McIntosh C1000 tube pre vs. ARC Ref 3?

... or Kubala Sosna Emotion IC.

Sparkster...2 great preamps you demo'ed and you did it the right way. Aball is right though everything electronic adds color.

Thank you all for your responses. What about speakers? I have been contemplating a change, but I don't want to lose the transparency I love. Anyone hear the new Virgos or Avantis? Any speaker suggestions with this system would be appreciated. I heard the Vandy 5as at the show and wasn't overly impressed but it is the show.

aball

The 220 replaced a Rowland Synergy 2i. Also very good but the C220 clearly better.

Well as other people said it makes no sense to discuss about the differences if you did not hear them next to each other. I had the Ref3 in my system and also had the Mac C2200. In my systen the C2200 sounded much better than the Ref3. So I guess if the C1000 is better than the Ref3 it will sound better also.

However in my friends place the Ref3 played much better. I all comes down to system matching and integration.

Peter