Looking to upgrade my preamp, suggestions?


Decided it is time to try out a newer preamp, have upgraded everything else over last couple of months bar this so...
Present pre is an ARC LS2 with gold lion tube and herbies tube damper.
Rest is Esoteric sa-50, bat vk600se and b&w 804d.
Listen exclusively to rock music, old and new
Important to myself, solid bass, vocals and soundstage, a remote might be nice too...lol
Thinking along the lines so far of bat vk32se, a newer ARC like ls17 or 27. Yes all tubes
Suggestions along solid state lines please?
budget is about 3500 max
Prefer to hear from actual owners of preamps suggested for your actual experiences
thank you all in advance 
128x128uberwaltz
when you compared your ARC with the McIntosh C48, did the ARC have fairly new tubes in it?

also, doesn't the C48 have its own DAC?  did you use that or the one in the CD player?


@randy_11
The arc ls2 only has one tube and yes it was fairly new and a big improvement over the old one.
i tried both dig inputs through the cd player and through the c48 but stuck with the c48 as just about every input whether digital, rca or balanced sounded very very similar, whereas there was a noticeable difference on the older arc depending on whether rca or balanced input.
Not saying the c48 is the last word in sound but for me with the convenience of the digital inputs(5 in total) two sets of xlr ins and rca inputs, plus mm and mc phono inputs and a headphone out...and a remote that also controls my mvp851....
well just a lot of convenience factors that were also very hard to ignore there!