Audio Research Ref 5 preamp

Actually McIntosh goes up too. However it's all about no compromise quality and for the money ARC is right up at the top.

Agree.. At their price point, Ref.3 in their days was the one to beat, and I believe even more so their Ref.5 now with the said vast improvements made.

Right. ARC is definitely top end and enjoys a healthy pre-owned market also. It seemed to me that the 2K price increase for the Ref5 was probably carefully considered. They would have to establish perception that the unit was indeed superior, but not overprice it. If they chose price same as Ref 3, it might tend to lessen the perception of the Ref3.
Then there are the new ARC owners who no doubt are looking at margins and profit for their investment. A casual look inside the Ref5 might indicate that manufacturing costs are less, i.e., one board instead of multiple, side mounting of other components. To further differentiate they change cosmetics. What is it really worth? Whatever we as listeners are willing to pony up, just like anything else?

It really doesn't matter to me if they are able to build it for less money. What matters to me is;were they able to make a significant improvement, I think they did. Further refining and improving something great must be quite a task for R&D there is a cost here too. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to make improvement tweeks in my own system and wind up making it worse . My hat's off to them on the Ref-5. The 2k increase in price is well worth the benefit.

there 'ya go --- happy listening!