What is Audio Researches best preamp period

BTW, for those interested here is a great link put up over the years by Manfred Persson in Texas on the history of all of the ARC products with full description.

Manfred is often the one to reveal upcoming ARC gear before anyone else knows about it as he did with the Ref 610T, the Ref3, Ref210T.

I was the one who told him about the new CD7 which he just put up

http://www.arcdb.ws/

Oneobgyn;

For the record, I have auditioned the REF3. It is indeed special: resolution, bloom, soundstaging, control and musicality in spades.

LS 5mk2, ref. mod by Gnsc, imho. I preferred it to a Ref 2mk2 by a wide margin, in my set-up. Never heard Ref 3. My second pre, Supratek Cortese, doesn't sound "better"(?), just a bit different.

Sandro

Sandro

you are onto what I call the great mystique in audiophilia. Whenever I audition a new piece of gear and am taken by its sound, I always stop and ask myself whether what I heard sounded better or did it just sound different. If only the latter, I do not buy it.

I haven't had the pleasure of auditioning the Ref3 in my system, nor would I be able to spring for a $10,000+ preamp
I'd spend the next big chunk on speakers first and a loricraft record cleaner for my vinyl end

But I did audition the LS 25 MK II, and the Ref I and found them lacking to the LS 5 MK II which I still think is the best bargain in the Arc line as far as musicality goes

The Ls 2 MK ii may have been Stereophile top rating at one time but it never blended well in my system. I tube rolled Mullards, Telefunken, Amperex and couldn't tame it. I tried various interconnects to my Arc D200 (solid state) In another sytem it may have worked, and it was the weak link in my system, but once I bought the LS5 it was a herculinian leap and with selling my LS2 for a good price at the time I only shelled out a thousand more