Johnsonwu,
the key words are "as long as it's done right".
I cannot check in any way if it's done right at some thounsands km from the seller; and if the seller says he did not modifiy anything and I just 'caught' him, he may lie on many other things, maybe not so easy to see...
Moreover, I'd like to know how the original ARC design sounds; then I may even want to improve or change something in time, but firse I need to know the starting point.
Last, I don't have the chance of listening to the LS15 (neither stock nor modded) before buying, so I may not like it: I don't know how it works in USA, but in that case in Italy it would be very, very, very difficult to resell a modded object. I should almost give it away for free (well, ok, it's an hyperbole, but I guess you got it).
That's why I'm looking for an original preamp. :)