[khfm865]

Dear All,

I am looking to purchase myself a decent pre to go with my new 4B sst2. I am obviously considering going for a BP26 as this would be a "natural" choice. I like what I have read about the Audio Research Pre's (LS17).

Does anyone have any experience of a 4B SST with the Audio Research Pre's?

Any opinions on the subject would be much appreciated.

Cheers

[Ron D]

I have personally used a BP-26 with my 14B-SST amp and I can, like so many other people, allude to the synergy of this pairing. As to ARC preamps I currently have a LS-26 and I like it very much. I would say that in my system they differ as so - the BP-26 is more dynamic, music appears to have more "snap" to it. The ARC while less dynamic in presentation provides a clearer picture (less of a veil) and subtle nuances and small details are more easily discerned. You could be happy with either and there is something to be said for the plug & play aspect of a solid state preamp over the requirement of playing with tubes. But hey thats just my 2 cents worth. I can however advise that after auditioning both the 17 & 26 wait for a used 26 or save more pennies - the 26 is well worth the extra money.

[twitch54]

Another ARC LS-26 owner here, othewrwise know as a "Baby ref 3". Given both the 17 and the 26's low output impedence there should little to no matching problems with your amplifier. The sonic signature is ever so close between the two ( both employ a pair of 6H30 tubes in the gain stage along with JFET/hybrid audio circuit). Tube life "should" be long, 5000 + hours (FWIW, I did have one of mine go microphonic @ 1000 hrs)

Outside of better display on the 26 , IMO, the sonic improvement is summed up like what what stated before me.....another vail being somewhat lifted. I came from the 16 and when auditioning the 26 side-by-side with it there appears to be better instrument localazation as well.

In summmation, both would perform well, hopefully you can let YOUR ears decide !