#audio research

[donotdestroy]

Michael Fremer Tours Audio Research 2023 | Factory Tour

[hifilounge]

Audio Research Reference 80S Stereo Power Amp Coming to HFL Soon!

Hi All,

Just a quickie to say at last Audio Research have announced their Reference 80S Stereo Power amp, this is the one everyone has been waiting for as the outgoing Reference 75se was a very popular amp for Audio Research and the new 80S is bound to carry on that tradition, we have ordered our demo model so that will be with us shortly, if this is of any interest please feel free to get in touch as I’ll be happy to lend it out bearing in mind we are currently closed for demos unfortunately.

We have got the Reference 160M Mono’s and 160S Stereo amps already on demo so it will be nice to finish the trio with the 80S.

At 80 Watts of power for each channel from its KT150 output valves it will be enough to drive the most challenging of speakers and with their newish design with the floating VU meters it really is a serious amp and for a lot of our customers when it comes to musicality and involvement then nothing touches Valves, especially from Audio Research, arguably the leaders in Valve based HiFi.

In other really exciting news, they are also shortly releasing a £5000’ish integrated amp, I don’t have any info on this at the moment but this promises to be very exciting indeed, more news to follow.

Please find a link to the Audio Research Reference range below and a few pics of the imminent Reference 80S Stereo amp.

https://hifilounge.co.uk/product-category/brands/audio-research/reference-series/

Cheers,

Paul.

Screen Shot at

[hifilounge]

All Set For Our Wilson Audio Open Day Tomorrow!

Hi All,

Just doing a final sound check ahead of our Wilson Audio Open Day tomorrow, been a busy day setting up but everything really is sounding great, certainly looking like it is going to be a busy day with people coming from all over the country and with more people registering for this open day than any before so Wendy has been busy turning 10 loaves of bread into sandwiches, it has been like a military operation in the kitchen :-)

Really looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow, it’s going to be a good one.

A fine selection of Wilson Speakers ready to rock.

The TuneTot’s are in the upstairs demo room fed by the Melco N100, Chord Electronics Hugo TT2 and M Scaler with Bryston BP17 Pre and a 4B SST3 power amp and the iconic Michell Orbe turntable.

The Sabrina’s are in the Naim Lounge fed by the full 500 System and the Rega Planar 8 Turntable.

And the star of the show, the new Sasha DAW’s are in the Highend Room driven by Audio Research 160M Monos Blocks, a REF 6 Pre, dCS Rossini and Melco N1ZS and the cherry on the top, the VPI Prime Signature, all very nice indeed.

Let the fun begin,

Cheers,

Paul.

[hifilounge]

All Set For A Fyne Open Day!

Hi Everyone,

This is a real quick one just to say that the roads are very clear round here so it is full steam ahead with out Fyne Audio Open day.

We spent all day yesterday setting up and we have now got 4 demo rooms running with a combination of Fyne Audio speakers ranging from £599 to £17999, I have to say that what impresses me most about Fyne Audio is that 10 months ago they hadn’t released any speakers to the world and here we are now with a full range and everything I hear from them I am always impressed, I know they may be a new company but they have decades of experience between them and it really does show.

I had my first listen to the F1-10′s last night, they really are fantastic, very different to anything else I have heard before really, very captivating giving a really big and ethereal sound, look forward to trying some more tunes on them today.

Please see a few pics of the rooms we have setup for today’s Fyne Audio Open Day -

F500′s on a Naim Uniti Atom

F501′s on a Naim Uniti Star with a Rega Planar 3

F702′s on a dCS Rossini and Audio Research Ref 160M Mono Blocks

F1-10′s on a full Naim 500 System fed by a Melco N1SZ

I have to say all the rooms are sounding great so hope you can make it over today.

Oh yeah don’t forget the Whisky and Stovies :-)

Cheers,

Paul

[hifilounge]

The Stunning Audio Research Reference 160M Amplifiers Now on Permanent Demo!

Hi All,

Just a quick blog to say that we now have the new Audio Research 160M Valve Mono Blocks now on Permanent demo and I have to say I have never seen a cooler looking amp with their VU meters that can be switched off if required as it is projected onto the glass, I know it isn’t sound quality related but who said HiFi shouldn’t look great :-)

They use 4 x KT150 Valves each giving around 150 Watts Per Channel with also the option for Ultra-Linear or Triode mode and now with Auto Bias this is a very easy valve amp to live with.

I have them set up in our Highend Room now to give them a chance to run in and they really do sound quite spectacular with our Reference 6 Preamp being fed by the dCS Rossini.

Needless to say if you’d like to come in for a demo anytime please feel free, please find more information on our website below - 

http://hifilounge.co.uk/audio-research-Reference-160m

Also please find a stunning review below from HiFi News -

http://bit.ly/2unUVa0

Finally here is a small video showing how cool they look :-)

Cheers,

[donotdestroy]

Rogers LS3/5a + NEW Audio Research I/50

[audio-lover]

[audio-luddite]

Killing time.

I have an FEA running on my other computer. Got nothing to do until it finishes. An FEA is a computer analysis of in this case a large composite vessel. Such is my daily life.

So to occupy myself I look around and see an ad for a nice amplifier in the Classifieds. It is an ARC solid state unit, a D100A. Back in the day it caused confusion and consternation with the golden ears. It may have been the best amp ARC ever made up till that day in the 80s. 100 Watts per channel with not a tube anywhere. ARC no tubes WTF!?

The ad claimed it was fully benched and redone and brought up to spec with everything old and tired replaced.

But.

This was from the era when ARC tried to leave tubes behind. They created "analog modules" which were basically big Op-Amps made from discrete components cast into blocks to hide the contents. These things were intended to behave like tubes. at least that is what the marketing said. Glassheads slagged them hard. For that reason they are less desirable (cheaper) than tube stuff. They will also be impossible to repair if one of the modules cooks. There is no record of what went into the various types. ARC cannot help you.

But.

It has the usual ARC level of engineering and build. If all you care for is performance it is desirable. The golden ears said it had greater clarity and drive than their favorite at the time, which was another big ARC amp with tubes. It had no vacuum, no magic, confusion reigned. Yet it sounded really good.

This is the nexus of tubes versus transistors fight. If "tube sound" is your vision of perfection downgrade the new kid. If accuracy and neutrality is the goal, sign up for one.

It is not perfect. A similar unit was tested by those Geeks in Seattle (I think they are in Seattle) Audio Science Review. It came out less than great as it had distortion less than but similar to tube units. In their tests all tube units do very badly. ARC was trying to keep its voice I guess.

I have said a few times I am a fan of ARC. A fan is a person with an irrational motivation to like something.