What is the best used ARC Pre-Amp to get?

the sp8 has a built in phono. re the sp10II besides the price there is a sonic difference to consider. the sp8 has a more up-front sound - the sp10II is more laid back. if you can find one and spring for the extra bucks the sp10II is worth the difference. i've had mine for 16 years now - i won't be selling it soon i can promise. i also use a creek for casual volume control. works just fine.

Honestly I feel that preamps like the bat vk-30/30SE w/phonostage are quite a bit better than the modern day arc preamps. I haven't heard the ref 2. I use a vk-5i and feel that it's in the same general league as the ref 1 which I also owned. The ref1 is far and away the best arc preamp I've heard. You might want to look at a vk-3i with a built in phono stage if you want to keep the price down.

I think bat makes the best tube preamps on market. They all mated very well with my vt100. Just my opinion and taste of course.

I heard the ls15,ls12,and demoed the older ls-5mkII. I didn't care for any of them. I didn't like the 12 and 15 at all - not enough transparency. The ls-5 had a great soundstage & I can hear why it is a classic. In my system it sounded a touch grainy, and lacked dynamics compared to the champion vk-5i. Maybe the tubes were bad - it was 8 years old or so & the solder's all looked remarkably dull and tinny. I have a feeling it had been repaired. The vk-5i easily defeated this contender.

I know you want to keep it all in one, but a decent low cost alternative would be the adcom 750 ($750 used) with a lehman black cube ($4-500 used). The black cube is physically very small. The adcom has a processor loop and can act as a passive pre. The 750 also has remote volume, active or passive mode, and a processor loop so you can run your home theater through it. A nice nice package that is sonically at the 90-95% mark of the best I've heard.

The arc ph-3 ($950 used) is an awesome tube external stage - warm and tubey yet very transparent with good bass. It's voiced with the arc house sound - big and powerful with a full, weighty midrange. Run the ph-3 into the (passive mode) adcom and you will have wonderful sound.

as far as european hifi magazines are concerned, the AR SP-16 is the best without any price considerations!
Any comments?

FG

I've got pretty much the same question on ARC peramps. Until recently my system was an LS8MkII, dual GTA SE-40 amps, and Martin Logan SL3 speakers. I was very pleased with this - then a friend finally talked me into vinyl. (I bought the LS8 after resolving that I was NOT going to get into vinyl.)

So...I just recently got a used Oracle Delphi and now need a phono section. I've borrowed an ARC SP9MKII, this sounds great, huge improvment over my Sony 9000ES CD, but it may just be the vinyl sounds great? (I don't have any basis for comparison having not listened to truly high end systems.)

I've thought about getting the ARC PH3 and using it with the LS8, but also have heard so many good things about Supratech... any opinions on buyng a used PH3 to use with the LS8 versus selling the LS8 and getting the Supratech Syrah?