Audio Research Ref 5 preamp

I was contacted by someone who saw this thread whom actually in the past bought amps from me and just happens this person bought a Ref5 which I'm told by him is well broken-in and was nice enough to lend to me so it has been in my system since late yesterday, thank you!

I have not had much time to listen as of yet (aprox 3 hours) but here are some of my initial thoughts so far.

I will say that there are differences, what I did notice after listening to a few pcs of music that I'm familiar with is I heard immediately lower floor noise, blacker back ground and we all know what that does, micro and micro-dynamics have improved which is nice, transients seem to be quicker also, midrange difference are more pronounced, with a bottom end I prefer which appears cleaner and lower allowing you hear and feel the actual bass notes specially on stand up bass it's allot better. I also noticed putting your hand over top of the unit which in my set-up is siting between shelves and appears not to throw off as much heat which really wasn't all that much with the Ref3 or an issue any ways but just a note of what I'm noticing. Most likely because of how the layout of tubes are now even though the actual tubes and number of tubes have not changed, just spaced out do to the board configuration being different but I'm sure this will assist in providing a longer life span.

These are my own opinions and in my own set-up.

I will have the pre for the weekend so I will no more, that being said back to listening and I'll report later of my over all findings.

Well Dev, this is a most interesting development indeed. For many of us who have been listening and participating in this thread with the attendant emotional fluctuations, re-evaluated cost/enjoyment ratios and personal reflections on what it all means anyway, now are no doubt quietly and patiently waiting for the latest report. Well, I am anyway :)

I would not mind an audition as well. I'll pay shipping both ways and pay 100.00 for letting me listen to the REF 5.

Dev, you just wrote it much better than me! But I got a similar improvement in my ARC system CD8 + Ref5 moving it to a Finite Element Pagode Master Reference rack.
This rack is unhappily very expensive, but was one improvement I could hear! Curiously, at that time I also owned a Dartzeel preamp that was much less sensitive to placing.

Micro, what was the change contributed by the ref5 before you moved to a new rack? I wonder if the rack then should be mated to the the REF5 to further improve it?