2. amps-preamps
  3. 1377034082

Current or former owners of ARC PH2 and/or LS5

I know these products were intended to be used together. But, no matter how hard I web search, I cannot find out which product contains the RIAA compensation circuitry. "LS" usually means line stage only, but I see a “Phono” input on the back of LS5 photos. The PH2 appears to be intended to be used as a MC head amp which usually has no RIAA EQ, but maybe this one does have it . I would like to archive some of my LP collection as 24-bit 192kHz audio files and may potentially use one or both of these units to front end a professional analog to digital converter. I see some contributors in past forums have owned these products, so thanks in advance for anyone that can help me out.
icewater_7

Showing 2 responses by dgarretson

dgarretson
2,609 posts
 
I'm the original owner of a PH-2. It is a fully balanced solid state phono stage with XLRs in and out-- the only balanced phono in ARC's PH series, IIRC. With 48db gain it is best suited to MM/MI.

Over the years I've made light modifications, including better coupling capacitors, filtering capacitors, Schottky rectifier diodes, and upgraded resistors in the input section. The mods deliver an astonishing improvement over stock, which as I recall was somewhat grainy and sterile like other ARC solid state components of the '90s.
dgarretson
2,609 posts
 
Icewater7, the factory manual included schematics. First step is to replace four 5uf and four .01uf/600V coupling and bypass caps at output. The stock unit uses entry-level MIT/Multicap PPMFX. The 5uf caps should be better MultiCap PPFXS film/foil or similar ClarityCap MR, Mundorf, or others rated at least 400Vdc. The .01uf bypass caps can be inexpensively replaced with eBayed Russian SSG silver mica. Replace the loading resistors and series resistors at input(R1,2,3,4) with Texas Components TX2575(available factory-direct) or Caddock TF020 from Parts ConneXion. Add a 3uf-10uf/400V-630Vdc film cap to filter B+ at ingress on channel board. Other suggestions via PM.
More to discover