What is Audio Researches best preamp period

Again, for me the answer is very simple..hands down the Ref3 is the best preamp ARC has ever made....period

I will also add my $0.02 that the Ref IMO is probably one of the top 3 preamps available in the market today. In order to stay on topic I won't post what the other 2 are but those interested can send me an e-mail for the answer.

FWIW Marc Mickelson from http://www.soundstage.com will be doing a review on the Ref 3 in the next several months

BTW, for those interested here is a great link put up over the years by Manfred Persson in Texas on the history of all of the ARC products with full description.

Manfred is often the one to reveal upcoming ARC gear before anyone else knows about it as he did with the Ref 610T, the Ref3, Ref210T.

I was the one who told him about the new CD7 which he just put up

http://www.arcdb.ws/

Oneobgyn;

For the record, I have auditioned the REF3. It is indeed special: resolution, bloom, soundstaging, control and musicality in spades.

LS 5mk2, ref. mod by Gnsc, imho. I preferred it to a Ref 2mk2 by a wide margin, in my set-up. Never heard Ref 3. My second pre, Supratek Cortese, doesn't sound "better"(?), just a bit different.

Sandro

Sandro

you are onto what I call the great mystique in audiophilia. Whenever I audition a new piece of gear and am taken by its sound, I always stop and ask myself whether what I heard sounded better or did it just sound different. If only the latter, I do not buy it.