Unfortunately I have not had the opportunity of auditioning a C1000, and I am not inclined to comment on products that I do not know. On the other hand, I have auditioned at length the ARC Ref 3, and ended up purchasing it. I compared directly against VAC Sig, VAC Ren II, Aesthetix Callisto Sig with single PS and all NOS tubes. Compared it indirectly also against ARC Ref 2 Mk. 2 and BAT VK51SE. In all these cases I liked better the Ref 3. Out of these the Callisto was perhaps the closest. In more recent times I have auditioned at some length the VTL 6.5 version 2 which I enjoyed immensely and the Rowland Concerto pre, which I also loved. Unfortunately I have not been lucky enough to compare these last two with Ref 3 during my selection process.
You can read some of my selection criteria and detailed findings at:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1123254379&openusid&zzGuidocorona&4&5#Guidocorona
You can read some of my selection criteria and detailed findings at:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1123254379&openusid&zzGuidocorona&4&5#Guidocorona