Audio Research Reference 6 or Mark Levinson Reference n32

try all Aesthetix or all ARC

but i do have both

the ML is top flight gear, this is probably about preference..

enjoy the music !!!!

You need to hear the Ref 6 with the Ref Phono 3 phono amp. If only I had the money. I have heard this combo on big Maggies and all I can tell you is that you would be hard pressed to do significantly better in this life. The ARC line stages are significantly less tubish than other tube units. It is there but in a more refined fashion. It will be 10 years before you will hear any degradation due to tube wear. The best thing you can due with tubes is forget all about them. Tube rolling is for masochists. 

Haine, 

I find the Reference No. 32 to be a very composed, easy to listen to linestage.  But, like most things solid state, it lacks a little bit of a "spark" of liveliness or vividness that comes with really good tube linestages.  It also tends to not throw as expansive and enveloping a soundstage as some tube gear is capable of delivering.  Whether these tube qualities are realistic or natural, as opposed to a coloration, I don't know, but I do like those qualities.  Still, the Reference No. 32 is a very fine instrument.

Other than the two tube linestages I own, neither widely available, I have not heard any other in my system recently so I can only make rough comments about what is out there.  I've heard really nice systems with Audio Note, Kondo  and Shindo linestages, so these make good candidates, in my opinion.

In the past, I really disliked Audio Research linestages--they sounded thin, harmonically bleached and sterile to me.  But, starting with the Reference 5, they have sounded better.  I haven't heard them in a system I amp very familiar with, so it is just a case of no longer writing that brand off.