@soundsrealaudio Bricasti is close to releasing a 2 IN and 1 OUT pre amp. Balanced.
Pre amps cost vs. value ... what I discovered last month.
Greetings all.
I’m a mastering engineer. www.magicgardenmastering.com . We use Acoustic Zen balanced cabling, highly modified Cary 211 FE tube amps, Bricasti M1 SE DAs and Joachim Gerhard’s Allegra speakers. TORUS balanced power comes 220 from the street. The room is excellent, and you would love to hear it.
For 15 years the pre amp/router was a Crane Song Avocet. I paid around $1800 for it.
Recently decided to try a couple of audiophile products in the pre amp stage and was shocked and saddened how bad they were. Yes, the studio designed Avocet has a relay click for each 1db step, and yes it has a rack mounted 2U body with a corded remote, but it’s clear folks are really getting taken to the cleaners on pre amps. The older and highly regarded Boulder 1010 (used price $5500), was just terrible, truly terrible. The new and fully broken in BAT vk-43SE (demo price $7500) was much better, but still had a cloudy tone as compared to the class A Avocet. Not sure if that’s the cap or the transformer, but it made everything less clear and more generic, more distant from the music.
That’s all. Happy listening.
I’m a mastering engineer. www.magicgardenmastering.com . We use Acoustic Zen balanced cabling, highly modified Cary 211 FE tube amps, Bricasti M1 SE DAs and Joachim Gerhard’s Allegra speakers. TORUS balanced power comes 220 from the street. The room is excellent, and you would love to hear it.
For 15 years the pre amp/router was a Crane Song Avocet. I paid around $1800 for it.
Recently decided to try a couple of audiophile products in the pre amp stage and was shocked and saddened how bad they were. Yes, the studio designed Avocet has a relay click for each 1db step, and yes it has a rack mounted 2U body with a corded remote, but it’s clear folks are really getting taken to the cleaners on pre amps. The older and highly regarded Boulder 1010 (used price $5500), was just terrible, truly terrible. The new and fully broken in BAT vk-43SE (demo price $7500) was much better, but still had a cloudy tone as compared to the class A Avocet. Not sure if that’s the cap or the transformer, but it made everything less clear and more generic, more distant from the music.
That’s all. Happy listening.
- ...
- 113 posts total
@charles1dad um, about your comment that others "have not succumbed to this recording technique" Firstly, I didn’t say large DR sounds dull, or bad, I said it sounds dated and like an older era of music. Not current. Secondly, I said that mastering is a service job. We are not here to put the genie back in the bottle. "Make it louder" has been around since vinyl, there was simply a physical limit to what was possible. In 2018 I find most records I print are approved where I would like them to be, and the client has the say. Again, if you want a list of my records where there is lower DR and it sounds great I can provide. DR measurement, like all measurement is a bit of a mythical standard of goodness. Each record is uniquely worked, we have to look at the whole. Yes, some clients push me past sanity and I can say something if it would matter, and sometimes I do. 99% on deaf ears. Fear and ambition are the driving force in these cases. Can’t stop humans from that. |
Looks like the new version of Brian’s controller is still reasonably priced.. https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AvocetIIa--crane-song-avocet-iia |
Brian, Okay I understand your view of relating Wide dynamic range to an older style/era of sound. I enjoy recordings that preserve dynamic range as it heightens emotion and realism. I can also recognize that not everyone feels this way and may prefer the more "modern" compressed sound. Certainly a case of to each their own which is okay with me. Charles |
- 113 posts total