Accurate reproduction of sound. Liquid midrange and detailed presentation

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This little integrated amplifier is truly amazing. The build quality is superb and the sound even better. I strongly disagree with the statement that this amp is not good for Rock. I listen to mainly rock and this amplifier does extremely well with rock recordings.

Audition for yourself.. For $1000.00, this unit is truly a steal.

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Similar Products Used:

Bryston B-60, Classe CAP 150, Creek Int.

Performance to price ratio, full function remote, runs cool

Little bit weak on presentation of details.

I've used this amp for about 10 months. Bought new for $950 with remote. Bass performance is average for a solid state amp, midrange is warm, treble is really smooth. Very good images and soundstage depth. Plenty of headroom despite the 50 WPC rating. Should be able to drive any speakers above 84 dB, BUT not recommended for average or dark speakers. I found that the amp's internal voltage bias setting tends to change by itself over a period of months. This mean the amp will tend to sound somewhat veiled after 6 months or so. However, there is a quick and simple way to re-adjust the setting to bring it back to its proper performance.
Audition this amp very carefully if resolution and details are of priority. This amp has very high potential in a supporting system that is revealing and transparent or at least neutral. (I.e., don't use MIT cables or MSB Link DAC with this amp because these components are already warm and smooth by themselves, this was a pricey lesson for me.) You will find that audiophile magazines tend to rate this amp very high, but yet a few reviewers gave this amp thumbs down. The simple reason is that the magazine guys were briefed by the company marketeers on how to match the amp for ideal sound. Naturally, they will be impressed with such refined sound from a $950 unit. Your average equipment buff is probably not so well briefed by the dealer, if he happens to match the amp with the wrong components such as mentioned above, he'll say that the amp sounds muddy and bland, where's the refinement!
My subjective opinions on this amp: Perfect with vocals and jazz. If you listen to a lot of classical, get the Bryston B-60 (more expensive but not too much). If you like pop (or rock) get Yamaha and save some money.
Also, I'll say that the company do have a very good warranty policy and customer support people.

Hi current,tube-like sound, design is Avant-garde

Taiwan assembled, but still good quaility control.

The Audio Refinement Complete is one of best sub $1000 intergrated amp on the market. I can't get over the tube like sonics and warmth, with a hint of solid state dynamics. All the reviews on this one is right on! I thank YBA for letting us poor folk enjoy a taste of high end audio,without the high end price. I plan to audition the Totem 1's and Joseph Audio RM7's to complement the Audio Refinement Complete. Yes! It's worthy of $2000 speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Arcam Alpha 8r, Denon PMA 2000r,Creek 4330, Nad 317

warm,neutral sounding,stays cool,slick design.great price

Lacks defeatable tone controls

This amp just makes music cd's an enjoy to listen to. I have this amp using all STRAIGHTWIRE connections,JMLAB COBALT 810 and REGA PLANET CDP. This system cost me just $2700 and it was a pleasure spending it for something so pleaurable. I generally listen to all sorts of music, but mostly jazz,new age,rock and international. The soundstaging,and overall tonal balance are the highlights of sound for this unit.

Similar Products Used:

marantz,yamaha and onkyo

Smoothness, neutrality, engaging, high resolution and detail, refined tone, pace, rhythm and timing.

Sonically none in my opinion. Lacks preouts. Even though the nice metal remote is very stylized and solidly built it takes some getting used to.

Chances are if you are interested in this integrated and/or CDP you have considered others under $1,000 like I did. Over the last year or so I have been steadily upgrading my components, home auditioning several integrateds under $1,000 and CDP's under $1,000 looking for sonic nirvana somewhere in the "entry level high end" bracket so to speak. I went through Rotel equipment, heard some NAD, Musical Fidelity, Jolida hybrids, MSB Link DAC, the Ah! Tjoeb, Rega (Mira and Planet), and others. I thought that at one point I found it with the Jolida hybrid amp, then with the Rega system. When I heard the Audio Refinement Complete, in a home audition, I knew this was it.

Yes it is extremely smooth and nuetral. Yes it is very refined in tone. Yes it sounds "tube-like" in some ways. But what this amp and CDP do very well is soundstage and imaging as well as pace, rhythm and timing. Out of all the equipment I have heard under a grand this system is the very best I have heard in these regards. Soundstaging is truly high end. I found that with most of the other equipment I had heard, the soundstage is relatively flat and has some but little "true" depth. The ARC system excels in this area, presenting a "see-through" soundstage that is extremely well defined where images are clearly delineated giving you an extreme sense of space around instruments and the distance between them. The layering of images is excellent. With the right recording images seem very holographic. This system crosses over from the sub-entry level high end equipment into true high end musical reproduction in this regard in my opinion.

