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I would definitely go with seperates. $3500 may not buy you as much true hifi new, but you'd be amazed at what you can pick up on the audiogon line used or wholesale

An amp and preamp from Audio Research, Rogue, Sonic Frontiers, Bat, Joule. Tube preamp and solid state amp is a good combo

see the many preamp discussions here

I was in exactly your shoes a few months ago and have upgraded everything except the CD player (mine is an ARCAM). I found the Musical Fidelity A3cr preamp and power amp to be phenomenal for the money. I got both slightly used, but even new the pair is around $3000 (I think Audio Advisor has one demo pre-amp left). THe amp was a Stereophile Recommended "Class A" and the pre-amp was Recommended "Class B." There is a Wes Phillips Review of the pre-amp saying he likes it better than just about anything short of the C-J ART or the top end Levinson's. And while I don't have all those references on hand for easy comparison I listened to alot of units and nothing else in the price-class came even close for me. You could get the set and still have money for a good IC to run between them.

Good Luck.

PS I don't sell the things, I just love mine.

I would stay within the Cary family and buy the AES-3 DJH tube Preamp ($1200 without remote). Excellent preamp both in sound quality and value. Then, with about $2000 left, you can get either a good Solid State or Tube Amp to match it with. For Solid State, I would recommend a Bryston 4B (used) or Odyssey Stratos (new) within your $2000 range. Good solid products with excellent warranties. If you want tube, I would recommend another AES product, the AES-25 DJH. It goes for $2000 (new) and is 35 Watts in Triode. Pure magic. It does not have the overall dynamics of the Solid State (especially on the very low end), but the midrange and high end are velvety smooth.