Audio Research Reference 5 Preamp

What doe ARC know now that they did not know then to make the Ref 5 a marked improvement of the Ref 3? Is it improved capacitors and resistors or power supplies? A totally different circuit design that was not conceivable then? I would have thought that there best thinking would have gone into the product five years ago, what has changed? Is there really a new state-of-the-art in preamp design, or have the fundamentals been in place for a long time already in terms of circuit design and improvements will come when there are truly better passive parts available. I'm not sure what has changed in five years.

Samuel
I concur with Rob. Thanks for the review, very helpful.

Carey

Samual, I think your posts have been very professional. Thanks.
Terry

Thanks, Sam. You have provided the first "meaty" assessment of the Ref 5, ignore the spoilsports.

Hi, Samuel ...

As long as you've compared the Ref 3 and the Ref 5 with the same power cords, who cares what cords you used? Same-o, Same-o, no?

Thanks for an excellent review. I was considering upgrading my CD-7 to the CD-8 before reading your review. Instead, I'm opting to upgrade the Ref-3 for the Ref-5 instead.