Tube Curious - Preamp Suggestions

Mapman, "fuller bass" meaning appropriate bass. Bass which allows the weight of each upright bass note to sound like individual notes with their own weight, and dynamic "pop" as opposed to an overly ripe bass where the notes are smeared together or overly lean when the notes are all fast, lean, but generic and not offering any weight variation with individual notes. With upright bass, electric bass, cellos, drum sets, this is audible with good reproduction. This is also the ability to sustain notes which should be sustained, but letting go of the notes as well when appropriate. Plasmatech

In my opinion, fuller bass support from a tube preamp that one guy can get another guy may not get by varying degrees depending on the synergy with the other components and the end-resulting speakers. There are so many variables involved that you are simply experimenting with a preamp and will not know the results until you connect the preamp to your system. Everything matters, sources and preamp and amp and speakers. I have never heard an ARC preamp but I have seen the reports of them providing the modern tube sound which is supposed to be less of a tube sound, not lush, and less full sounding (but musical). My preamp is a Joule Electra LA150 II.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. It sounds like the ref3 may not be what I'm looking for. With that said, in addition to checking some of the recommended pre's, I'll be auditioning the ref 5SE. It's more than I'd like to spend but from what I've read, may be exactly what I'm looking for. As I mentioned, my system is a TAD analytical. I don't want to push it too far in the opposite direction.

For those that asked about other aspects of my system, my conditioner is a PS Audio PPP, my cart is a Lyra Kleos, and my interconnects are AQ Niagara's.

Well it sounds as if you are smitten with ARC, nothing wrong with that. If it still turns out to be a bit too analytical, you could always switch to warmer cartridge and/or cables.

Or swap out the preamp further down the line... Since the amplifier is balanced I would look for a balanced preamp as well.

A lot of the Parasound amplifiers have a 33K input impedance, which is at the bottom limit of what is recommended for the ARC preamps.