And here they are.

 

When do you get the new ones?

18 minutes ago, buddyev said:

When do you get the new ones?

8 weeks was the stated lead time so not till January. He was going to give me an updated time once he knew better as that's their default quote. Bear in mind that demo pair I had are the only pair in the country at this stage.

Edited November 27, 2025Nov 27 by Ittaku

2 hours ago, Ittaku said:

8 weeks was the stated lead time so not till January. He was going to give me an updated time once he knew better as that's their default quote. Bear in mind that demo pair I had are the only pair in the country at this stage.

Does this mean you are buying them without hearing a pair?

4 minutes ago, PKay said:

Does this mean you are buying them without hearing a pair?

While there was distortion audible at certain frequencies, the rest of their sound was clearly better. See earlier in this thread where I describe the improvements.

1 minute ago, Ittaku said:

While there was distortion audible at certain frequencies, the rest of their sound was clearly better. See earlier in this thread where I describe the improvements.

That’s great.

10 hours ago, Ittaku said:

the rest of their sound was clearly better. See earlier in this thread where I describe the improvements.

 

Morning Con, sounds like a worthy upgrade from the 250se's, would love to have a listen to your system with your new amps, when you get them, if possible.... until then enjoy your journey & music..🎶😎

Edited November 27, 2025Nov 27 by Bass13

Since I didn't give an extended description of the 330Ms  as it was just a cursory observation when I first plugged them in, I'll elaborate a bit here. The distortion aspect was very much limited to a narrow range of notes being reproduced on piano or woodwind instruments, so the vast majority of the time it was absent making it possible to get a reasonable impression of the sound of the amps. I expect that properly behaving ones will obviously sound even better.

 

I heard the 160Ms shortly after they came out in my system at the time - with my old speakers - comparing them to the 250SEs I owned. Whilst I felt they added a gentle richness to the upper midrange timbre and treble which made them lovely to listen to, they lacked the authority of the 250s so I didn't upgrade (downgrade?) at the time. I expected the 330Ms to simply be better in that way but have the same and more authority than the 250s. That wasn't the case at all. Compared to the 250SEs, the 330Ms extracted a great deal more inner detail of the midrange. It was most evident in vocals - duos singing were much better delineated as two distinct voices, their enunciation coming out clearer. Most midrange was much the same - the finer details distinguishing one instrument from another became much clearer. But equally important was the improvement to upper midrange and treble timbre. Unlike the 160Ms which made things sound more pleasant, they just extract more realistic timbre. This was most evident in higher pitched notes, such as violins playing near the bridge, and the classic of cymbals being gently tapped or even when absolutely hammered, maintaining the realistic differing sound of a cymbal regardless of how it was played. Lower piano notes and lower midrange sounds were pretty much equivocal in nature with the 250SEs though. So I wouldn't equate their sound to be like the 160Ms, they do seem in a class of their own - which was the case with the 150SE vs the 250SEs as well.

 

Again I can't comment on their bass control since my woofer towers are powered separately. I didn't have time to experiment with running them fullrange to see if they could drive the woofer towers adequately, but despite the reviews saying these amps have amazing bass, the woofer towers I have are an absolutely absurd load and there is virtually no chance any valve amp in existence would do a better job than an uber powerful solid state amp that can drive low impedance loads - I calculate the lowest EPDR of my speakers as being 1.35 ohms, and factor in an efficiency of 81dB and you can see why I use 2400W into 2 ohm amplifiers to drive them.

 

The other aspect which I briefly mentioned was the warm-up. When first powered on instruments sounded a little ethereal - not so much thin as lacking the bloom and body they'd recreate in a realistic soundstage. The sound "fleshed out" as it warmed up, with that body and bloom expanding to fill the space around them, and was tonally "warmer". My old Classic 60 from 1993(?) did something similar but it took hours and hours to reach optimal sound, sounding best usually around the time I was about to stop listening! Fortunately the 330Ms seem to stabilise within an hour instead.

 

Suffice to say I was absolutely sold on their sound since they were basically equal or better in every way. 

330M’s - Ive been fortunate to spend about 6 hours auditioning this wonderful new design at Connoisseur HiFi and found they have a superb and likeable sound reproduction and are wonderful in all respects especially in stereo imaging and midrange depth that was ‘wow’ on numerous occasions. Bass was good too.

 

Power cables were the latest Shunyata Sigma-X NR (IEC19) with Shunyata Alpha speaker cables.

The 330’s were driven by the Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD preamp being an excellent match, although the Ref-6 SE was also available. Speakers ALEXX-V
 

Well chosen @Ittaku.

