The difference between the Ref 5se and LS25 mk1 should be significant at first listen. I owned an LS25 mk2 for many years and the difference is huge. When I bought the LS25 mk2 years ago I spent a lot of time comparing it to the mk1. So I am also familiar with that preamp. Thee two preamps should not even be close. If you are familiar with the room, it should be a moot point for the comparison.
The broken buttons concern me. The are right next to each other and it makes me wonder if more was damaged. I assume this happened during shipping. I would send it back to ARC and havethe buttons fixed and it completely checked out.
Why did you feel the need to replace the tubes after only 200 hours? And you know that you can easily reset the counter by pressing the button on the back of the display. So I would not rely on the counter for total hours. New tubes will have a big affect on the sound. But it should still be clear how much better the Ref 5se is.
As with all tube preamps, you need to let it warm up for 15 to 20 minutes before listening. The sound will continue to improve for the next hour or so.
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