Reference 10 replacement soon?

[triode12]

Audiogon has three Ref 10 pres advertised for sale right now. All of them seem to be dealer demos.

Is there a replacement in the offing?

[2fastdriving]

I don't think even the dealers know ahead of time.

[Dsholl1]

Don’t want to get shot down but I’ve heard that the Ref 6 gets so close to it it’s hard for dealers to sell them. In Oz they did an Audio Research night at a a dealership, most of the audience preferred the Ref 6 over the 10.

[ariess]

Hard to beat dual mono and separate power supply. I hear the Ref 6 comes close, but people at ARC tell me the Ref 10 is still top dog.

[joeling]

Does the same analogy applies for the phono ref 3 vs phono ref 10 ?

[triode12]

Originally Posted by Dsholl1

Don’t want to get shot down but I’ve heard that the Ref 6 gets so close to it it’s hard for dealers to sell them. In Oz they did an Audio Research night at a a dealership, most of the audience preferred the Ref 6 over the 10.

Which dealership was this at? Was it in Sydney at the Lifestyle store?

[PlanarSpeakerFan]

Originally Posted by Dsholl1

Don’t want to get shot down but I’ve heard that the Ref 6 gets so close to it it’s hard for dealers to sell them. In Oz they did an Audio Research night at a a dealership, most of the audience preferred the Ref 6 over the 10.

I owned the Ref 10 for two years and did a direct comparison in my listening room between the Ref 6 and the Ref 10. In my opinion, they are not close, the Ref 10 is significantly better in every way, transparency, refinement, ease, dynamics, imaging and bass response.

Ken

[gadawg]

Originally Posted by PlanarSpeakerFan

I owned the Ref 10 for two years and did a direct comparison in my listening room between the Ref 6 and the Ref 10. In my opinion, they are not close, the Ref 10 is significantly better in every way, transparency, refinement, ease, dynamics, imaging and bass response.

Ken

Ken ... it makes total sense that the Ref 10 is much better than the Ref 6. My dealer here in Dallas does the same thing though ... in fact they say that the Ref 10 is hyper detailed to a fault and the Ref 6 is much better overall. When the Ref 6 first came out and my local dealer had their Audio Research event to launch it ... one of the guys from Audio Research was there and also said the Ref 10 was now basically beaten by the new Ref 6.

Interesting in that when I was auditioning the new Mark Levinson gear last year and talked to Todd E at their office he basically said the same thing about their new 523 being better than the Ref 52. That said when I compared the 52 directly to the 523 like you I found the 2 box preamp was better in every way. Wonder if this is a case of the team that designed these new pieces being so proud of the new product that they aren't really objective any longer? No doubt both the Ref 6 and the 523 represent excellent value even compared to the higher prices siblings but in absolute terms I agree that the higher price siblings are in fact better. Just a theory ...

George

[Dsholl1]

Yep. It was at Lifestyle Store. I know someone that went to it having in mind to get the Ref10. He ended up sticking with his Ref 6 after the demo.

[joey_v]

I would trust someone who had both at home as a reference point.