3 minutes ago, Anthony1 said:

330M’s - Ive been fortunate to spend about 6 hours auditioning this wonderful new design at Connoisseur HiFi and found they have a superb and likeable sound reproduction and are wonderful in all respects especially in stereo imaging and midrange depth that was ‘wow’ on numerous occasions. Bass was good too.

 

Power cables were the latest Shunyata Sigma-X NR (IEC19) with Shunyata Alpha speaker cables.

The 330’s were driven by the Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD preamp being an excellent match, although the Ref-6 SE was also available. Speakers ALEXX-V
 

Well chosen @Ittaku.

Thanks for the feedback. It must have been this demo pair that were at my home, as it's the only pair in the country at present. The mid-range is indeed something special.

Edited November 28, 2025Nov 28 by Ittaku

330M’s arrived approx early July 2025 and have stayed firmly in place at Connoisseur HiFi. Been advised they are too heavy to loan and are owned by the business.

 

They won me over from a few other exotic choices.

 

Given this new generation of AR amplifier is so good, one could expect a very high standard of new trickle down models into the future.

Just now, Anthony1 said:

330M’s arrived approx early July 2025 and have stayed firmly in place at Connoisseur HiFi. Been advised they are too heavy to loan and are owned by the business.

 

They won me over from a few other exotic choices.

 

Given this new generation of AR amplifier is so good, one could expect a very high standard of new trickle down models into the future.

 

Ah gotcha thanks. I should know better than to trust what a salesperson said  That explains why you didn't hear anything wrong with them.

 

New amps arrive tomorrow.

Ah...nice pre Xmas goodies. Happy days ahead. I was going to say "enjoy", but I think that's a given.

That is great news Con. Congrats on the new purchase.

The reviews suggest big improvements compared to the previous gen.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/audio-research-reference-330m-monoblock-power-amplifier

The Absolute Sound

Audio Research Corporation Reference 330M Monoblock Power...

When ARC offered me the chance to be the first to review its new $90,000 REF 330M monoblocks, I was of two minds about accepting. Oh, there was a time

To begin with, for the last few years I’ve been using MBL 101 X-Treme MKIIs as my references. Now, it is not as if X-Tremes fare more poorly with tube electronics (one of MBL designer Jürgen Reis’ favorite combos is the Xes and VTL tubes). But the X-Tremes are low enough in sensitivity, difficult enough in load, and demanding enough in power delivery to make big solid-state amplifiers ostensibly better matches—particularly big solid-state amps from innovative companies such as MBL, Vitus, JMF, and Soulution, whose products have the sort of untrammeled current, iron grip, and very low distortion that make Reis’ speakers sound their best.

As with the MBL 101 X-treme MKIIs, the REF 330Ms and the Czar electrostats are a marriage made in audiophile heaven

The demo ones really didn't do them justice since one was performing poorly.

Holy cow. I was expecting the improvements I heard from the demo amps but this has blown away all my expectations. Raw, cold, out of the box, un-degassed valves, un-burnt in, it was immediately better. An hour in and I feel like crying. Absolutely everything is better, and this is the upgrade I didn't even know I needed. The virtually perfect timbre of instruments and immediacy of presence is frightening. There's nothing subtle about it - anybody who's been to a get together before would notice the difference. And it's only going to keep getting better. If it's anything like the ARC Ref 6SE preamp I have, it keeps improving for the first 400 hours, though most of the benefit was there by about 80 hours.

Going to need new racks as they're too deep to fit properly in my existing ones.

Now I'm holding a flash get together on this Monday afternoon 22nd, and have a few spots free, so message me if interested. Repeat offenders welcome.

Edited December 19, 2025Dec 19 by Ittaku

Al booked out for the GTG, see you there!

2 hours ago, Ittaku said:

Al booked out for the GTG, see you there!

I'm sure everyone is thrilled to attend. Since I usually get tongue-tied when asked to nominate something on the spot,

1. Rachmaninoff performed by Minnesota Orchestra under Eiji Oue (大植 英次) - Symphonic Dances (2001) track 1, Op. 45: Non Allegro (11:56)

2. or, of a more gentle aspect Isaac Albéniz & Joaquín Rodrigo performed by Orquestra Simfònica De Barcelona I Nacional De Catalunya & XueFei Yang under Eiji Oue (大植 英次) - Concierto de Aranjuez, Albéniz Concerto, España [2010] , track 2, Adagio

3. or, if we were headed into an electronic direction Barker - Stochastic Drift, track 08, Stochastic Drift

I keep dropping the price of the 250SEs in the classifieds. Someone's going to get a bargain at this rate.