The Audio Research Reference 10 is here $30k

I bought the ph 5 from a dealer when I got back into vinyl and damn if the ph 7 didn't come out within a couple of months - although 4k higher, thanks Bifwynne for reminding me about the ph8 - I had forgotten that one!

Pops, if you can pick up a used PH-7, I think you will be quite happy. I spent serious bucks to move up to the PH-8. I am not convinced the PH-8 is leagues better than the PH-7. I'm not even sure the PH-8 is even better than the PH-7 -- yikes, heresy!

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Hey Bif, your perspective was just the cure for my upgradeitis. Thank you. Funny thing is, I'm sure my system sounds good, and I really enjoy it. But those doggone Audio Research factory product descriptions of their latest and newest Reference offerings always subliminally always make me wonder 'what if'.
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HiFi News in the UK reviewed the unit in the latest March edition. Ken Kessler who reviewed it is an ARC fan and uses a Ref 5. He was pretty enthusiastic and felt it to be the best Pre he has heard. The magazine is as reliable as magazines, with the commercial pressures on them, ever get, bur still $30000.

Nomenclature becomes a problem, just how many reference units can you have, without debasing the term. Perhaps "universe Reference" or "Lord High Executioner Pre amp"

The only AR preamps I've heard and owned were the SP-11 and the LS3. I liked them both, and AR has every right to market and price as they like, but it seems like they are playing some type of Catch-the-new-Best thing, dangling something even better every six to nine months.

Can there really be 21 levels of better (not counting SE additions) in a linestage since my LS3? Does adding an SE option to a Ref 5 really get you 85% to an Anniversary Edition? For something rather basic like a linestage that is basically using the same technology over the last decades, how can there be $20,000 worth of better guts and engineering costs between a Ref3 at (gasp) $10,000 and a Ref10 at $30,000. Feels like a bubble.

Of course, the answer is that they can sell them and people want them, so it's all in ones perspective, passion, level of belief, and tax bracket.