Not that everyone preferred high definition tube sound. And even in 1973 his creations were astonishingly high in definition indeed, their standard-setting resolution, lifelike size, bloom, and airy brightness, and exceptionally low levels of tube-like coloration were a large part of what set them apart from the darker, thicker, blatantly euphonic sound of the tube preamps and amps that preceded them. From the start, ARC components had a sound that was uniquely, indelibly, addictively “right.” ARC’s designer and founder William Zane Johnson called this sound “high definition,” a trademark that still appears on the faceplate of each and every ARC component. It is a little sobering to look back to 1973 and the first pieces of Audio Research gear I heard-the SP-3 preamp and D75 amp powering Magneplanar I-Us in a stereo demo that, for me, has never been bettered or forgotten- and then to consider how consistently and naturally all the subsequent ARC gear I’ve heard, and I’ve heard a lot, has been voiced.
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