Audio Research Ref 6 SE

So, ... has anyone had a chance to compare the Ref 6 with the SE version.  Lots of crabbing above, but has anyone had a listen yet.

I am on the SE upgrade list.  Hoping to get my Ref 6 in late this month.

Thanks

BIF     

I picked up my new Ref 6 SE on Friday and after 50 hours it is starting to break in nicely, and I look forward to full break in after the advised 500 or so hours. I had a Ref 6 to demo about three months ago, so notwithstanding aural memory which can be short, the SE version comes across as having all the known great attributes of the older version while sounding more detailed, maybe a lot more detailed, plus cleaner with no veil whatsoever. All the music comes through in a most pleasing natural way. The tiniest nuances at the back of the orchestra come to light. To my ears, this is an absolutely spectacular preamp, definitely the best I've heard, and I'm saying that as I'm hearing the lower octaves start to flesh out more as the break in continues. I don't even want to mention the other brands I've had while raving about this one. I think ARC is delivering on what they've promised, in that the design and parts quality is so good now that we can really hear the magic of the all tube single gain stage. For perspective, I should mention some other parts of my system, which are important because they are particularly well matched to this preamp in terms of resolving power and being time and phase accurate, and not having global feedback just like the preamp: Vandersteen 5A Carbon speakers and M5-HPA amps, Audioquest William Tell Silver biwire cables, 3 feet long, and Audioquest Water balanced IC. In my opinion, the Ref 6 SE, while being expensive, is justified. I can't imagine what could be better.

A brief comment about my REF6, now upgraded to REF6SE preamp.  I wish it was a simple evaluation, but I have moved twice since I packed up the unit in January and sent it to ARC, and November when I unpacked and started setting up the system in a new location.  For the last months it has been impossible to tell if the upgrade had made much improvement, since the room is so different.  However, on Friday night, I came to realize that the REF6SE is a higher resolving preamp.  I started playing with inverting the signal on multiple live music recordings and it was much easier to hear the difference between the two phases and come to a conclusion about which i thought was better.  This was much more subtle with the REF6.  To me it seems a clear indication of an area the SE is better in.

Ref 6 versus Ref 6SE

ARC finally got around to getting me into the Ref 6SE.  I have over 250 hours on the unit as of the date of this posting.  Lots of change during the first 100 hours.   

My impressions: big improvement in SQ.  Imaging much better; more detail, ... hearing things in the source material that I never heard before; bass must tighter.

IMO, the upgrade is worth the price and aggravation of shipping stuff back and forth to/from ARC. 

I just recently purchased a REF 6 at an excellent price.  ARC does not come out with a new product every year, obviously, and every company tries to make improvements.  Otherwise, a company would make one product, and then never improve on it.  It would be the same 20 years ago and 20 years from now.  I don't know of any company that does that. Plus, there are always tweaks that one can do to bring an older model closer to a newer model, such as tube rolling, etc.  As for the REF 6 vs 6SE, the retail difference is $3K.  The upgrade cost is 3K.  So if you are driven to have the latest and greatest, you need only pay the differential.  That seems fair to me.  Plus, ARC products seem to retain Avery good price on the used market if you purchased used, and the demand is always there because it is a quality product.  So bottom line: just because ARC comes out with a new and improved design every 4 years or so, does not make it a bad company.