ARC VTM120 Any thoughts?

Geez Audiofeil. I don't understand how they could be that bad. Where does their good reputation come from? At least, I perceive them to have a good reputation. Do they do anything well??

I suppose my comments were a bit over the top. Reputations? That's like trusting the media for the news. Don't believe all you read and hear. ARC makes competent equipment and it is well supported at the retail and manufacturer's level. That is undisputable. That being said, however, it is my opinion that your money can be spent more wisely. Hope that helps.

I owned the 120 monoblocks a few years back. I paid about $1650 at the time..which was about book on them. Mine were not the SE version which have upgraded caps. I ran them on ML SL-3's and Von Schweikert VR2 for the time I owned them. Neither speakers sounded their best driven with the VTM-120's. I liked them because they were not bright, but they really didn't have that tube magic I was expecting, and eventually parted with them.

I would have to agree as Audiofeil mentioned..they do tend to sound rather dry, and I feel they lacked conventional tube warmth, although they are not bad sounding.( IMO..ARC has never made a bad sounding amp yet!) They just lacked that emotional connection that I expected from tube amps. :) Ken

Over the years I've listened to ARC amps at a local store with Maggies, Vandersteens, Aerials, and Spendors. Have always found them a bit dry and threadbare, but I've heard the VTM120 might be a different animal - more warm and "musical" sounding. Anyone have experience with this?

Blue Book price often has nothing to do with actual sonic quality so I would not focus on this too much. What the going price has been on Audiogon would be a far more worthy indicator of their "value".

$1500 does seem a bit high considering that ARC M100 mono amps sell in the low $2k range and these along with the D115 stereo amp (which sells in the $1300-1500 range) are in a completely different league than the more budget-minded VT60/VTM120 series. And I have seen the ARC VT130 stereo amp go in the $1700 range and this is an oustanding amp that I wish I had not sold years ago. Clearly Audiofeil has little or no experience with these models as they do not at all have a "dried out presentation" that I personally would associate with the Classic series.

ARC like any other company has made some phenomenol products and a few that performed quite poorly; the LS2 and CL150 come to mind on the latter. And on the issue of Sonic Frontiers, the SFL-2 was one of the most unmusical line stages that I tried in my system some years ago.

If you're selling the VTM120's good luck. If you're looking to buy the VTM120's, I'd consider the models mentioned above if you want to stay with ARC amps. But there are so many products to consider if you're not attached to ARC.

John