Clarity, Power and overall performance.

The D130 was my first amp that I purchased. Due to my price range, I tested out Adcom, Aragon and few other amps in the same $ neighborhood and decided on the D130. I really like the bass extension and the clarity in the vocals and noticed that the D130 drove my speakers without any strains. Highly recommended. Currently, I'm running: Sony 555ES SACD > Sunfire Theater Grand II > Audio Research D130 > B&W CDM7SE main

Similar Products Used:

N/A

Clarity and Great sound Stage. Warm tubelike sound.

None

I have listened to and owned several ARC amps. both tube and solid state. This is a great product from a fine company. Warm tube like sound and clarity. The soundstage was exellent. I am using it with a ARC LS3 pre-amp. This is the best solid state combination I have found and you would have to spend a heck of allot of money to improve on it. Some of these critics are unfair to this amp because it is solid state. My hats off to the folks at ARC. You have found a winner, what is depressing is the amp was discontined, what a shame. Is there a MKII on the way?. I hope so. My reference system: ARC D-130 Amp ARC CD-1 PLayer ARC LS-3 Pre-amp Purist Audio Design Sattelites and Subs Power Line 2 Cables Modern Audio Peral interconnects

Similar Products Used:

ARC SP-7, SP-6A, LS-8, Krell

midrange coherence and transparency, lovely tone

slight bass weakness and tremble edge

I used D-130 for only a few months and returned it for a pair of more expensive tube monoblocks. It is not fair to compare D-130 with a twice-expensive set, but I do find some charateristics of this gear that can't satisfy my personal demand.

D-130 is very good for vocal presentation and light accoustical, as the its lovely midrange impresses listener and make no fuss at all.

Bring it to big orchestral, the two extremes of the sonic spectrum seems fading, thus unable to present convincing picture of the entire undertaking.

Comparing with tube gear, it is still short of the creamy tone and good 3-D ability, though at this price range, you get a good midrange which make certain type of music unflappable.

Definition,neutral,smooth and musical

I've had this amp about a year and I think it is a outstanding amplifier especially for the money. It has a smooth tubelike sound and good bass! I've read a lot of reviews on this amplifier that say it lacks bass and punch
which tells me that either folks can't hear or that it is very system sensitive. I think it is the latter because I get very good bass with LS-15 and I know ARC amps work well
with their preamps. So, for folks that are knocking this amplifier, I say system matching is very important!
The D-130 is a very good amplifier period.

Similar Products Used:

ARC D-120, D100B

detailed,neutral,smooth musical and has good bass

This review is an addendum to the one I submitted 9-20-00.
There're some things I feel compelled to say that I didn't say originally. The more I thought about it the more it bothered me. The majority of negative reviews I have read on this amp have been by people who've only listened to it for a short period of time. One guy said after five minutes he could tell,which is ridiculous! There is not any component that you can listen to for five minutes and really tell how it sounds. If that were true no one would've liked the Link Dac and that has gotten rave reviews! Also, I mentioned that system matching was important an everyone knows that. Everytime I listen to the D-130,LS-15
combination I can't belive the knock about no bass, so much so, that I had a audiophile friend of mine listen and he couldn't belive the bad rapp about the bass either. I think it is unfair and not in good taste for people to give negative feedback on components they haven't really fairly auditioned. As I've said before the D-130 is a good amplifier period!

Similar Products Used:

ARC-D120 & ARC-D100B

SEAN,J Michaels,and Michael Starling.
Should get to know each other,they all have the same taste in amps.
maybe because they are the same person and need to get a life.

Smooth midrange, power to spare

not easily bridged

I don't know what all the negativity is about with certain reviewers below. You have to wonder how legitimate they are when they have to post a negative review twice or can't spell or write. Anyway, to me this amp does what it's supposed to do. I use it for my center channel only and it does a great job. As soon as I hooked it up I noticed a smooth and powerful clarity which allowed vocals to come through a little more clearly than before. Since I cross over my center at 80 HZ, ultra low bass is not a factor. Down to 80 though, it performs fine so I don't see what the bass concerns are. Obviously, some people fool themselves based on their mood or the desire to sound like an expert. On the used market, this amp is a good buy. I'm rating it according to used because you cannot buy a new one now. System wise, I have a Lexicon processor, ribbon speakers, Sunfire and Infinity subs, and a lot of amp power.

Similar Products Used:

AMC, Odyssey, Yamaha, Denon, etc.

I tried the D-130 for the long time.Match with the LS9 solid state preamp.The sound is so suprise!I dont belive that ARC solid state product can have the good performance when I try this before!D-130 have 130w each channel that I feel it is powerful!I used it to drive the KEF LS3/5a and ATC A7 monitor speaker.They also have the nice sound with this ARC amp set!But one thing I dont like that the sound of LS9 is too cold!Not sweet and not attractive.But have very nice 3D sound stage.I thought that if D-130 match with the Sp-11 or SP-9 tube preamp.Should have better performance than that!

This amp is extremely sensitive to various set-up procedures. First the amp must be kept on and don't try to listen until its been playing music for an hour. Even turning it off briefly can take you back to square one. Various footers proved to be essential to get the best sound. Currently, i'm using DH cones which tightened evrything up and extened highs. Cable differences are dramatic. Before I purchased the D130 i tried various amps such as adcom, threshold, symphonic line in my system, which has maggie 1.5's. The only amps that could drive the maggies were the symphonic line rg1 and the D130. Suprisingly the threshold (200 watts) and the Adcom (200 watts) were not up to the job. Seems like the maggies require current in mass quantity. Both the symphonic line and the D130 have capacitance of over 100,000 uf's even though they both rate in the low 100 watt range. Most 100 watt amps have capacitance of only 50,000uf's, NO CURRENT, even thought they claim to be! As for the sound it has a ease and smoothness that fit the maggies perfect. As for bass, my 1.5's stop at 40hz, but my bass has never been better! So, I find it strange to hear all these lack of bass comments on this amp. Midrange is killer in the right setup. Highs could be a bit more exteneded and refined, but for 2k you're not going to get it all. Detail and refinement are very good if not as transparent as some more expensive designs such as the vt100. In my system no 2k amp was in the ball park. Drive'smoothness and musicality were all above competitors, though the symphonic line is a great amp but costs double the D130. So if you're going to consider this amp, which you should in this proce range, make sure it is warmed up and footered.

It would appear from the above reviews that this amp has a few detractors amongst our midsts. I've owned my D-130 for about 18mo now and have truly enjoyed every minute of listening. I've owned other s.s. amps from the likes of Classe,.Threshold, Belles and a few others. So i'm not exactly new to the audio arena. I agree with some of the knocks against this amp but the bottom line is this rather diminutive amp in the right setup can bestow upon your ears music rendered in a beautiful way. It does take time to warm-up but when it does just sit back and enjoy this baby because it will perform. Yeah i've heard amps that were better in the different areas that we love to gauge amps by but they are all considerably more expensive. Well bottom line is we're lucky to have this type of forum to compare our percieved sonic differences between audio gear and we can all agree to disagree.