Audio Research Ref 5 preamp

>how the heck can these guys justify charging more then the
>Ref3 list price when it's less work etc.

Just consider that the usd/euro rate is less than .70 today.

I owned a Ref3 and now own a Ref5. It was a mystery for me how ARC could sell the Ref3 for 10000 usd - other preamps in this price did not have the build quality of the Ref3.
Looking at current used prices of the Ref3 at audiogon it is now definitively a true audiophile bargain !

I wish I could say that the improvements of the Ref5 are slight versus the Ref3, but IMHO they are not.
The Ref 5 has lower noise and higher resolution, but also handles dynamics in a more musical way.
I have measured the noise and distortion spectrum of the Ref5 and both broadband noise and mains harmonics are really lower than those of the Ref3.

Dev, you just wrote it much better than me! But I got a similar improvement in my ARC system CD8 + Ref5 moving it to a Finite Element Pagode Master Reference rack.
This rack is unhappily very expensive, but was one improvement I could hear! Curiously, at that time I also owned a Dartzeel preamp that was much less sensitive to placing.

I bought the Pagode rack some years ago when I still had the Ref3 and CD7. I had an old Target that was solid and had a special decoupled upper shelf for the turntable that I used for the CD7, but I was astonished with difference when I moved the system - everything become more solid and bass become quicker, voices were more defined and articulate, becoming more dramatic. After a few months I returned to the old rack to try another system in the Pagode and it was a big step back - some parts of the music seemed blurred.

Do you know which cables were being used with these ARC systems?