Any ARC GSPre owners here ?

Joe ... Yeah, I guess the Ref 5 SE is getting a bit long in the tooth. Just checked the ARCDB website. The SE version was introduced sometime in late 2011. I recall that I had to wait until early 2013 until ARC was ready to upgrade my Ref 5 ... vendor supply issues as I recall.

Can't speak to the GSPre other than there's a review or two out there. For some reason I recall that the one reviewer said the phono section is essentially a PH-8 shoved into the GSPre chassis. For that kind of money. I'd be thinking about the Ref Phono 2 SE. Also, I don't think there's an onboard DAC, but I may be wrong.

Last comment, I seem to recall the reviewer(s) said that the linestage side of the house was roughly equivalent to the Ref 5 SE. I suggest that you call Kal at ARC. He is pretty straightforward about these kind of things.

Put it to you this way. The GSPre is a pretty expensive piece of kit. If it's a showboat for SE Asian consumption, I'd stick to ARC's top of the line separate source components, particularly the phono stage.

Cheers,

BIF

P.S. - I am an ARC stalwart. Check my system description.

Dittto Bifwynne

Thank you for the thoughts. I am not going to jump until either the next major show or the end of the year.

I have auditioned both at my dealer when I was in search of a new preamp. I thought the Ref 5se was slightly better as did a few of my friends who frequent the shop. In the end I bought a Ref 5se.

Yes, I agree the Ref 5se has been around awhile. But the Ref 5se is still selling well. It is hard to say just what ARC will do. They could eventually just discontinue the Ref SE and not replace it right away. There would still be the Ref 10 and Ref 10 phono in the Reference line. Right now the interest is in the G series with the new integrated.

I for one love the G retro styling.