Audio Research LS-16 Mk2 vs LS-17 preamp

FWIW I have an sp16 (ls 16 with phono I believe) and think it is a fantastic piece. I can enthusiastically recommend it to others.

My understanding was that the ls16 is just an sp16 minus phono stage.

So what is better about the ls16 exactly? I'd like to know because if that is the case I may have been mislead. The naming convention would certainly seem to indicate that these are the same only one has a phono. That's how it was presented to me and I had no reason to suspect otherwise.

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.

CK,

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