I went from a 380S to a BAT VK51SE. (which I bought used on Agon) what a step up from the 380S -incredibly transparent with much more dynamics. Works great with the levinson amps -I was using it with 4-436's but have switched to the newer 532 (another story by itself-it blows away the 4 -436's) with a pair of German Physiks speakers. A BAT can be had used for about $4200 or so on Agon. I haven't heard the Lamm, but they make fine products. If you want to stay solid state the newer ML preamps like the 326 are hard to beat.
Best preamp for my system.
I am looking to upgrade my preamp, and am looking for advice from experienced audio people. I am currently running an Emm Labs CD player into a Levinson 380S and then the Levinson 33H's and on to the Genesis 4 tower speakers. All signals running through Gabriel Gold Rapture IC's. What I like is a real lush sound, vocals being most important with respect to accuracy. Some preamps that I am considering are the ARC reference and Lamm Reference.......but am open to suggestions if a serious upgrade from my 380S can be had for less than those two expensive units.