Audio Research LS-16 Mk2 vs LS-17 preamp

Ck,

You are right as best i can tell.

I see there is an sp16L listed on arcdb as the less expensive linestage version of sp16.

Also a separate listing for the more expensive ls16 that is clearly different in appearance.

Clear as mud from the naming, right?

My mistake nonetheless.

My sp16 cost me $1800 as a discounted price near the end of its production run. The newer sp17 was already out and would have cost more as well I believe.

So my dealer correctly represented the sp16 as a good value for me at the time in that I was considering getting the line stage only version and using an external phono pre-amp which would have likely cost more for some thing external also with good quality.

Hello-
Just as a further note.
You could go to the arcdb site and take a look at the pictures of the internal layout. It is different, not to mention the LS-16 has balanced inputs and outputs.

Mapman, I have no doubt that your SP16 was an excellent value. I do not suggest for a moment that the SP16 is not an excellent preamplifier and one that many, many audiofiles could completely enjoy. I was just trying to clarify for other viewers that there are some differences.

Though I have to be honest and suspect the running the LS16 in SE mode vs. the SP16 in its only available SE mode may be much less significant than the LS16 in balanced v SP16 in SE. I think this may be part of the price/performance difference (+ remote). I have heard many people comment that the ARC units capable of running in balanced perform noticeably better this way vs. running the same in the SE mode.

CK,

From what I have read and heard, I suspect you are right about that.

Well Mapman, we should get together as I have a LS16MKII on its way to me and we could do a simple comparison to see how noticeable the difference is in SE v SE and SE v Balanced. I am in tne midwest.