rex
i like all three and at this time can’t pick a favorite
the audio mirrors... being SET has most bloom and classic tubey ’roundness’ and ’meati-ness’ - lovely sweet single ended sound but with plenty of power to grip the woofers and get loud with ease and no slurring
zotl 40 is least tubey sounding -- being output transformerless it plays closest to tip top solid state... pure extended crystalline highs, very specific imaging, fast, visceral bass -- with old stock mullards (or japanese equivalents), it still gives a nice degree of luscious tubey fleshed-out lower treble and midrange that SS can never do
arc ref 75 is kinda in the middle... some more warmth than zotl, not quite as sweet as vlad’s SETs but better deep bass -- due to the greatest power reserve, there is just an effortless quality to the sound that is captivating and it has the biggest broadest deepest image - note this amp is balanced in only, so makes more demands of upstream gear
so i alternate, listen intently, still trying to figure out how i would rank them
if you are new to tubes, i would suggest:
-- very important, make sure your m3s’s are FULLY broken before you audition $$$ amps... mine were still smoothing out towards their settled in character 1000 hrs in from new
-- i would give the raven 30 wpc a shot. given money back trial offer .. my guess is that it would fall between the audio mirror and the arc ref amps -- and that to me is roughly where the tonality a ’typical’ good sounding tube amp would fall in the ’skim milk to full fat’ spectrum -- and so it is a good place for you to start and hear what good tube amplfication will do w the spatials
