ARG amplification information  page




Please, read this: I do not sell or make ARG amps. I am their customer and friendly consultant. Because it is difficult to communicate with them at the moment in English  and I get lots of emails about these amps, I decided to make this page. I don't have time to answer individual emails. Thank you for your understanding.

For all those interested, I prepared a small info page.

ARG is a large engineering company from Lviv, Ukraine. They do all kinds of things, including running a dedicated laboratory for development of high end amplification.
ARG has been developing amplifiers for over 10  years, with personnel experienced for over 30 years in the business.


Ewgenniy Kreminsky, the guru himself - after a hard day of soldering, testing and prototyping. We enjoy a sip of Cabernet in my living room. March 2007.

The principles of their works are:
creation of own, genuine designs
using endless listening sessions as a final judge of the design
working with tubes, silicone is allowed for some rectifier bridges only
purity of sound always has priority over measurements and calculations
long term reliability lies at the base of all designs
simple, inexpensive elements are used where it does not matter
most exotic parts and elements are used where it matters
customer feedback is very important

Arg amplifiers follow a certain philosophy of design. Lets list a few points:
triode operation is best
feedback is bad, so zero feedback is used everywhere
over sizing of components, especially transformers is good
less stages is better than too many stages
single ended is ultimate topology
never copy Western designs, especially copies of genuine Russian designs
design for high end, full spectrum speakers
having endless fun listening to the music is the final goal of what we are doing
the last and best amplifier is never good enough

I myself as a user of their gear, followed their developments for many years. I had every amplifier for long time in my system. I know all schematics by heart, and I know all about these wonderful amps. My opinions contributed to the development of current commercial line of products.
The ARG amplifiers are available only factory direct. Any variant and option can be ordered as a custom version, without much additional cost.
Custom features include:
for amplifiers: input impedance, input pot, number of inputs, output taps for any speaker, multiple output taps, bias meters, indicators, "magic" green eye indicator, and the decor of course.
for pre amps: number of inputs, number of outputs, filtering of outputs for active bi-amping, rectification method, coupling caps, etc.

The product line:

OTL stereo, 5 WPC    1500 US$
OTL mono, 5 WPC    2500 US$ a pair     PIC2     PIC3      PIC4            PIC5
SET stereo, 15 WPC    1900 US$
PSET mono (parallel single ended)    2900 US$ a pair    PIC2     PIC3
100 WPC bridged triode mono            2900 US$ a pair
25 WPC push-pull entry level stereo    900 US$ a pair
preamp 1       1500 US$ a
preamp with XO    1900 US$
Pre-pre phono for MM/MC    1500 US$

All designs have something in common - they use 6H6P small signal tube in all applications. This is MAGICAL tube. Better than any other I heard, including famous BAT 6H30P, which by the way is an impulse version of the 6H6P. I tested this tube against every 9 pin I could find, and the difference is always there. I cant stress strongly enough, that this tube is the KING of all small tubes period.
Power tubes are always the mighty super triodes from Russian military  surplus - the three nippled 6C33C-B. This is the most powerful sounding power tube available, not counting it's own super variants and NOS exotica.
All power supplies are powerful, unregulated, CLC choke types. Choke P-S sounds soo much better than regulated types - the current delivery is instant and pure. No sonic signature of feedback in the regulation stage. Most of the construction is wired point-to-poit. All labor is made in the house by the chief engineer. Every transformer is custom designed and hand wound. Transformer core iron is being pre-selected for its sonic qualities.

In my experience of many years in serious high end, the double SET mono OTL  is the bets amplifier. It just has to be heard to be believed. The OTLs are really awesome in the bass but for very limited number of speakers of high sensitivity and high impedance. On my 8 Ohm / 100 dB speakers, they sound like a kilowatt of a krell in the lowest octaves.
ARG  NON-OTL amplifiers, with correct output taps, can drive any reasonable speaker to satisfying levels. The sound is very powerful, spacious and dynamic. It is completely free of the speaker location - hanging freely in unbelievable 3-d space. Bass response rolls of at around 13 Hz. After some time with those amps, one can not return to listening to any transistor amp - I mean ANY, including the brand name kilobuck models. In tube domain, you have to pay around 10k US$ to get close to the sound quality of ARG. (that statement was written in the pre-Angel era).

SHIPPING: usually the waiting time is around 8 weeks, depending on back-orders and custom options. Delivery via EMS courier with 14 days return policy. Warranty is 5 years for labor and parts excluding tubes. Matched, tested and burned-in  tube sets are available at no profit.
 

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