ARC & Hovland mk1 v mk2

edited: Results of ARC & Hovland demo

I'm home demming second hand ARC LS25 and Hovland 100 MC preamps tomorrow and may be tempted to go wallet dipping if they are significantly better than my Orca. However, both have had mk 2 versions released, which I'd only be able to access new and for twice the price. However, this preamp is the last 'core system' upgrade I plan to do for a while (other than a turntable but that won't be in same league) so I want to get it right. Has anyone heard both mk1 and mk2 versions of either of these and able to offer a view on the degree of difference? One review I saw suggested that the Hovland 100 to 200 revision was more different than better.

 

I think the Hovland 200 has a remote, but not the 100.

 

Midlife, I feel you will take the Hovalnd over the AR, its almost pure hifi in its raw form, and can generate some beautiful hifi traits, looks rather funky too plus the blue glow

 

Interesting you should predict that - because I'd pretty much talked myself into a particular set of expectations in that vein before the dem, by virtue of reading various reviews. In the event, yesterday was very interesting and all four of us listening (me, the two dealers and my partially deaf father!) were hearing the same things and coming to the same conclusions.
The order of preamp listening was - AR LS15 (s/h), AR LS25 mk2 (ex dem), Hovland 100MC (s/h), and I'd actually talked myself into expecting rising improvements in that order. My current pre is the Michell Orca with the big PSU. Krell SACD with VdH First Ultimate, long pre interconnects into Bryston 7Bsst monos, Nautilus 802s via VdH Revelation. It's very very transparent, but that can make rough recordings unpleasant to hear, so actually I was looking for a little more body low down and sweetness at the top end. One of the tracks I used that sounded poor thru the Orca was Lush's Ciao, not a great recording but one that sounds great in the car!
The LS15 was different and lush but sounded congested to me and lacked bass extension and definition. Moved on to the AR LS25, run single ended. This was a huge step up from the 15 and brought the first grins. Compared back to the Orca there was much more body and presence to the music and a radical taming (rolling off?) the sibilance present in some of my recordings. One tough track is Bjork's Hyperballad, where ultra deep bass has to be managed alongside her high, quite lean vocals - coped a treat. Also did a grand job on Zep - dazed and Confused had great impact on the drums and the rawness to Plant's voice was natural ,not added bythe hifi, and so did not grate as it sometimes can.
Swapped the AR out for the Hovland - expecting a similar leap up. This was the real surprise and disappointment. One dealer characterised it as 'shouty', I felt it had gone back to and beyond the weaknesses of the Orca. The bass definition was very good - better than the AR, but the top end was aggressive and some tracks were just unpleasant to listen to. Now this is in the context of my system of course - in another set up what I suspect was just ruthless transparency might have gone down well. It was such a step back however (and remember I was actually rooting for it ...) that we went back to the AR for further tweaking.
First was to go balanced throughout - but here the sound went backwards again., this proved to be becuase of the anonymous long pre to power cable. Swapping my single ended Pulsewire back in there, but leaving a balanced Transparent between krell and AR brought added transparency over the VdH. Final change was then to take out the smooth but very resistive Revelation and let the Brystons really grip the speakers via some second hand, top end Transparent speaker cable. Now it really sang! Zep had superb impact, acoustic instruments were superbly picked out on some Scottish SACD tracks, and the good old Lush track had great definition and control.
In a way I'm glad that we had a couple of definite backwards moments, because it's easy to get psyched up about a dem and persuade yourself into a progression of improvements that align with your expectations based on price, reviews etc. I've still got the final set up in place to listen to, so I'll swap a few things around today to reconfirm what I heard...

 

Nice one!

Great phono stages on AR pre's if you ever fancy a TT

 

Interesting thoughts on the Hovland, I have to confess it made the Wadia very 'wading through treacle',(At the time early 850 no mods) but very open and detailed with fuller bass, but poor timing & musical flow, though the mids were far from thin.
Again different kit attatched,the synergy factor comes into play & with cables you've tried it all changes again.
One thing with the Brystons, they do rspond really well to power leads, the 14bst that Len bought of me, was really brought alive with a decent lead (I'm sure the 7's use the bigger IEC's as well)
Presently I have a Spectral DC30 MK2 I've been toying with, before on the 850 it made a nice improvement on 0-30 volume scale, however the 850 was matching it after that, so if my listening levels were some what lower, I would have kept it in.
Now on the tweeked SE, its not as good so its purely a case trying it out in your system, see what cooks, I also would go back you current set later on this week and just keep in the Transparent speaker cables, see what cooks.
You may consider uping the psu of the orca too, lots of Variations possible.
Or try Spectral DC12/30 one of the best Pre amps I've heard. Wm

 

funny you should say that. I've got a loan Krell SACD player while my own Krell is getting the new transport, and that's just died a death so I've been listening to vinyl this morning. I've only got an old Thorens 166, but hooked thru the MX XLP and XPSU into the AR (doesn't have its own phono stage) it sounds surprisingly good.