Audio Research LS1 Hybrid Stereo Preamplifier * 1989 * Manual

To begin with, forget any comparison to ordinary passive line-stage controls. The active LS1 goes far beyond them - in musicality, in technical innovation, in quality of manufacture. Its pedigree, in other words, is pure Audio Research.

But far from being an expensive, limited-audience assault on an esoteric ideal, the LS1 costs $300 less than our popularly priced SP9 Mark II preamplifier. And, it includes Audio Research's famous hybrid tube/solid-state circuit technology, unstinting parts and manufacture, and service backed by 20 solid years of leadership in audio.

The LS1 offers owners the exceptional convenience of seven inputs, including the new Direct Gain Path, which bypasses all major controls except Gain - and provides a degree of resolution that challenges the best preamps in the world.

The LS1 features Audio Research's own oxygen-free Litz wire in critical circuit paths, as well as audiophile-grade connectors selected for their sonic purity. And for audiophiles who own signal processors or who bi-wire, the LS1 offers two main outputs.

If you've forsaken vinyl records, if you collect only tapes or digital source material, audition an LS1 at your nearest Audio Research dealer today. It may seem too good to be true, but we promise: the LS1 will make a believer out of you.

The LS1 stereo line amplifier carries on the proud Audio Research tradition of technical innovation and musical excellence, as it redefines the parameters of line-level input performance. At a price any music lover can afford.

The key to the LS1's exceptional attainments is a unique new input called the Direct Gain Path. Bypassing the Balance, Mode and Input controls as well as tape switching, the Direct Gain Path achieves singular sonic purity and dynamic expression, opening up line-level source material like few other control amps or preamps on the market, regardless of price. It's a circuit as close to the ideal "straight wire with gain" as Audio Research has ever produced. LS1 owners will be startled at how much more the Direct Gain Path reveals of their CDs and tapes.

Significantly, the LS1 disproves the accepted belief that a passive signal path is the better approach to line-level signal handling. With its active circuitry, the LS1 avoids the pitfalls common to passive line-level controls-the inability to properly "drive" longer interconnects: a loss of dynamics; and highfrequency rolloff. Instead, the gain stage of the LS1 reveals the airiness. timbral accuracy and dynamics needed to transcend mere hi-fi.

For its six normal line-level inputs, the LS1 provides features and operational convenience like that of the preamp upon which its design was based; the popular SP9 Mark II. Users of tape, video and tuner inputs will enjoy the full musicality and harmonic fidelity their ancillary components are capable of.

And like the SP9, the LS1 will dramatically improve the character of modest systems, keeping pace as upgrades are put in place. Yet the Direct Gain Path also puts the LS1 at home in systems which assault the state of the art. It will serve the most demanding audiophile handsomely for years to come.

Of course, the LS1 features the same hybrid tube/solid-state technology that's made Audio Research a world standard among audiophiles. A single 6DJ8 dual triode vacuum tube, combined with the latest FET technology, provides 21 dB of high-purity gain. The benefits are consistent, reliable performance over the years.

Beyond issues of performance, the LS1 is built with as much attention to careful manufacture as every other Audio Research product. LS1 owners can rest easy with the security of Audio Research's 20-year history of support and service, a benchmark in the high-end audio industry. No matter how many years you own your LS1, Audio Research will be there.