Anyone have a Music First Preamp ?

I had the entry level Music First passive preamp in my system, but don't recall the model number. A local Music First dealer contacted me because I was in his area and he wanted to borrow the Lightspeed for comparison. In exchange, he offered to have me borrow the Music First, and said that the unit usually retails for $3000+.

I told him before he took the Lightspeed that it really wanted 100K ohm input Z from the amp. He came back and told me the Lightspeed sounded like crap. I asked him about the input Z of the amp, and he said he doesn't pay attention to that stuff and has no idea. Anyway, you can lead a horse to water I guess.

Dealer of the Year?

No kidding, eh?

I thought there was a small amount of unnatural dryness to the MF, perhaps clinical would be a good word. The Lightspeed does not have this characteristic when paired with appropriate components.

It seems that there is shift on the "warmth" - "neutral" spectrum with the various S&B transformers which is why some folks look for a particular version - don't which is which. I did find the Autoformer version of the BENT to be quite excellent - but then I had to go try the LSA:)

The S&B MkI transformers which I had in a K&K TVC were according to Kevin Carter the warmer of the three versions. As they progressed they became more neutral. For some reason the MkI and MkIII's are the preferred S&B's.