New phono preamp or tonearm?

I recently upgraded my phono stage from a rotel and Vandersteen combination to a zyx artisan. The rest of my system is zyx universe lomc (Silver), Maplenoll signature ariadne with modified armwand, Marantz sr9300, Klipschorns. I was expecting a significant improvement from upgrading and was not disappointed. The depth of the sound increased dramatically. It was like the rotel compressed everything especially the midrange and highs. I did not recognize this when i had the rotel until i borrowed a friends tube phonostage. I started to go with a tube, but had the opportunity to pick up the artisan at a good price. I have a/b compared the two and it is not even close. I know a tonearm can also be a good upgrade (reason i modified the stock maplenoll arm) but i did not get nearly the boost as the higher quality phono preamp. Not sure of others experience with the zyx artisan, but i have been very impressed with its performanc compared to the price. I would imagine that there is some synergy with the universe cartridge also since the designer was the same.