Has anyone compared the ARC REF 3 and 3se phono stage?
 

I haven’t seen much yet on reviews. Since they did the same kind of internal part upgrades as on the REF 6SE, it should be significant given where it is in the signal chain. All my other stuff is up to date... hard not to wonder if I should upgrade.

I am also sitting on the fence too on this!

The 3SE was not a major sonic upgrade over my 2SE. This was in contrast to the 6SE from the 5SE which was a major, easily discernible, improvement in sound stage size, depth, instrument timbre, and clarity. To be fair the 3SE was added with the 6SE in place, so I did not do the “proper” experiment of adding the 3SE into the 5SE chain first.

Thanks for your comment. It makes sense the way you did it so you could detect the increment the 3se alone had on the system. How many hours did you have on your 6SE at the time? If the 6SE was broken in, that would be a great test. Although the breakin time on the 3se can make it difficult.

The 6SE had about 250 hours. Interestingly the 6SE sounded quite excellent out of the box. The 5SE took about 100-150 hours to bloom and kept getting better up to 500 hours. I believe I read somewhere this was related to the capacitors.

I upgraded my Ref 5SE to 6SE recently and for me it took 150 hours to open up from sounding good but very uninspired to magical and engaging. Around 125 it flipped to not good and back to good a few times. Then over 200 continued slowly improving. This was pretty much like the 5SE if I remember correctly... my memory is pretty iffy these days.

I recently found out the REf 3 Phonostage and REF 6/se all use the same tube set and so are interchangeable (this was really good as a tube went out). Upon really looking at the inside, I realize the similarity of design of the phono stage and preamp. The improvements between the integer and SE models are upgrades in components and maybe wiring which resulted in a big difference in sound on the Preamp... I keep thinking it should have had as big a difference on the PS. Maybe at some point I will just do it and find out how I react.

I just hooked up a REF6SE and a REF3SE (previously had the non SE versions.) The 6SE has 69 hours on it and the 3SE has about 10. It is hard to remember exactly Bea use I can’t do the nonSE and SE versions side by side, but they both sound more open, detailed, and musical. I especially notice the difference between the 3 and 3SE. (The 6SE feeds into a pair of older 250SEs.) They all sound so really incredible together... I expect to have them around for a long time.

Thanks. Yeah, that is always the way. My upgrades have a tendency to be overlapping and confounding. I will say there is a huge difference in the 100 - 200 hour range for most contemporary ARC gear. My Ref160s amp has really noticeably improved over the last few days... and it is in the 300 hour range. I went from 5SE to 6SE. I have had my REF3 for a while.