To quote Dr. Frankenstein, "Its alive!" The LS17 arrived today, and I have just spent several hours enjoying it. I connected the LS17 to my 150.2 amp using Mogami Studio Gold mic cables for the balanced connection, in order to get the full 18 db of gain from the pre amp (using SE connectors would have been only 12 db of gain). A quick thanks to "Almarg" who recommended the Mogamis over in the cables forum.
Anyway, the point of this post is to say that the SP8 works as a phono stage. I connected the "tape out" from the SP8 to the "aux in" on the LS17, using the Hero ICs which I had previously used to connect the SP8 to the amp single-ended. The "tape out" bypasses the line section of the SP8. Despite using a LOMC Benz cartridge (.5mv output), with the LS17 volume at 16 (out of a possible 20) I have all the volume I need through my Maggies (and as far as I can tell, no background noise from the SP8/LS17 combo). In fact the last record I listened to was the Sheffield direct-to-disk of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" and "Siegfried's Funeral March" and it gave me goose-bumps, my ultimate test!
I'm watching the A'gon listings daily for an ARC PH5 phono stage, but in the meantime the SP8 is working very nicely as an interim solution. Thanks to all for your advice earlier in this thread.
Anyway, the point of this post is to say that the SP8 works as a phono stage. I connected the "tape out" from the SP8 to the "aux in" on the LS17, using the Hero ICs which I had previously used to connect the SP8 to the amp single-ended. The "tape out" bypasses the line section of the SP8. Despite using a LOMC Benz cartridge (.5mv output), with the LS17 volume at 16 (out of a possible 20) I have all the volume I need through my Maggies (and as far as I can tell, no background noise from the SP8/LS17 combo). In fact the last record I listened to was the Sheffield direct-to-disk of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" and "Siegfried's Funeral March" and it gave me goose-bumps, my ultimate test!
I'm watching the A'gon listings daily for an ARC PH5 phono stage, but in the meantime the SP8 is working very nicely as an interim solution. Thanks to all for your advice earlier in this thread.