Mark Levinson 32 or Audio Research Reference 3

Can't say about Harmon in general , but Levinson's customer service is back to normal , very good the last year or so , you can call them direct with any and all problems or questions .

The ML 32 is an excellent pre-amp and has an excellent build quality. What I beleive is that it really comes down to is do you like the Levinson sound? For me, as much as I dreamed about owning levinson gear in the past, when it came to how good does it sound to me, it wasn't my top choice. To put it another way, there was no soul to the sound!

Why aren't you considering the REF 5 instead of the REF 3? It seems the REF 5 should be on par from a price standpoint to the ML 32nd and a big step up from the REF 3?

As an alternative to the 32 (which I've heard), I would suggest the 326s. The 326s shares the same build quality and overall transparency of the 32, but to my ear is more neutral top to bottom.

As always, it comes down to system matching as I've had the Ref5 in my system and much preferred what I heard coming from the 326s. The Ref5 sounded a tad warm and lacked the overall ease and bass control of the 326 when feeding my MC501's. And although the Ref5 did have a bit more presence through the mids, the 326s gives up nothing in terms of detail, dimensionality and overall coherence.

Regardless, the Ref5 is a worthy audition and without a doubt will be a better match on some systems. It all comes down to personal taste.

Happy Listening.