Droolworthy Audio Research - Reference 330M

[oldflame]

It's a fantasy for sure, but it seems that Stereophile had as much fun reviewing AR's new amp as I had reading about it. Lot's of watts, lots of tubes, lots of weight and it's ONLY $90k. But hey, that's for a PAIR of monoblocs.

After much testing, they preferred the slightly more obscene looking KT-170 over the bulbous KT-150. SP's review had enough technical meat in the article to hold my interest. Serious competition for VAC's big, vertically encased, stuffed-with-KT-88's, amp.

 

[tubelectron]

This (here in France), for a mere 108 000 Euros...



Oh, OK : totally out of my reach... So I'll stick with "my personal droolworthy Audio-Research legends" : a one-owner SP3A1 + D76 set from 1974 :

T

 

[trinhsman]

This (here in France), for a mere 108 000 Euros...

View attachment 3636644

Oh, OK : totally out of my reach... So I'll stick with "my personal droolworthy Audio-Research legends" : a one-owner SP3A1 + D76 set from 1974 :

T

I had that exact set up many years ago. I was 22. Paid on it like a car loan for 3 years.

 

[tubelectron]

I see @trinhsman... Personally, I could simply not afford it when I was 22 ! I had to wait for 35 years ... I bought the set for 4440 Euros in August 2022, shipping and taxes included from USA.

Absolutely no regrets : these units were made to last, complete specs and service information is available, and once restored / setup'ed / modded to modern requirements - that is to say eliminate some quirks and flaws - my SP3A1 and D76 performs as real "tube references"... Just check the phono table below, stating the gaps (écarts) vs. the RIAA norm :

T