Has anyone heard the Ref 3?


Just curious if anyone has had the opportunity to copare Audio Research's new Ref 3 preamp with the older Ref 1 or Ref 2 or even LS 25 Mk II.
kinsekd
Ethann

I might ask you--how do you know it wasn't your L2 that was colored and the Ref 3 wasn't?
Well all this is subjective but one test I did was run my Lamm phono stage directly to my Lamm amp to hear what the L2 was doing to the sound. From what I can tell, the L2 was quite neutral.
we should have another a/b test then to give it a second chance.

You attributed the lack of performance that day to the type of cabling used?
One XLR was bad causing one channel to be muffled and muted. For a long time, I could not understand why my system imaged poorly. One day I played a mono record and noticed one channel was louder and clearer sounding. After a lengthy troubleshooting process, I discovered it was the bad cable. I dont know if you'll like the L2 more than the Ref 3 but I think you'll have a better impression of it.