Tan,
Sorry it took so long, I did not have my Ref 3 on hand to compare to, just received mine yesterday. For starters looks wise this thing is stunning, I liked the look of the older TVC with the wooden bottom, it was a nice wood color albeit somewhat plain. It was dinged up and only one knob sat right, but it looked nice very different. Well the new TVC is gorgeous, I was just telling Nic this thing is beautiful, the finish is very flat not glossy so it doesn't draw attention to itself. Mine also has a brass top plate which makes it look all the better. Overall I prefer the color of the wood on the new unit, the finish looks better, the top plate is better, the rear makes it look nicer, and internally it is a big step up.
As for sound, I let it burn in for about 10 hours and then did some listening. There are a few things different about this and the older TVC, not directly related to the sound. First there are more steps so each step is smaller, and you no longer have the loud click between steps. One more thing I noticed right away is that the music does not cut out in between steps as the older TVC did. I always found it weird how it did this, but assumed it was the nature of the beast. One more BIG thing is this unit is quiter. By that I mean that playing my Jolida through the older unit there was always some hiss and hum, very little, but noticeable from about a foot away. In contrast playing my Ref 50 (surround pre-amp) through the old unit with 0db attenuation I could hear the hiss and hum lightly from my seat. Now with the new unit there is no hum at all with the Jolida, and a slight hiss that I can only hear if my ear is next to the tweeter. With the Ref 50 at 0db attenuation it is the same thing, but at -4db the noise drops drastically. This happened with the older TVC, but the hum only quited down, not the hiss. Now both do. Overall I am very happy to hear that, as this thing reduces the background noise to nothing when playing CDs, and cuts it back so you have to bee within a foot of the speaker to hear it with DVDs/Games.
As for differences in the units, I'm going to wait to burn in further to report back on this. So far the changes are not drastic, but are noticable. Bass seems to be tighter, the decay seems to happen faster then before. Highs I don't really notice a difference in quality, but there is more quantity. There seems to be more small details that I did not notice before in the highs and mids. I'm talking cymbals decaying, voices echoing, and room cues. Thats the biggest difference I hear right off the bat, there are more micro-details then the previous unit.
I'll report back more once my unit is broken in more, but overall I am loving this unit. It looks much better then the wood bottom TVC, performs a decent margin better, and integrates in my system perfectly.
Jared
