There is an issue with the turn-on on the SP-6A that I have not heard about in a long time. The SP-6B has this fixed. At turn-on there is a DC transient that gets passed through the preamp. If you have a DC coupled amplifier (solid state amp designs), you may (and I have) overextend any woofers to the point of destruction. The SP-6B has a warm-up timer which prevents this.
Sounds trivial, but it is incidious. Long time ago, I was listening to stereo, warming up for run. Went running, did not turn off system. While I was out, there was a short power outage. I came back to blown speakers. Ouch.
Anyway, lots of people still interested in SP-6, so I thought I would tell my story from 24 years ago.
Recently, I have switched to an SP-11 and I like the SP-11 better than the SP-6. But the SP-6 (not as good a soundstage) is a warm, wonderous beautiful sounding preamp. Mine has been modified with Sidereal caps. I was actually surprised at how good it was compared to the SP-11. SP-11 is the winner though, bass much better, soundstage much better.
Another feature on the SP-11 that is nice is that the phono stage is much quiter than the SP-6. This can allow one to use a lower output MC cartridge without a step-up device. SP-6 works fine with normal output levels, but I have tried a .2 microvolt cartridge and it just plain is noisy at the gain required.
My impression is in the world of SP-6, the SP-6B is the unit to have. I have owned my SP-6A since 1979 and it is still apparently worth within $100.00 of what I paid for it.
Sounds trivial, but it is incidious. Long time ago, I was listening to stereo, warming up for run. Went running, did not turn off system. While I was out, there was a short power outage. I came back to blown speakers. Ouch.
Anyway, lots of people still interested in SP-6, so I thought I would tell my story from 24 years ago.
Recently, I have switched to an SP-11 and I like the SP-11 better than the SP-6. But the SP-6 (not as good a soundstage) is a warm, wonderous beautiful sounding preamp. Mine has been modified with Sidereal caps. I was actually surprised at how good it was compared to the SP-11. SP-11 is the winner though, bass much better, soundstage much better.
Another feature on the SP-11 that is nice is that the phono stage is much quiter than the SP-6. This can allow one to use a lower output MC cartridge without a step-up device. SP-6 works fine with normal output levels, but I have tried a .2 microvolt cartridge and it just plain is noisy at the gain required.
My impression is in the world of SP-6, the SP-6B is the unit to have. I have owned my SP-6A since 1979 and it is still apparently worth within $100.00 of what I paid for it.