Beyond that the sound is very smooth and refined like everyone says. Beautiful midrange, excellent bass, refined, focused and smooth treble. I have seen some say the treble can sound rolled or that the bass is shy or that the system can't rock??? Maybe even lacks detail? Polite? Now, what now? I suppose every situation is different, componentry-rooms-taste, but in my view this amp can play rock big time, exhibits the best "quality" bass I have ever heard in my system and the treble is extremely extended yet smooth and refined. Near perfect treble in my view. Of course this system does excel with well recorded music- acoustic, vocals, small jazz ensembles and like just sound beautiful. And detail? Huh, this system by far has the very best detail retrieval and resolution out of any system I have owned or auditioned that I listed above. Beats the Rega Planet and Mira in this regard. Transparency, palpability and air are again, by far the best I have ever heard in my system. And again, the quickness and speed of the system is the best I have heard as well, in my view exceeding the pacey Rega gear. Playing rock or fast and upbeat music, even at high volume levels, is no problem at all. The integrateds 50 watts by the way is one of those "feels like more" than 50 watts, I can crank it as loud as any amp I have ever owned with no strain at all.

Build quality is excellent with great "high-end" aluminum styling and design as well. The CDP is fast, quiet and smooth. The remote itself is a piece of work too, like a high end remote, metal, simple and sparse. It takes a bit to get used to because the remote controls one unit at a time, you toggle between the CDP and integrated (and tuner too) via three buttons, where hitting "CD" the remote then becomes fully functional only with the CDP for example. You use a like set of buttons that work with all the components. It's "smart" but a bit quirky. Both units come with three feet as opposed to four, with damped rubber bottoms. I have have found Vibrapods and Polycrystal Isolators work well to tune the sound. I have also replaced the stock power cords with good after market power cords, the amp with an LAT AC-2 and the CDP with a DIY Belden cord, both make for even better sound.

This is one amazing system and one I plan to settle into for a long time. For people looking for an integrated under $1,000 or a CDP under $1,000 you have to give these a listen. I have been around the block with equipment under $1,000 and I haven't found any better. This system is extremely musical and involving and is versitle with any type of music. Trust me, it has the sparkling and extended highs, deep bass and is very powerful. Mid-fi people wanting to move to high end sound on a budget, check these out. Even if you are already into the high end this system is definitely worthy of consideration.

Associated equipment:
(The Audio Refinement integrated and CDP I have are fully broken in)
B&W CDM1's
Harmonic Tech Truthlink interconnets
Tara Labs Prism Biwire
Monster HTS-2000 line conditioner
LAT AC-2/Belden power cords
Heavily modded Paradigm PDR-10 subwoofer

Similar Products Used:

Jolida JD-1701 hybrid integrated, Musical Fidelity A2, Rega Mira/Planet, MSB Link DAC, Ah! Tjoeb, Rotel, NAD

Excellent build quality, wonderful sound, phenomenal value when you consider sound v. price. Super performance, great speaker wire connects, ease of use, being able to enter the true high end for less than a grand!

No headphone amplifier.

I took a lot of time and compared numerous integrated amps to get the best sound at the lowest price. THIS IS IT! Wonderful sound in all respects, A very easy to use and place unit, and plenty of power and "head room' for efficient speakers.

This sounds better than many of the seperate components I brought home to audition. The quality through and through is unmatched. I like the sound of this much better than the 'Musical Fidelity A3' which is the same price.

This is a better unit. I tried a few separate amp/preamp combos and this handily sounded better and was easier to use.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo amp & preamp (not too good), NAD (fair)

Emotional midrange and details. Tight and controlled bass thru power band. Depth and Soundstage, 3-D like sound. 50W sounds like 100W. Simply gorgeous. Build quality for a "Made in Taiwan" product. Price/Sound.

Annoying thump when turned on. Volume goes to 0 when turned off. Remote purchased separately. Three legged stance...if not careful, you can damage the front corners of face plate (I dinged both corners the first day) :( ...just be careful.

I was looking for an Integrated Amp for 3 months with $2000 budget and settled on this beautiful looking and sounding integrated.

First of all, I would like to say that you will not find a better sounding integrated amp for $1000 and about $700 used at audiogon.com. It beats out others approaching the $2000 range (IMO). The Musical Fidelity A3 $1000 came very close but not close enough. It had nice power 85W. I was not impressed with the others I audiotioned... especially when the price is doubled.

This amp is smooth sounding, relaxing and emotional to listen to. Just WOW. Blended sweet mids with detailed highs.
Sound staging and depth is large and deep. Imaging is terrific (I think this has more to do with the speakers). Instruments were rendered very accurately. Very quiet background. The amp has excellent dynamics and keeps up with the music....any kind of music.

