Audio Research?

[cmalak]

Serge...just remember that Jonathan Valin has been the consummate ARC-aholic at TAS. He hasn't reviewed one piece of ARC gear he hasn't liked. Having said that, everything I hear about the REF 3 to REF 5 transition was that it was a nice evolutionary improvement but not eye poppingly so, however, moving from the REF 5 to the 40th Aniiversary Reference Edition pre is supposed to be a head turner. The question becomes are you willing to spend the dollars. I would not buy without listening to the two side by side to make sure that step up makes sense for you.

On your other questions, I am not sure you need the CD8 and the DAC8. I would stick with the DAC8 and I am assuming ripping your music could be done ahead of when the equipment comes in and just use a music server or PC as a music source. I don't know that you need to spend $10K on a CD player in this day and age that does not have digital inputs. You can use an Olive or even a new Logitech Touch that can stream the music wirelessly and supports 24/96 files. Just my 2c worth.

Finally on the Ref 110 vs. 210 again I would listen to both side by side in the same setup with Sophia 3s. From what I understand the Ref 110s have more than enough juice to drive the Sophia 3s (I drive a tougher load in the form of the Thiel 2.4s quite comfortably with mine) however, the difference will be additional dynamic headroom and probably better instrument separation with the monos. Again whether that justifies a doubling of cost is a very personal matter.