The Audio Research Reference 10 is here $30k

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.

I hate to break this to yall, there are some purchase audio components NOT just for the sound. Yep, it's TRUE. I know many simply NEEDS the status of ownership and equates the latest and most expensive to the best.

Companies llke ARC, VAC ... are opportunistic to capitalize on this behavior. As long as there are demand, they will supply them with the products and LAUGHING all the way to the bank.

I'm as guilty as most falling in this trap and working building a system at a REASONABLE (to me) price. Cables are easy but the rest have been a CHALLENGE.

"...we received hundreds of requests to keep [Reference Anniversary] in the lineup, but that would not have been fair to original owners."
Really? So you decided to remake another RA using "better" parts and claim it to be "clearly better". Yes ARC, you really have been "fair" to the original owners of RA.

Companies like these are just taking advantage of their loyal customers, coming up with one "reference" after another to make a profit at their customers expense. If this is their business practice, I rather not partake in their products.

I concur with Dracule 1, if they really wanted to be fair an Anniversary SE, with the upgrade available to the original owners, would be the way to go. Doing what they've done will depreciate the Anniverary which is hard to quantify as fair.

While ARC can advance the SOTA, as they see it, at whatever cost the market will bear, unless you're ultra rich and don't worry about bang for the buck, buying a new REF 10 at 30K is insane. In 12-18 months you'll take a 10K depreciation hit. Ultra expensive gear takes a really big hit, dollar and percentage wise. Look at used Wilson speakers.

To be completely honest, I'm actually happy there are people in this hobby with the ears to appreciate the difference, coupled with the means to buy ultra expensive gear. It allows me to plod along with my LS27 until I can pick up a Ref 10 or Anniversary once they've fully depreciated.

I owned an SP11mk2 years ago. I bought it new, at a good price, owned it for five years and only lost about $1000 when I sold it. The true ownership cost, purchase price verses used price, of SOTA today is vastly more painful.