Reference 3

[Bavarian05]

Originally Posted by C2300MC275

Hi Guys, Just found a ref 5 for good money - can ref 5 be upgraded to SE and how much? Cheers

Yes. 3K last I heard.
The upgrade began at $2500 but has since increased.

[C2300MC275]

Hi guys - ended up getting a ref 3 at great price. Very pleased with the ref 3 / krell 750mcx combo.

[Still-One]

Congratulations. That should be a very nice system you have pulled together.

This was a good thread with many meaningful suggestions.

[cmalak]

Congrats on the Ref 3

[Ritmo]

+3... Congrats!

[audio badger]

Congrats....I've heard nothing but great things about the Ref3. I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

[Alki]

Congrats on the new addition. Please let us know your thoughts after you spend some time with it.

[C2300MC275]

I have spent the last 2 weeks with my ref 3 now.

The ref 3 is truly a lust worthy preamp of yesteryear and makes me smile every time i look at it. The build quality is fantastic tbh and the styling, whilst not for everyone, is in my mind gorgeously retro. Even my wife thinks it is cool!

Anyway - enough of the superficiality and straight for the main course. In my system, which is now fully balanced for analogue and digital, the ref 3 casts an eerily quiet soundstage that I am not accustomed to - i include ss designs there too. Not sure what or how it does this but it is like the silence is organic - like it still has presence. The soundstage with my focal maestros 17feet apart and driven with ease by over 1.5kw of krell old skool muscle amp is cavernous. It has huge depth and width that hitherto has not been achieved in my room. I am really pleased as this was a huge reason for going with the ref 3 and it worked out for me. One thing that people don't necessarily focus on is the level of resolution - I am hearing lots of new information and the placement of this has its own space. One of my fave tests to immediately see how much resolution a pre has is playing known tracks where the mic has reverb - lesser offerings simply don't produce the reverb in the room. The ref 3 produces this more than any other pre - so it passes my test.

What are the downsides? I think that the ref 3 lacks the ultimate in bass slam and wallop that the best ss delivers. It just does not bother me since the positives far outweigh this. The only other thing is that my system takes about an hour to come on song now which is quite a long time - certainly longer than many systems I have owned. It seems to improve until about on for 2 hours pumping out music and then it reaches steady state to quote the pharmacists out there.

My tubes have 1786 hours on them and I wonder whether I should change them or not. I have purchased a backup set already - I heard the 6550 goes first. Any advice on when to change would be appreciated.

Last thing - I replaced my stillpoints ultra 5s with some shun mook ultra diamond resonators that my friend sold to me for a great price. The shun mook gives the ref 3 an even more organic warmth that is welcome in my system. I guess it would depend on your current sound balance but it suited me very well.

All in all, I am so pleased to have finally joined the audio research camp and can't see myself moving away from audio research preamps - they are world class. I can only dream about how the ref 10 sounds, but perhaps I will own one one day.

[MPS]

I would aim at 2500h for 6550 and 4000h for 6h30.
Ref3 does wonderful job with 3d space

[Bobvin]

I enjoyed my Ref3 for several years, and while some might argue this or that brand has more resolution, detail, bass control, etc; the Ref3 does an outstanding job of getting out of the way of the music. While the design is now nearly 15 years old, it is still a great example of a tube pre-amp, offering a wonderful holographic sound field most SS pre's can't match.

I'd change that 6550 power tube at 2000 hours myself, even if there's some life in it. Might change the partner 6H30 in the power circuit at the same time, just 'cause thats how I roll (tubes). I've heard the 6H30's in the audio circuit are supposed to be good for 4000 hours.