which Audio Research pre-amp?

I hear ya Ralph. Bill Johnson deserves a lot of credit for getting hi-fi moving in the right direction (designing and building for dynamic music reproduction, not for purely static bench test stats), but ARC products are not necessarily the "best" available at any given price point. ARC owners tend to replace one, say, pre-amp, with another ARC, not bothering to compare it with one from any other designer/company. If you look inside the chassis of an ARC design, it's rather disconcerting. Lots and lots of parts, doing what?

When the SP-3 was considered the "best" pre-amp, and Bill Johnson the best pre-amp (and power amp) designer, fellow Minnesota engineer Frank Van Alstine, who was viewed by some as a mere designer of "budget" products, saw some flaws in the design of the SP-3 (involving primarity the pre's linearity, surprisingly low overload characteristics, and mediocre RIAA equalization accuracy), and offered a mod to cure those shortcomings. Bill Johnson was not infallible, not alone in his abilities at designing tube electronics. But he was viewed as the Messiah by those who need a single superior practitioner of any art.

I had (R.I.P.) a good retailer friend who sold ARC, and loved the SP-10. He found the SP-11 totally unacceptable (because of it's white, bleached, hard, grainy sound), and for years believed ARC lost it's way when Rich Larsen and his hybrid design ideas were brought in. But ARC customers kept buying them, for whatever reason. ARC had already established it's legendary status and loyal customer base, which remains intact. That dealer, by the way, flipped when he heard my pair of M60's, and got himself a pair of the Novacrons! 

A reasonable question a-s, the answer being ARC pre-amps have a certain cache' amongst audiophiles. My question is, why doesn't the op audition both the ARC pre's he is interested in at an ARC dealer? Doesn't trust his own judgment, but "knows" that ARC pre's are "the best"?