Levinson 326s or McIntosh C200 ?

You may be suprised. I've heard both but never side by side. The 326 is a very refined, fairly smooth sounding preamp. Polite, as well. I wouldn't call it cold or very analytical, though. Its good all around and should work well with a wide variety of equipment. The Mac may be a little warmer and just a bit less detailed. It will the more dynamic of the 2. Its another good all around choice. Neither would be my absolute first choice, but I think both are great preamps.

Levinson 326 gets my vote. It sounds fantastic and the user interface is the best of just about any component I've ever used. It's dead quite and very resolving. The blackest background I have heard in my system.

It's the one component I have no real desire to upgrade. Pride of ownership is also off the charts.

I agree with Hk_fan. The 326S is a classic, as in one of the top preamps ever, IMHO.

If you don't mind, why these 2 preamps? Was there a reason that you narrowed down your choices to these 2? I'm just curious. Like I said before, I think you can't go wrong with either. One other thing I will add, but you probably know already, is that both units are extremely well made. If you plan on keeping the preamp for a long time, you shouldn't have any type of major issues from a reliability standpoint.