Check out the Belles tube Preamps. You will forget about the brands mentioned above once you have heard a Belles. One thing that is remarkable about Dave Belles tube designs is that they are dead quiet as a tomb. You will hear no hiss sound coming from the tubes which is a problem with many tube preamps. Hand made in New York. Both his solid state and tube designs are known for their very rich, ultra smooth sonic character with killer bass. Off the radar, doesn't advertise, and has been in business for thirty years. Very strong word of mouth reputation. Has a strong cult following in Asia and Great Britain. His VT-01 and LA-01 tube preamps are true statement pieces. Build quality is much better than ARC. The performance level of these units are typical of tube designs in the $10K to $20K price range.
ARC REF 3 vs ML 326s
Need opinions please. My next preamp will be either the ARC Ref 3 or ML 326s. Heres what i need to inform you, I have the B&W Matrix 800s. I mostly listen to classic rock so alot of the cd recordings/sonics are not to good as you may know. And the B&W 800s reveal this. So im thinking of going with a tube preamp such as the ARC Ref 3 will take the edge off ..What are your opinions of this.