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
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