ARC REF 3 or MBL 5011 - what is better buy?


Hello, I have the opportunity to buy MBL 5011 and ARC REF 3 for a great price. I cannot demo or audition them so I would like to get the opinion of the people who have/had/tried them in their systems. My listening preferences are jazz, classical (orchestra, chamber or solo piano) music. The rest o my system:

Esoteric x-3se cdp
Plinius sb301 amp
Egglestone Andra II speakers
Stealth Metacarbon Ics (RCA)
Stealth Dream Petite (bi-wired) speaker cables

Any advice is highly appreciated. Please do not bother with recommendations to demo/audition them because it is out of the possibility.
denon1

Showing 1 response by dev

I use to own the Andra 2's and these are great speakers, I also used Stealth product within that set-up. Indra, Dream SC and PC's and really worked well them. Amps I had McIntosh 501's and then Pass X600.5's all using the Stealth product and all with a Ref3 pre. I currently still have all of the Stealth product and use MBL 101E speakers and still have the Ref3 pre. If I still owned the Andra's I would have liked to have tried the Lamm product. Ref3 and Lamm are suppose to be a really nice match and many use this combo. I have heard Plinus and I preferred the others connected with the Ref3

In the end it's your choice but if it was mine, I would get the Ref3 pre and look at amp change if not now down the road but make sure you do not rest your opinion when paired up with the Plinus.