Audio research REF 5 SE / REF 40th Ann compared ?

Let's start with economics and forget the diminishing returns. There's a mint Ref 40 on A'gon for $11.9K and a 5SE for $10.5K. That Ref 40 is $10K less than I paid on a discounted basis less than 1 year ago. I haven't heard the 5SE, but the Ref 40 sounds amazing, it's got a whole lot of extra build quality than the 5SE and it will sound like it. Sell the kids, mortgage the house, take the wife out to dinner and promise her anything. Buy it if you can come close to affording it in the next 3 years. You'll own it forever and won't get a better deal than that in the next 3 years. Seller is giving it away. Wait till you hear it!

That's cos ARC is about the release the Reference 10 :) which is a 2 box version like the Anniversary.

REF 10 - $30K. Valin to review soon.

I'd still like to have the original question answered...

Not too sure if you have read this review. Although this review concentrates on the Ref 10 - it would appear this particular reviewer has heard the Ref5SE, the 40th Anniversay & the Ref 10. In a paragraph in this review he talks about just how close the Ref5SE is to the 40th Anniversary model that he understands why a "new" Reference model would be sought after - which was to become the Ref10 model.

http://www.celestialsounds.co.za/the-reference-10-short-review/

It makes one wonder - given that the Ref5SE came out AFTER the 40th Anniversary model whether or not the Ref5SE is just a one box version of the 40th? From the reviews I have read - they read like the 5SE and 40th are very similar but then there is a bit of a leap in SQ to the Ref10 - that is to say the 40th Anniversary and Ref5SE are more alike than the 40th Anniversary and Ref10 are.