Gbslps - You owned all of the above preamps and amps and yet you say they were not really anything special? Why go through the trouble of owning more than one if the first one did not impress you much?
As a long time owner of the greatest ARC preamps of the 80s and 90s (SP-10 and LS5/PH2), I still dreamed of owning the SA9/SA11 but these were outside of my budget when they were available to me. But these were quite a cut above the ARC preamps across the board. That the SA9 and SA11 command a large price today indicates how incredible they were and still are.
And then the issue of amps. I owned the ARC VT130 and Classic 150 monos and Counterpoint NPS400 at the same time as I was trying to find a good match for Magnepan speakers. The CL150s got rave after rave from all the reviewers. But it took no time for me to hear for myself how easily the NPS400 literally destroyed the CL150s in tonal coherency and driveability; the CL150s were just downright bright and fatiguing and my system has always been on the warm side if anything. That a little stereo amp at 40% of the cost of these behemoth mono amps could so quick embarrass the bigger amps was quite surprising to this long-time ARC fan.
I have since moved onto Wolcott and CAT as my primary amps for the Magnepan and later SoundLab speakers, but I still have the Counterpoint and it continues to greatly impress me. I know of no other amp that can drive so many difficult speakers and do it so well musically and at such a phenomenol value. To say they are nothing special implies you gave them very little chance.
As for why Counterpoint went out of business, it is all well detailed here. And Michael Elliot has continued his development work with his latest company.
John
As a long time owner of the greatest ARC preamps of the 80s and 90s (SP-10 and LS5/PH2), I still dreamed of owning the SA9/SA11 but these were outside of my budget when they were available to me. But these were quite a cut above the ARC preamps across the board. That the SA9 and SA11 command a large price today indicates how incredible they were and still are.
And then the issue of amps. I owned the ARC VT130 and Classic 150 monos and Counterpoint NPS400 at the same time as I was trying to find a good match for Magnepan speakers. The CL150s got rave after rave from all the reviewers. But it took no time for me to hear for myself how easily the NPS400 literally destroyed the CL150s in tonal coherency and driveability; the CL150s were just downright bright and fatiguing and my system has always been on the warm side if anything. That a little stereo amp at 40% of the cost of these behemoth mono amps could so quick embarrass the bigger amps was quite surprising to this long-time ARC fan.
I have since moved onto Wolcott and CAT as my primary amps for the Magnepan and later SoundLab speakers, but I still have the Counterpoint and it continues to greatly impress me. I know of no other amp that can drive so many difficult speakers and do it so well musically and at such a phenomenol value. To say they are nothing special implies you gave them very little chance.
As for why Counterpoint went out of business, it is all well detailed here. And Michael Elliot has continued his development work with his latest company.
John