Audio Research PH3 service, upgrades

Agree with what Jafox recommends and I would add that if the unit has not been powered up for several months/years the cheapest insurance is to power it up slowly using a Variac. The advice I got was to start at 10% voltage (i.e. 12 VAC) and increase every 10-15 minutes an additonal 10% until full voltage is reached. This will reform the capacitors and prevent a catastrophic failure. I'm not saying you will have a catastrophic failure if you just plug it in, but like I said it's cheap insurance!

If it is not too late/you still care, I used the Tungsram 6922 in both my PH-3 and LS-15. For me it opened the soundstage, and dramtically extended the base vs the stock Sovtek 6922's

I have many Audio Research pieces, I have four PH-3's and they are fine phono stages for a very fair price....Don't worry about just plugging it in , the modern caps they use are much better than caps of the past....Audio Research service is nothing like it was before the new owners took over.....I just sent two pre-amps in for service and the repair estimate was over 1200.00 ....These pre-amps both worked, but needed some ongoing service, caps and the switches cleaned......When they were returned the remote was missing on the 5500.00, LS-10 line stage and they don't make them anymore, so I now have a very expensive line stage that has no remote....That is my experience with the "new" Audio Research service..