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Stupidgood: Ars Sonum

There are lots of "terms of art" used by audiophools to describe sound and equipment. I propose a new one - stupidgood - a piece of equipment that blows you away, as good as it gets (more or less), and the price or the looks of it makes you incredulous as to how good the equipment is. Of course, I did not come with the term; that would by Bobby P. (Mr. von Merlin) describing the Ars Sonum integrated amplifier. I've had separates from ARC, Joule, LAMM, and CAT, and I can tell you, the Ars Sonum is stupidgood driving Merlin VSM-MXes, which can driven very easily be this little 30 watt gem.
pubul57
pubul57 OP
3,712 posts
 
The need is gone. And the CAT is too good, and too big to be ignored. The Joule is staying though as I try some SS amps - just got the Pass Aleph J.
tabl10s's avatar
tabl10s
1,067 posts
 
It looks like you're an amp junkie.
pubul57 OP
3,712 posts
 
I'm guilty.
pubul57 OP
3,712 posts
 
I'm afraid I have to nominate the First Watt (Pass) Aleph J for inclusion in the stupidgood list - apparently Stereophile got it right a few years back in their review of the Pass Aleph 3. This too is a "low" power, 30 Watt, Class A amp, and it is also single-ended - I don't know if this is the only single-ended SS on the market (is the XA series single-ended?). It works beautifully with the Merlins and with an incredible 242kohm input impedance it is super friendly for use with tube preamplifiers and it is optimized for stable 8-16 ohm speaker impedance (e.g., Merlins). If 30 watts is enough power for your speakers and room, this amp is a gem - unfortunately they stopped making them, but you have to believe Nelson Pass is cooking up something in his kitchen - literally. But moving forward, I'll only comment on the Ars so as not to divert the thread for those who have the Ars or are thinking about getting one.
pubul57 OP
3,712 posts
 
There is an ARS SONUM up for sale at the moment. If you don't want to wait months to get one....
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