Audio Research Reference 6 Preamp Review

I think ARC is doing more than upgrading capacitors.  I loved my ARC 40th and switched to the Ref. 10.  More than an icremental improvement: attact, bass, extension, mids, depth and width of sound stage, etc.  Takes more than a capacitor tweek to deliver that.  Don't get me wrong. The earlier ARC stuff is great.  I just find the newer stuff alot better and so it should be with technolgy and if its going to go head-to-head with the top three, including Constellation.

TY-elem79.

Which model- Ref6, Ref10 or $40th costs the most retail?

In ascending order

• Ref 6 $14K
• 40th Anniversary $25K (in 2010)
• Ref 10 $30K

Both the Ref 6 and 10 are current models, the 40th (which I own) was a limited edition

You know what's odd, looking at the DAC 8, which ARC claimed took 500 hours to break in, the caps were WIMA cheapies. Nothing like the big exotics you'd expect to take that long.