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

@minorl I wish it were as simple as "listen for yourself".  For some of us that is simply not possible.  There is no place to do that, and certainly not in my own space with my own gear.  That's why we wade through all of this and try to make the best decision we can before we vote with our $.

Smoke, Mirrors and Evasion!!!

I find ARC tubes to be not quite as transparent as the best ss, but almost always sounding more like live music to me. I call it the breath of life. That's what makes one a tube vs ss fan. I can, of course, understand the ss point of view. Neither view is the "right" one. One chocolate, the other vanilla.

Ok, at the risk of waking up "you know who" I want to tell you where I'm at now with my thinking and see what you more knowledgeable people have to say.

1) Right, wrong or indifferent I do think I'm set on trying a tube preamp with my solid state Plinius SA-Reference.amp.  So we can stop discussing solid state amps for now.

2) When I asked for "contenders" to the ARC Ref 5SE I should have been more clear that I meant "somewhere in the similar price range".  While I'm sure some of the pieces suggested are just phenomenal, some of them are 2-3 times the price range indicated.

3) That being said and all other things being equal (same room, same other gear, same cables, etc.) which of the following 3 choices do you think is going to throw the widest, deepest, tallest sound stage and provide the most distinctive image?
ARC Reference 5SE
Allnic L-3000 Mk 2
VAC Renaissance Mk3

Thank you for participating.

Tsushima1 sez ...

"Does your frame of reference extend to ARC Ref40 or Ref10?"

Exactly! The closest I've heard to real organic music from a stereo system was in the Optimal Enchantment room at the Newport show three years ago. Randy was using all of the very best gear ARC offers including the phono stage. It was amazing ... and I almost took out a second mortgage on the house. The last two years, they used amps from a different Mfg and in my opinion, the magic was gone.

One thing to keep in mind is the fact that no matter how much we spend on equipment, or what our biases are, we are trying to reproduce music through electronic devices. In all cases, we are fooling ourselves. So ... we have to try to try to select the equipment that "fools" us the best. A lot of it is subjective and a matter of taste. My "right" doesn't necessarily make your "right" wrong ... and visa versa.