What is Audio Researches best preamp period


Tube or solid state from the oldest to the newest ref ser ,what is the best one they made or make.
bbaxley2
Well I am going to disagree with all of you.

I have owned a lot of ARC gear over the years including the Ref 600 Mk lll mono amps which I used with the Ref 2 Mk 2 preamp. I never thought they could ever make a better preamp. Well they did and I own it. It is their new Reference 3 whch IMO is simply the best preamp I have ever heard. It is simply magical in my system. Recently ARC did a rolling line change on the Ref 3 where they added 4 bypass caps and changed the output tube back to the 6550C. This added a more distinct bottom end to the sound and tightened up the upper end

Here are some link to photos of my Ref 3 as well as my system

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vaslt&1049587927&read&3&4&

http://homepage.mac.com/imacdoyou86/PhotoAlbum52.html
Oneobgyn:

No one was claiming that the LS5 MKII or the LS25 MK1 were the best ARC preamps. We were making recomendations based on affordability. $10,000 for a preamp is not cheap.

I can assure you that many posters on this thread are already aware of the REF3.
To Oneobgyn's defense....... He was only answering the poster's original question that so many of you have not......

The original question is: WHAT IS AUDIO RESEARCH'S BEST PREAMP PERIOD. I don't believe the original poster mentioned a price range...........

As a reminder, the posting says AUDIO RESEARCH........
I was merely answering the question asked at the start of the thread. The Ref3 BTW has the same MSRP as the Ref 2 Mk ll which many on this thread really liked.
boy its hard for members to stay on track,so far a have gathered,ls25 mk1, ls5 mk1, ref 2 mk1,should be in line to what im going to do research,noone talked much about ref 1 preamp,can i get some feed back one it?