Successful ARC models

Audio Ressearch SP-15 two chassis was $6,000 new back in 1988 to 1994. I bought one here, and currently two are for sale @ $2,200 I think they are overpriced... they SHOULD be about $1,700 WITH boxes (two super nice boxes... worth $100 JUST for the original AR boxes)
No remote, but a super fine line section, and a very good tubed phono section.
Way better than the "famous" SP-10mkII, IMO, which I sold the minute I heard the SP-15!

PS: not a lot of reviews originally.. The huge price jump to $6K made all the fellows doing reviews to poo poo it 'quality for the price'... but that was right when EVERYTHING doubled in price nearly overnight. Prior ARC stuff had cheap caps, cheap RCAs... the SP-15 had high quality bits, and current standard quality RCAs.. etc.

I have owned a number of Audio Research preamps in the last 25 years. I currently own an LS25 mk2. You should be able to pick one up used for a little over $2000. My other choice in that price range would be a LS17. ARC preamps have come a long way in the last 10 years. Far more so than their amps. Borrow an LS17 from a dealer and try it in your system. The LS17 is a stunning preamp for the price.

I second the LS 17.

"Prior ARC stuff had cheap caps, cheap RCAs..."

Audio Research never used cheap parts. I have owned many Audio Research preamps including the SP-3A-1, SP-8, SP-8MKII, SP-9, LS-1, LS-2, SP-14, SP-11MKII and SP-15. All of these preamps were made with high quality parts.

If I remember right the SP-15 is actually a solid state line stage with a hybrid phono stage. The SP-15 is all about phono and when it was manufactured it was one of the best phono preamps money could buy with plenty of gain and flexability for whatever cartridge you wanted to use.

Keep in mind these hybrid preamps need to be left on to sound their best. It takes them 3 days to come around. If my memory serves me well the 3 tubes in the phono stage are rated to last 10,000 hours and they are not expensive tubes. It is well worth leaving the preamp on for the improvement in sound.

The gold Tiffany style RCAs used on the SP-15 were also used on the SP-11 which was introduced 1985 and the SP-9 in 1987. Audio Research amplifiers were also using the Tiffany RCAs before the SP-15. Not that the previous RCAs were bad. They were very good also, it's just that the Tiffanys were not available.

All of the Audio Research preamps are good in their own way, but do not try to evaluate one of the hybrid or solid state preamps without sufficient warm up or you will be disappointed. After a good warm up they become a different animal.