What is Audio Researches best preamp period

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.

I haven't had the pleasure of auditioning the Ref3 in my system, nor would I be able to spring for a $10,000+ preamp
I'd spend the next big chunk on speakers first and a loricraft record cleaner for my vinyl end

But I did audition the LS 25 MK II, and the Ref I and found them lacking to the LS 5 MK II which I still think is the best bargain in the Arc line as far as musicality goes

The Ls 2 MK ii may have been Stereophile top rating at one time but it never blended well in my system. I tube rolled Mullards, Telefunken, Amperex and couldn't tame it. I tried various interconnects to my Arc D200 (solid state) In another sytem it may have worked, and it was the weak link in my system, but once I bought the LS5 it was a herculinian leap and with selling my LS2 for a good price at the time I only shelled out a thousand more

With deference to the above opinions I will still offer that the SP-10 marks the pinnacle of ARCs preamps. It is the last pure ARC design to rectify the power supply with tubes, something now being quasi-revived by various companies such as Asthetix. I don't believe Jadis ever lost the faith in that either. The problem is SO MANY TUBES!. Without the proper complement the magic is easily lost. The SP-10 requires 15 tubes all told but if they're all dialed in the phonostage is incomparable and the line stage almost as seductive. Big "if" however. The SP-10 cured me of tube rolling and convinced me that reliability and liveability have as much to do with "perfection" as sonic absolutes. Unless, of course...