This amp is fed by Audio Refinement CDP. A very nice match.

I thought that bass was very good...tight and cotrolled over the power band. I like cranking it up sometimes. :) Disregard the 50W rating...sounds like 100W+. I use this amp to drive Totem Model 1s speakers...I think 87db per watt per meter. Not that efficient.

Overall, I extremely happy with this amp and I think that this amp will make me happy for many years to come.

Highly Recommended!!!!

This review is of course...IMHO. :)

My System:

Audio Refinement Integrated Amp and CDP
Harmonic Tech Truthlink Interconnects
Harmonic Tech Melody Speaker Cables.
Harmonic Tech Pro Ac 11 for both CDP and INT.
Totem Model 1.

Similar Products Used:

Sonic Frontiers Anthem Int 1 and 2, Classe CAPs, Rotel RBs, Regas, Musical Fidelity A3, Meridian Int, Arcam Alphas, Naim Nait 3, Bryston B-60.

Revealing across the spectrum, with a falloff at the lower end. Superior product at this price point when addressing mid bass, midrange (vocals) and highs. Does not seem "congested" when dealing with complicated passages of music, such as can happen in classical.

Remote control seems to have poor tactile sense when using it. I "retired" it.

Purchased in December 1999. Have used it for 8 months now, and have been very pleased. Hooked up with Stax Headphones and Meadowlark Kestrals for reproduction, and a NAD 5000 (circa 1993) CD player. Very enjoyable. One forgets it is there, and it allows you to concentrate on the music. I like that. It has a terrific time with classical (orchestral and opera), seems to be generous with vocals. Although the bass is not shaking the walls when playing more raucous music (Rock), when called upon it will deliver a complaint from the neighbors!
My price point was nothing in excess of $1300, and therefore auditioned all the usual suspects (Arcam, Audio Analogue, Jolida, NAD, Rotel, Carver, etc). This unit created the best balancing act of strengths. The unit has a solid feel to it, handsome (mine is black), and is unobtrusive. I found in auditioning items two or three times the price (just to see what I might miss out on...) that the increased dollars did not translate into a really substantial increase in involvement. The only critisism I have is the remote, due to the "mushy" feel of the buttons.

Similar Products Used:

NAD, Rotel, Carver, Audio Analogue, Arcam, and Sims.

Incredibly Musical for the price

none in my system-does need right component match.

The Audio Refinement Complete is an amazing little integrated amp. It is as smooth and musical sounding as anything I have heard(exclusive of components costing 3-4x as much). The midrange is incredibly beautiful-you won't believe it isn't a tube amp. It is well built, as you would expect from a component in this price range. I compared it to Arcam gear (in the same shop), and also listened to the JoLida all-tube integrated. The Audio Refinement sounds much more like the tubed JoLida than the soild state Arcam. While smooth and musical to a degree normally associated with much more expensive components, it needs highly detailed source components in order to function at its best.
I use it with a Sony X55ES CD player (10 year old, $1100 Sony "reference" single disc player), KEF C85 speakers and Tara Labs interconnects and speaker cables. The X55ES is a VERY different beast from your average Sony CD player-this is the most detailed CD player I have ever heard at any price, and has a lot less edge and tinniness than most Sony players. On the other hand, it is definitely a bright sounding, somewhat analytical CD player. This player is a perfect match for the warm and musical Audio Refinement, which passes the Sony's detail while toning down the edge. Arcam CD players also match the Complete very well. Unfortunately, Audio Refinement's own CD Complete is a little warm for the Complete integrated amp-the combination of the two is amazingly musical, but lacks detail. I wonder how the CD Complete would do driving an amp that was very detailed, but lacked warmth?
The combination of the X55ES and the Complete certainly appreciates a good interconnect. I have experimented all the way up the Tara Labs line from the Prism 22 to the Air3 and settled on the Air3. I tried it in the shop with a pair of Air1s, and the difference is audible even between the Air3 and the Air1 (Audible-yes, worth $500 more-no). My system is a great match with the $300 Air3, so be prepared to spend a good deal on an interconnect to get the most from the Complete.
The KEF speakers have a fantastic midrange that complements the strengths of the Complete. I have heard it on other speakers as well, and it does a good job on anything it can drive (please, no exotic electrostats-this IS a 50 watt integrated amp.) My total system is as good as it gets at a reasonable price for the type of music I listen to (a lot of folk and other fairly small-scale performances). The Complete did exactly as its name implies, it completed my system-when it replaced a Sony ES reciever, a bright, barely listenable system was transformed into a musical beauty.

Similar Products Used:

Arcam, Jolida, replaced a Sony ES reciever