Best preamp for my system.

Bullot, I have owned and lived with both the VTL Ref7.5 and ARC Ref3 in succession of 3yrs+ each ('01-'08). Although found them to be good satisfactory pre-amps, they are simply not in the same league to that of FMA 245. In the three separate different instances and set-ups which I know of, owners traded their Ref3 within minutes of a side-by-side comparisons (four including me).

Opinions and reviews aside, you owe it to yourself to find means and have a first hand experience to compare them directly yourself--ARC Ref3 vs MBL 6010D vs FM 245--best in your own system prior to any decision. Bad news is that, for the price--they don't even have a remote! ;)

Ok, VTL.........can't get past the looks.
Halcro......can't get past the looks.
FMA.....to much cash, unless a used one comes on the market.
MBL 6010D:This seems to be my best option right now! There are used ones on here occasionally for a decent price.
Burmester 011: Very intrigued! ANYONE EVER AUDITION THE BURMESTER??

consider a conrad johnson premier 3 or pv 5.

You should give the Burmester 077 a listen. An incredible preamp!

UPDATE: Well I did some auditioning and ended up buying a Nagra PLL preamp. It blew me away. It is better than my Levinson 380S in every way. I could not audition everything I was interested in, due to local availability, however over the years I have compared lots to my Levinson 380S and always the ML came out on top for me. The detail on the Nagra is in a different league from my Levinson, as well the sound staging and reality of the performance for me is a big step closer to being there. The Nagra also was for me heads and shoulder better than the MBL 5011. I was unfortunately unable to listen to a MBL 6010D. I also thought the Nagra was much more detailed than the Krell stuff I listened to. I really didn't want to buy the Nagra, because I wanted Home Theatre pass-through for convenience, and also wanted two sets of balance ins and outs, which the Nagra does not have!! I am also not crazy about the side inputs and outputs on the Nagra........I keep my interconnects short due to cost, and am now probably going to have to purchase a longer set! However.........I just could not deny the sound and performance of this preamp. So much so, that all the other "wants" just became secondary to the music. I am hearing so much more music on every CD I play, that I look forward to re-hearing every song on my favourite playlist. Occassionally I'm shocked at how much I never heard before on CD's I've played for years. One other thing that stands out for me is how everything is held together at higher volumes. It doesn't matter whether playing low volume or higher volumes, things all stay the same, only louder. I could never really understand what some people were saying when they would comment on this, until now, and I realize how thin my Levinson got when the volume was turned up.

Thanks to everyone who input to this thread.