Hindemith - the only ARC preamp I've spent much time with was a friends LS-25 (I think that's what it was). To me, that ARC preamp sounded sterile and had a very bright solid state quality to it. I am not certain if it was a direct result of it in my friends system context or if the ARC didn't match up very well with his gear but I know of a fact that when he purchased a Supratek, suddenly things got WAY more listenable.
Since this friend also uses Conrad Johnson Premier 8A amps, he really, really wanted a CJ preamp to match his amps. He auditioned a Conrad Johnson 16LS in his system side by side with my Supratek. The CJ initially sounded pretty good (we thought) but once we switched over to the Supratek, it was instantly apparent that the CJ LS16 was a total joke. VEILED, weak sounding, restricted in dynamics, artificial sounding, rolled off in all directions.
So.... he bit the bullet and demo'd a CJ ART - while the ART was better, it still maintained much of the CJ character being a certain artificial sweetness and while it was much better than the LS16, the ART was rolled off too - undynamic and dull when compared to the Supratek.
So.. my friend purchased a Syrah and has been happy ever since.
