The SP15 was the successor to the SP11 in its line of hybrid preamps. The 15 used far less tubes than the 11--it was more a solid-state hybrid than a tube hybrid, like the SP11, and to my ear it sounded that way. I heard it often at my dealer's while I owned my SP11, and I just never warmed to it--if I had owned an SP10 at the time I probably would not have liked it at all. Definitely a very clean sound, but to my ear it was too clinical and analytical (probably more accurate, though), and brighter, more lacking in tonal color, than the SP11. I guess you could say I respected it but didn't love it. It is a value given its phono stage over the later ARC line stages, but I'd prefer an LS5 over it sonically, as well as the 10 and 11.
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