What's a contender to an Audio Reference 5 SE?

Oregonpapa, your second paragraph directly above puts it perfectly!

J. Gordon Holt's first priority in music reproduction was lack of "vowel" colorations, followed by degree of transparency (concepts borrowed from photography---vowel colorations equating to inaccurate color temperature, and transparency to a high-resolution camera lens). Harry Pearson greatly valued the ability to create a three-dimensional image of an instrument, a voice, or an orchestra on a stage. Art Dudley values none of those nearly as highly as a system's ability to provide the forward momentum of music, it's "temporal" characteristic, feeling that Gordon and Harry's concerns relate to a static object, ignoring the inherent fluid nature of music, it's most important characteristic. Lots of audiophiles crave maximum low-level detail, it seems.

I can't fault any of them! But mine is "immediacy" and lightning fast micro-dynamics, the quality I find most lacking in music reproduced. Like everyone says, you can tell music is live from a block away from a stage, no matter the absence of imaging, or the amount of coloration from the live sound reinforcement system. I look for gear that does THAT the best, like the direct-to-disc LP, electrostatic loudspeakers (or horns, but they are just SO colored!), and the Decca/London phono cartridge. All of those have severe limitations and failings of their own, but you STILL can't have it all, no matter how much you spend. To each his own!

To go back to the original question, I must say I do like the ARC Ref 5SE, but not the price. I believe ARC do better Power than Pre Amps, just my view. The Ref 75SE I use, is remarkably good.

Some excellent suggestions re alternative Pre Amps, one I haven't seen is the Modwright 36.5, which I use with the Ref 75 now. I think it is clearly better than the ARC Ref 3 and the 2 box version of the 36.5 is definitely better than the single chassis 36.5 I have. I haven't heard them side by side, but I think the 2 box Modwright will be better than the 5SE and a good bit cheaper, plus the company is great to deal with.

Oregonpapa,

The last 2 years Randy used the Vandersteens amps. I think they were designed around their statement speakers.

Bo1972,

If what you say is true does that mean Mcintosh is also using cheaper parts. They are both owned by the same company.

There are many these days. It's a sad thing. It is in different price ranges.

The thing I don't like is that they use their name from the past. I can name a lot more. These days the words honesty and respect are hard to find in the world of audio.

The focus is only based on money and personal benefit. In Munic during the higend show we saw how worse the level of highend is these days.

And in the mid level it ain't different. It will influence the future of audio a lot. I think many people are not aware of it now. At the end they will, and then it is too late.

They need to focus more on the youth, the quality does not affect them. And you can't blame them.

In 5-10 years the world of audio will be a lot different than today.