Audio Research LS3 owners....

I believe the later model LS3 can be had with a remote. The balanced model sounds like it's uneeded for your case. As far as sound quality it may be very close. The ARC I think should be better but that old Adcom was pretty darn good. The service from ARC is excellent and of course build quality is too. I wouldn't worry about whether or not it had a detachable cord or not as I suspect the engineers made sure the wire was more than large enough to handle the little bit of current a preamp may be called on to draw.

i have the ls3b and ,the remote was a 500 to 600.00,not many out there with it..the power cord on all ls3 were fixed no iec option ,although i put iec on mine.go to arc web and hit links there is a guy who made up all there stuff it has every thing you need to know..i replaced my adcom for this ls3b and,its alot of preamp compared to the old adcom,the direct mode is great for cd playback..if you can get one in the 500 or so range with bal out get it.you dont have to use bal but if you ever need it hey its there..you can always sale it

A friend of mine has the LS3B, which has one balanced input. If you have a source that has a balanced output, I would definitely get the LS3B. To me the balanced input sounds really good, but the unbalanced inputs are just so-so compared to the balanced one.

Sorry, it has been a long time and I forgot and made an incorrect statement.

Like Bbaxley2 said, IT'S THE ONE DIRECT INPUT that, to me anyway, sounds a whole lot better than the other inputs.

That's the big complaint that I have about it. I think all of the inputs should be the same, really good, for that price. A pre-amp with only one really good input is limited unless you're just using or are worried about one source.