(No longer) Wanted: LS26

HiFi Classifieds
1

Or may stretch to an Ref3 if price is right.

2

Iā€™m not sure youā€™ll have much luck searching for ARC gear here, to my knowledge thereā€™s not a single piece owned by anyone on here!

3

Pretty sure many have tried but very few survived.

4

One Audio research owner here !

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I used to own an LS17.
A bit of an oxymoron calling it a pre amp though as LS stands for Line Stage.

6

I sit corrected!

7

This is probably a n00b question, but I didnā€™t realise there was a difference between a pre and line stageā€¦

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A pre amp would historically take inputs of different voltages not just line level.(2v) (CD players, tuners etc
Normally that meant it included a phonostage (nominally 0.5V) but it could include a microphone etc.

To be honest most people use the terms pre amp and line stage interchangeably but please see my sig

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9

I had an LS26 before my Pass Labs XP20. It was very good driving Alephs but was completely seen off by the Pass Labs preamp leading to a world of expense and ludicrous monos

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10

Just realised I didnā€™t own a LS-17 at all, it was a LS-15.

I shall wear a hair shirt for a week :frowning_face:

11

Nope it means ā€œLikely to Shit outā€

12

I wonder how many of you use a Line Stage, ie a Pre-Amp without an inbuilt Phono Stage, but still call them pre-amps. Most of you no doubt.

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13

I suspect most donā€™t give a shit :wink:

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14

Exactly - it was meant for Kevin the Pedant:-)

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15

Lots of people call Dyson and Shark vaccum cleaners Hoovers.
Lots of people call members of the seabird family ā€˜Laridaeā€™ Seagulls.

Lots of people are ignorant.

Luckily there is a cure for ignorance

16

:frowning_with_open_mouth:

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Also, languages arenā€™t absolutes - theyā€™re means of communication. If the person you are talking to understands what you meant, itā€™s the ā€œrightā€ word.

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18

I have an Allnic phonostage and AN(J) SUT that predate the Audio Research line stage. Whatever line stage I am/was using is/was carelessly referred to as a pre-amp. I might be wrong but at least I am consistent.

Much truth in thatā€¦

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The XP-20 should be better, as itā€™s almost 50% more expensive than an LS26! But if I can get one for similar money, Iā€™ll go for it.

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Iā€™m not sure it works like that.

Also its quite important to understand the context of your system and the match of the preamp to your power amp.

I wouldnā€™t narrow down to specific ā€˜Wantedā€™ candidates until youā€™ve explored this and maybe had chance to hear different options for yourself, and preferably in your own set up at home.

For context Iā€™ve listened to a lot of preamps in my own system this past 2 years and there has been very little correlation between price and performance, and the ones I expected to be what I wanted disappointed when I had them here, and I ended up with something quite different to what I originally expected but which worked really well in the end.