ARC REF 3 or MBL 5011 - what is better buy?

I owned the Reference 3 for a short while, and I used it with Pass Labs XA-60.5
amplifiers. It was good, but not overwhelming. I preferred the bass control and
balance of a Lamm L2 Reference with the Pass Labs amps, and I subsequently
sold the Ref 3.

Of course, this may have absolutely no bearing on the Ref 3's performance with
your Plinius amp, so my apologies in advance.

I suspect the Reference 3 is much easier to resell than the MBL, so you might
start with a Reference 3 from this standpoint alone.

I think I need to add more info to my issue/situation. Currently I have Antique Sound Lab Flora (6sn7 tube based) pre-amp. It is a good pre-amp for the money. When playing CDs with small group of instruments (jazz) it produces great soundstage, good imaging, natural timbers. But when playing CD with the large orchestra music, the soundstage remains good , but I strongly feel that all presentation is loosing crispiness, transparency, even so the soundstage remain large. The impression is that somebody put curtains on my speakers. I think this is attributes to the ASL Flora in my system, so that is why I am looking to change/upgrade the pre-amp and ARC REF3 or MBL 5011 are the good candidates. Again, because the possibility of demo is non-existent, I would like to get as much opinions/suggestions as possible.

You do not specify but if you have not upgrded to Mundorf caps and NOS tun=bes in your Flora then you have not heard it at it's best.
It still may not get the job done for you but then again it may...If you have already done these things....never mind my post :-)

Unless I missed it, it seems that nobody even considered that the MBL is solid state while the REF 3 is a tubed preamp. I personally love the sound of tube preamps, but eventually you will have to replace the tubes which can hit the $1,000 range for excellent quality tubes. Vacuum tube equipment is a whole other universe which eventually will lead you down the road of tube rolling, etc. etc. You need to consider whether you want to walk down that road.

10-21-08: Cyclonicman
...eventually you will have to replace the tubes which can hit the $1,000 range
for excellent quality tubes.

The Reference 3 uses five 6H30P tubes and one 6550C tube. Five 6H30P tubes
cost $150, and one 6550C tube costs $80...for a total of $230.

There are more expensive versions of these tube types available, but reading
these forums reveals that the results are mixed insofar as using the more
expensive NOS tubes produces marginal improvement, if any. Many users
believe using the less expensive tubes supplied, and recommended, by ARC is
best.

So, it seems that with the ARC Ref 3, one need not be too concerned with the
cost of re-tubing the preamp.