Dev,
No power trip, just my surprised response to being psychologically classified by "Type" on an audio chat forum. That was a first. This has absolutely nothing to do with your disagreement over a subjective opinion of mine.
My last comment was no dig against you. Just trying to bring some light into your characterizations of my motives for sharing what you believe is an overly positive opinion. I did try to highlight my intention for shared levity with a :o). Maybe you missed that. "See you at the med window" meant I was already there....
I have posted a total of one, that's right, one review here in 10 years of fairly regular participation on these and other forums. I did not turn my reply into a formal review nor did I bother to put it in any "review" section to get more views. I simply _responded_ to someone I know who was asking for first hand comparative impressions--something I rarely if ever do. No one yet had, so I obliged. Silly me.
So far, responses include accusations of collusion, your classification of me as the "type" that would be swayed by ego justifications and finally unoear with the economical breakdown of pricing and cost differences being a determining factor. On the one hand unoear is right and so are you, there are a great many factors that play into one persons opinion...but none of these are over-riding factors in most anyone's impressions.
For me, regardless of cost the upgrade was substantial or I would NEVER have bothered to respond and share my opinion. No, I did not pay $8k for the upgrade so feel free to take that into account.
Do I think the upgrade is worth $8k? There are so many factors that play into that equation no one can make that call except the buyer. Based on the large sum of money involved an evaluation in your own home is of course---mandatory.
The Ref 3 is a great pre-amp and had I not heard the 5 I would still be enjoying the 3. By any measure, in _my system_ the differences between the two were obvious and repeatable in the areas I mentioned. These were not audiophile tweaky differences, they were demonstrable. And no, my shared impressions were not grossly altered by ego, insider or psychological variables. I was simply answering Baby Bear's question in a straightforward way.
Obviously and in all cases, ymmv.
