Audio Research SP9
Beschrijving / Description
Tube Stereo Pre Amplifier (1987-93)
Back in the United Kingdom of 1987, few audiophiles really noticed the launch Audio Research SP9 despite it being the company's best selling and arguably most loved heritage product. It was an exceptionally capable and technically innovative preamplifier, selling to a British audience that was in thrall to other fashions at the time. Our hi-fi press, if we're honest, didn't do it any favours either being prone to dismissing American high end hi-fi in the same breath as the motoring press would dismiss US cars. Both seemed needlessly large and ungainly, and frankly not really suitable for our tighter, more confined spaces.
The genius of the SP9 was that it didn't sound like a woolly old nineteen fifties preamplifier, yet it didn't sound like a harsh, analytical eighties one either. Rather, it walked a delicate and fine line between the two, adding a good deal of its own charm in the process. It wasn't soft, soggy and euphonic as the tube-haters would characterise thermionic designs, yet it didn't grate on the ear or shout at you as some solid-state designs could. Here was a brilliantly judged compromise and it's no surprise that so many other manufacturers' products belatedly followed in its wake. The SP9 makes music fun; it's viscerally exciting and engaging yet you're never aware you're listening to a tube or a transistor product; it's just very good at what it's supposed to do. Rather like a great luxury car, it doesn't conspicuously draw attention to the way it's made ' the sophisticated engineering under the skin ' rather, it just lets you enjoy the ride.
Specificaties / Specifications
Frequency response: 1Hz to 200kHz
Total harmonic distortion: 0.01%
Output: 2V (Pre out)
Dimensions: 480 x 134 x 260mm
Weight: 5.9kg