Audio Research SP15 sonics

Hi all SP15 users,

I just got myself a 2nd hand SP15 and it sounds awesome. However the Sp15 doesn't come with a user/owner/service manual (whatever they call it), is it possible to get hold of a copy, photocopy is ok.

many thanks.
Ray

I have a SP-15 which I had upgraded by removing all the factory caps and replacing them with MIT Multicaps.

You can not imagine what a world of difference it made!!
Like a different pre-amp! The mod was done by the "famous" George Kaye (Mr. Moscode) when he was in NYC...he is now located in Holyoke, Mass. he has a Web site.
You should contact him if you are serious about upgrading your SP-15.

Hi,

The SP-15 is one of my favourite pre-amps. Compared to other pre-amps, there's a lack of colouration and the phonostage is awesome. The SP-10 and 11 are coloured pre-amps, just like the 'nice' Conrad-Johnson Premier 3 was. Maintenance-wise the SP-10 is a bad choice (too many tubes and excess heat). Comparisons with the LS-series amps are nonsense, since these were made (much) later.
You should combine the SP-15 with a decent solid state power amp and good speakers, such as Quads '63 on very high stands and of course a decent source, such as a Goldmund or similar turntable. Then you're in for a sensation, voices are splendid. Do not connect mid-fi, you will surely be disappointed.
I will probably buy a good set myself someday to 'relive' the old memories.

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.