Hi Steve, I'll add list prices in header post. . . but Criterion lists for $18,800, while Capri lists for $2,995 in silver version, and $2,695 for the black version. The Capri phono cards appear to cost $476. There is no internal phono option on Criterion
As you know, Capri replaced my ARC Ref 3. . . I preferred Capri over Ref 3 for most parameters, except for a certain lightness in the bass region. . . while capri's bass is certainly clean, well pitched, and in so many ways more authoritative than Ref 3, never the less it lack a sense of correct 'darkness' that I preferred in Ref 3. This was particularly evident with bowed double bass, where the bass tended to sound a little 'cellish' for lack of a better word. . . Yet, except for that, Capri is truly marvellous.
Criterion shows a clear family resemblance with Capri, but makes you feel that Capri was but a 'promisary note' of greatness to come by comparison.
I seek in my system a combination of coherent frequency extension, with very even but strong harmonic development. I do not seek the famous 'black background', but I want to find a background that feels transparent but is also filled with low level information, from the instruments, the performers, and from the recording venue. I want to hear a stage that is large, deep, and solid, but is also full of life, and not a void. I want to hear instruments that are 'grabbable', alive and bristly, and emotional, but not routinely jarring. . . I want to hear brass cuivre that sounds like cuivre and not intermodulating stridency. . . If Bernstein starts singing in the final bars of the 2nd movement of Dvorak's 9th Symphony, I want to hear that too. . . (yes, apparently he does, discovered it just a couple of weeks ago). I want to hear bass that is deep, pitched, and complex. . . treble that still contains a rich inner structure, and can be lacy or intense depending on the material. I do not want to discover that my system has inherent volume limitations, beyond which I suddenly experience a maddening hardness. I could go on and wax poetic on my wishes. . . the bottom line is that Criterion has delivered on all the above and much more, in a way that I have found to be sonically, musically, and most of all emotionally more enthrolling than any preamplifir I have had in my system. . . or have heard at a show this far.
Will Criterion be in my system forever? Uhrn. . . 'forever' is a very large word, and is in practice not applicable in the context of the incurable audiophrenic mental disorder. Yet, it is also true that at this time Criterion is the one component that is likely to persist the longest, and that is giving me the deepest audiophilic fulfilment.
Guido
