Audio Research Ref 5 and Krell amps

I got my Christmas gift a few day early. Yes, my ARC REF 5SE had finally arrived. It has only a few hours but it sounds fantastic. It has all the advantages of SS - deep bass, extended highs and very low background noise but it also has great mids/vocals and deep soundstage of tubes.

I have compared it to a borrowed Ayre KXR preamp and to my surprise, I preferred the REF 5. That is saying a lot considering how good the KXR is. The REF 5 will sound even better as it accumulates more hours.

Well Merry Christmas to you Sfstereo! Wait until you have ~650 hours on it, that seems to be where it fully settles in and then the Ref 5 sounds amazing!

Ref 5 SE?

Ritmo,

The Ref5SE is a Ref 5 with power supply upgrades using parts from the 40th Anniverasy preamp. There are also a few cosmetic changes.

Sfstereo, where can I learn more about the Ref 5 SE. This is the first I heard about it. Is the upgrade done by ARC??