facten...I only trust what I hear. I mentioned earlier that I once owned the X-1 Preamp that was a factory reburb. Absolute mint when I received. The price was really low. Paid $ 2500.00. At the time I also had Parasounds former flagship the PLD-2000 and the Parasound HCA-1500 amp, Since the X-1 was already burned in, my impressions weren't that great during the three weeks I owned the piece and sold it for $3K. The X-1 was warm and relaxed, but the Parasound was much faster, more dynamic, with a larger sound stage. The X-1 was not even close to the Spectral DMC-10 I listened to years earlier, lacking that very rich, very smooth velvet midrange that is all to rare from a solid state. The DMC-10 dynamics and sound stage were excellent as well. teajays' recent thread on the Coda 07x preamp that it surpasses the earlier Spectral models is a bold statement, but doesn't surprise since Eric Laachi was on the design team with Nelson Pass at Threshold for years as we all know. If I had to choose between Coda and Pass Labs? Coda hands down.