 

[terrymx]

i have some audio research speakers myself and they are very good quality, and made in europe. it doesnt seem like they are focusing on mass marketing, they are supposed to make some great equipments on higher price. like the VS55 tube amp. i have grown to be very fond of the AR house sound.