audio research

bad week at work. F*** it buy a premap

thinking of trading my avi pre/power and a little cash no doubt with emporium for a audio research LS2 or LS7. It need to have balanced outputs though.

any advice? - aside from telling me not to do it and to get a grip. btw where can I get the xlr leads from

 

give mark a call at http://www.the-missing-link.net/
Tell him David recommended you.
Cheers

 

XLR leads are easy, just go to Maplins and get a pair of balanced mic leads. About a tenner each.

-- Ian

 

The original LS7 does not have balanced in/out - RCA only. I had one on loan from Retro Reproductions up here and it is very nice though... warm but detailed, nice deep soundstage, but a fair bit of hum.
Also tried LS2 - this did have balanced out (but not in). However I found it cold and clinical compared to the LS7. Its a hybrid valve pre-amp, whatever that means.

 

Don't do it. Get a grip.

Otherwise, how about a nice Rotel preamp, you they mea...........................................

 

Hey just 'cause you want people to stop picking on your speakers don't mean you can go round knocking Rotel left right (and centre for those AV types)

 

loved my ARC SP9 & LS25.....LS2-B pre can be had at around £550
does sound a little bland compaired to the other 2 though.

 

Do you really need balanced outs? You can use balanced XLR stuff with unbalanced just by earthing pin 3. You have a lot more choice of pre-amp then.

Check out some of the Chinese stuff? I am amazingly happy with my Ming Da MC-7R and it only cost just shy of £300 with imports and stuff. They sell for about $1,600 in America though, to give an idea of its capability.

 

Tenson
John, requires a dual differencal (True Balanced) output to make the B/C come alive, by loosing one of the outputs so to speak (by bridging' a single ended output) this will not achieve the desired effect.
In essence loosing the balance, you defeat the object. Wm

 

I bought a ls 2 with balanced outs

 

Nice one John. You will have to let us know what you think.

Decent phono stages on ARC stuff too, if you have vinyl.

 

BN

i will , as for the phono stage the ar is without as i have the gsp era gold elavator .

the pre is being shipped to my office tommorow


john

 

John,

Congratulations, a great buy.

I have tried most ARC Pre Amps (and a lot of their power amps), I own an LS2. In my opinion, in my system, the LS2 is the best Pre that I have tried. I have put it against the LS7, LS22, LS15, SP10, SP9 and the ARC Reference only the Reference beat it and that was not by much.

It is not warm and 'thick' sounding like some valve Pre's, it is very detailed, a fantastic ability to produce an 'accurate' - wide sound stage

It has a world wide cult following, and rightly so.

Try valve rolling with some cheapies you might be very surprised.

I hope to be using mine with a pair of ARC VT 150 mono blocks as of next week.

Ken

 

What make of valves does it come with?

Electro-Harmonixs are always good for the money.

 

it's arrived, I had it delivered to work.

quick questions

what's valve rolling and should I leave it powered up turned on

John

 

tube rolling is just trying different brands / vintages of tubes. tubes from different manufacturers (batches even...) have distinct sounds you can "tune" the sound of your pre to your liking by "rolling" tubes. as for leaving it on... i don't think leaving a tube pre on would have any real risks other than reducing the life of the tubes (which can be an issue if you are using expensive "New Old Stock" tubes). However, it doesn't take long for tube equipement to warm up so why burn the tubes if you don't have to? having said that i am not that familair with ARC pres, so it might be that they prefer being left on or maybe not...

 

i cleared up the standby issue as the thing has a standby switch - the sound so far so lovely

 

standby is to give the valve heaters time to warm up, instead of putting the power through straight from the off. Kind of like a ''choke'' on a car if you like.

Glad you are liking the sound

valve rolling (aka changing) can be fun, but I wouldnt bother personally, run them till they sound funny/bad and replace the valves then (thats what I would do)

 

the switch says operate/mute and i mute dims on 'on' led. BN i'm with you on valve thing

 

John,

In my opinion it would be wrong to ignore the sound of valves. It is easy to do and the results easy to hear. There is only the one valve in the LS2 it is in plentfull supply, and to coin a phrase can be "cheap as chips". Even a cryogenically treated version is only £25.00 (ish). The valve change makes more difference than any interconnect change I have made.

I have had my LS2 for some 5-6 years, once I settled on a valve, I have left it switched on (in mute) for days-weeks at a time, only switching off if I was going away, or we had a winter storm comming through.

I had the valve checked at a local store, there was no recordable deviation from a new version.

Ken