REF3 with VS115

ARC has bass to begin with. Their REF tubed stuff does bass like best of solid state, or even better.

Mitch, did you notice it with REF3? You may not have because you owned REF1 and REF2. All of these had crazy bass. It's just that with every generation of REF preamps it improved, right? Bass with REF3 should be faster and more detailed than it was on previous REF models. But it will still be BIG.

I had REF1 and it had bass that would punch you in your chest. Try listening to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture on telarc with REF3....but watch out for those digital cannons!

In my system, the REF 3 and 115 seem to do bass just right, certainly not overblown. My speakers, Dali MS5's, work well with this amplification, though they certainly need a large room. In a smaller space, I suppose the bass might be a bit overwhelming which, again, is more a function of the speakers than the preamp/amp combo.

Audphile1...yeah all of the Ref preamps had bass in spades, so the Ref3 fell right in line with its predecessors in that regard....I really loved my Ref2 mk2 and it was an outstanding preamp...I was shocked by how much better the Ref3 is, I didn't think it was possible to improve upon the ref2 mk2 so much.

I think I'm talking myself into purchasing a pair of Audio Research tube amps....I've always been a solid state amp guy.