Exclusivity and musicality in the special edition of three absolute references in tube amplification.
The legendary American company Audio Research, for more than 40 years innovating in the search for perfect sound, has just announced the release of a special edition of three of its highest-level power amplifiers: the Reference 75 SE stereo designs. and Reference 150 SE and the opulent monophonic design Reference 250 SE.
These have been designed to further raise the bar of sonic and technical excellence of their illustrious predecessors (the Reference 75, the Reference 150 and the Reference 25), which have been unanimously praised by the world’s most influential trade press. It has been this great success, materialized in such coveted awards as “Amplifier of the Year” or “Component of the Year”, which has encouraged the team of designers and engineers at Audio Research to work hard to redefine – once more- the concept of music reproduction without compromise.
The starting point of the new Audio Research “Reference SE” must be found in the sensational SG150 power amplifier – belonging to the Galileo Series – and the impressive state-of-the-art power tubes that it incorporates, the KT150. The exceptional musicality of the GS150 led many fans and specialized critics to contact Audio Research to explore the possibility of incorporating the aforementioned KT150 tubes in the Reference Series models. And as it could not be otherwise, the American firm picked up the gauntlet. Even so, not satisfied with the mere change of the output valves, Audio Research engineers also decided to incorporate substantial improvements in the Reference power stages in order to fully exploit the potential advantages of the change made. Thus, in addition to replacing KT120 power tubes for KT150, numerous active and passive components have also been changed in the new Reference SE amplifiers, resulting in a series of exceptional sonic improvements. In the words of the heads of Audio Research, the new Reference SE are simply superior in all aspects: purity and lack of grain, resolution, dynamic macro- and micro-contrasts, channel separation, instrument focus, coherence in amplitude and phase and Vastly improved weight, authority and control of bass response. Some improvements that are also easily noticeable.
As far as the technical specifications are concerned, the new Audio Research power amplifiers shine with their own light in parameters such as frequency response, slew rate or life time (these last two are essential when it comes to reproducing with precision the sense of rhythm), while their generous power system allows them to provide high power output with a wide spectrum of speakers. Finally, let us highlight that both the Reference 75, the Reference 150 and the Reference 250 can be easily updated to incorporate all the improvements included in the respective “SE” versions, which allows the investment made by the owners of the devices to be preserved intact. the original models.
