I know I'll get hate mail for this but sell your prized preamp. ARC stuff, and I owned an ARC pre is very analytical and approached sold state sound, I am not going to suggest something in particular but you want a pre that uses octals. There is more than one guy around who makes these. Get some Cardas gold refs or gold something close, but not their current line. I think you will be surprised. If you get warm sound out of your speakers it may be too much. I went through this myself, without the DAC element. A lot of solid state will flatten the sound but which element it is may be hard to pinpoint.