Audio Research Ref. 3, Ref. 5, or the Ref. 5se.

I could not pass up the deal I received on a new inbox Ref 5SE. If you do buy the Ref 3 you will most likely be happy but still have that "what if I had bought  the Ref 5SE" question in the back of your mind. It sounds like in your heart you want to buy the Ref 5SE? It has made a huge improvement in my system. The layers in the soundstaging along with amazing imaging all over the place. Instruments and voices are floating in space. The better the recording the more it flushes out. My unit has started to really give that 3 dimensional stage after 400 hours on it. The bass is very powerful and dynamic yet articulate when defining those instruments both acoustic and electric. I have always wanted a tube preamp and the Ref 5SE is the one. Not really liking the cosmetics of the Ref 6 preamp. 

tsushima1,

Much appreciated on the tube replacement advice. In regards to  the fuse replacment, I'm not going to touch the fuse, I am happy the way it is! No offense, but I am no longer OCD driven and am content with my system within reason. However, I must add I am sort of let down by the Sovtek 6550 tubes that were with the unit upon purchasing. I developed a noise in the right channel attributed to a noisy output stage tube. Not the intermittent burps tubes occasionally develop, this was constant! This only after 150 hours on the unit. I called Audio Research and asked for 2 replacements just in case I had another issue.

 I replaced the right channel tube and was back to happy listening when suddenly around 300 hours the left channel did the same exact thing! I then replaced it with the spare tube. I am glad I asked for two instead of the one that they were going to originally send out. Since replacing the two that were bad, I have not had any other tube noises since then. I have around 480 hours on the unit now.