Has anyone heard the Ref 3?

Judy426: "Obviously" you like to put your foot in your mouth. The "uninformed" pot is definitely calling the kettle black. Before posting such ignorance, why don't you ask Oneobgyn about his experiences with the other preamps to which you make reference.

Actually I have heard them. I had the Lamm L2 in my system and even though I own Lamm L 2.1's and figured that there would be an obvious synergy the preamp was cold, dark and sterile. The Ref 3 eclipsed it by miles.

One of my closest friends owns the Callisto in an all Aesthetix system with dual power supplies and a Sirius 3 TT. It is excellent but he told me that he prefers my Ref 3 better.

I briefly heard the Kondo and felt it to be only just OK.

As far as posting absolutes, those comments came not from me but rather from an owner of an extremely high end manufacturer who has had opportunity to listen to every SOTA preamp out there.

I will reiterate, that until you hear the Ref 3, you haven't done your system justice. I must admit that I was dying to own the L2 and it couldn't come close to the Ref3 in my system. Bear in mind it is all about flavors. I prefer the sonic signature of the Ref3. I also owned a Ref 2 Mk ll as well and thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

I find it amusing that Judy426 is accusing someone of "posting absolutes". This is an individual that consistently has made sweeping derogatory statements about virtually all Audio Research products.

Gmorris

You have one hell of a good looking system

Like you I use the Walker SST and now the Extreme SST and amazed at the sonic change in my system. Sorry to be off topic.

Oneobgyn, your poor experience with the L2 was unfortunately my fault. One of the XLRs I brought over and had been using turned out to be faulty causing a significant compromise to the sound. When we listened to your Ref 3, Vahallas were used bypassing this problem. Consequently, I dont think your experience with the L2 was accurate.

A few weeks ago, I had a Ref 3 to compare in my system and to me, the L2 was superior. The Lamm was more natural and transparent with a lower noise floor. I felt like it was more pure while the Ref 3 had a slight agenda. The differences were not drastic, as expected with components at this level, but evident under critical listening.