I just recently purchased a REF 6 at an excellent price. ARC does not come out with a new product every year, obviously, and every company tries to make improvements. Otherwise, a company would make one product, and then never improve on it. It would be the same 20 years ago and 20 years from now. I don't know of any company that does that. Plus, there are always tweaks that one can do to bring an older model closer to a newer model, such as tube rolling, etc. As for the REF 6 vs 6SE, the retail difference is $3K. The upgrade cost is 3K. So if you are driven to have the latest and greatest, you need only pay the differential. That seems fair to me. Plus, ARC products seem to retain Avery good price on the used market if you purchased used, and the demand is always there because it is a quality product. So bottom line: just because ARC comes out with a new and improved design every 4 years or so, does not make it a bad company.
Audio Research Ref 6 SE
Hi , was told today that Audio Research Ref 6 SE is about to get released with first shipment scheduled by the end of December/ early January, if anyone has more information about specs please share , I emailed AR support waiting for response with details but they confirmed about Ref 6 SE release . I was about to purchase one so would be interested to see what got upgraded or how much will current Ref 6 will drop in price ..,