The only AR preamps I've heard and owned were the SP-11 and the LS3. I liked them both, and AR has every right to market and price as they like, but it seems like they are playing some type of Catch-the-new-Best thing, dangling something even better every six to nine months.
Can there really be 21 levels of better (not counting SE additions) in a linestage since my LS3? Does adding an SE option to a Ref 5 really get you 85% to an Anniversary Edition? For something rather basic like a linestage that is basically using the same technology over the last decades, how can there be $20,000 worth of better guts and engineering costs between a Ref3 at (gasp) $10,000 and a Ref10 at $30,000. Feels like a bubble.
Of course, the answer is that they can sell them and people want them, so it's all in ones perspective, passion, level of belief, and tax bracket.
