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. 

I tend to go with the 'save a little more and stretch for the 5se' advice.

statman...If you haven't already? I would highly  recommend replacing the  7amp Slo Blo with an Synergistic Red, and the Sovtek 6550 with an NOS or 100%er GE 6550, IMHO the Sovtek sounds hard, glassy and 2 dimensional *In comparison*

Out of curiosity, why have you discounted the VTL?  They make some outstanding line stages.

tushima1

what is a 100% ge ?

Tsushima1,

SR doesn't make a 7 amp slow blo in the red version. The closest they make is an 8 amp.