There is just a handful of Preamps on the market that have zero feedback, feed forward designs which vary from one company to another. Companies such as Luxman, Accuphase, Soulutions, FM Acoustics to name a few as well as others.
However, all of this products are voiced subjectively to have a different sonic character from one brand to the other. Some are very fast, slow, bright, warm, hard, smooth, laid back or very forward that only work well in large rooms. Again, all the best designs all have S/N ratio's above 125 db's. Having the S/N ratio much higher also reduces distortion even further since there is lower noise in the boards which also reduces vibration. It was more relevant years ago that very expensive Preamps costing $15K and above produced major sonic differences but in recent years the science of audio engineering has advanced to such a level it is now possible, given the talent of a good modern day audio engineer, to design a Preamp in the $6K to $10K range that will equal the performance of Preamps in the $20K to $50K range. This is where Bent Holter comes in from Hegel. He is a true prodigy retaining a degree in micro electronics with an emphasis on transistor engineering. He has taken a whole new approach on feed forward technology that has further advanced the technique on the same scale as FM Acoustics at a fraction of the cost. The Hegel P-30 Preamp is the best Preamp in the world in its price range and will easily equal other Preamps in performance at much higher prices.
The P-30 is warm, lush, relaxing, very, very organic, with full midrange bloom and full, tight deep bass that is outstanding and the best detail, resolution and 3-D echo decay that one could ever hope for. It does not sound solid state. Its organic sound is like the very best blending of tube and solid state. No bullshit. Simply a damn good design. If your thinking about spending $10K or a lot more on a Preamp, put the brakes on and save your money and buy a world class Preamp for $7500.00. Once you hear the P-30 you will not believe the level of performance you get for the price.
