Rowland versus ARC

roxy1927 can you give us some more details of your setup? Also have you tried moving your speakers around?

I have a Jeff Rowland Corus preamp and I'm looking to replace it with something below 20K. I thought about ARC, but haven't had the chance to compare them. I hear a lot of people say, Rowland makes better amplifiers than preamps. Can anyone recommend an ARC preamp to listen to?

Aeris direct to amp pretty stunning. I don't want to start an ARC flame but I've been to JRDG's place of business and strongly believe that he puts vastly more of everything into his products than ARC. His build quality is second to none with pride of ownership very high. 
That said I am very familiar with his gear and the Corus was not as transparent or exciting as the Aeris direct. What pre would work I can not say. I do think you'd have to try ARC. i'm sure it sounds very good.
My beef was that the Ref 3 that I once owned was basically an empty box. Regardless of sound quality the product was built to a price point without unique craftmanship. i think it not unreasonable to expect superb aesthetics given the price of high end gear. The argument that the box is pedestrian in order to enhance the insides is total BS. Audiophiles deserve both. However just an opinion from a very long term high end guy.

ricred1, My friend owns the Audio Research L28 line stage preamp and likes it very much.   Please see:

http://www.audioresearch.com/en-us/products/preamplifiers/ls28

I have no experience with Jeff Rowland or Audio Research.  If possible, I suggest you demo the ARC L28 preamp in your system and see how it sounds compared to the Rowland.    Based on what I have read, I probably would stay with the Jeff Rowland equipment but you need to make this decision based on what you hear.