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Audio Research Ref 2 SE Valve MC Phonostage Boxed - $3,400 (Lowell)
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In its long history the Audio Research Corporation has made many phono preamps. Indeed, ARC built its sterling reputation on a succession of preamps primarily intended to boost and equalize the low-level signals of moving-magnet, moving-iron, and (eventually) moving-coil cartridges. Back in the day that was virtually all they were designed to do. The SP3, the SP3a, the SP3a-1, the SP6, the SP6b, the SP8, the SP10, the SP10 Mk II, the SP11, even the budget SP9 were primarily phonostages. Then the CD came along and finished what guys like John Curl and Mark Levinson started—it broke the preamp in two. One of the first unintended consequences of Perfect Sound Forever was the ascendance of the linestage preamplifier. The lowly phonostage was exiled to its own box, and as time went by those boxes generally got smaller and smaller until some of them finally shed their chassis altogether and turned into plug-in cards or