Audio Research Ref 5 preamp

I would not mind an audition as well. I'll pay shipping both ways and pay 100.00 for letting me listen to the REF 5.

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.

Micro, what was the change contributed by the ref5 before you moved to a new rack? I wonder if the rack then should be mated to the the REF5 to further improve it?

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.

I had the Ref 3 and compared it side by side with the MBL 6010D which I kept and I sold the Ref. When I moved from tube to Spectron power amps, the Ref 3 was not a good match and the MBL was much better. Not a question of the Ref 3 being inferior, but I suspect the impedance made the difference and the MBL was more natural and controlled proving yet again the importance of system synergy in the real world.

While I am very impressed with the 6010, I would like to try the Ref 5, but not with my Spectrons. In the appropriately matched system the Ref preamps are as good as it gets and I am sure the Ref 5 will offer state of the art performance for a 'reasonable' high end price and quality dealer back up. If you like the ARC house sound, which has a definable character, I am not sure I would need to go from a 3 to a 5 as I am sure the changes are incremental.