Audio Mirror Preamplifier


I am a big fan of Audio Mirror; have admired their DAC for quite some time.

Recently read they had a new pre-amplifier out.

Has anyone heard it ?

Any comments on sonic character?

Thanks.

mdrone

@tvad Thank you for correcting me on the transformer-coupled balanced outputs. I forgot about that. To add more, there are both the single ended outputs and this pair of transformer-coupled outputs, but a switch is installed to toggle one or the either. Vlad mentioned he cannot bypass this switch and enable both outputs without sacrificing sound quality. 

Your right in the sonic signature of his preamp, and it was a nice change from the preamp he offered many many years ago, which had less bloom and was much more etched and sterile in comparison.

Interesting to read about this. I wonder if he could make it with an extra set of pre-amp outs. I love having those for my subs. Otherwise, you’d have to use Y-splitters, right?

Consider, as a comparison, this similarly priced preamp from Aric Audio --
See the extra outputs? Handy.

 

Some years back I bought a used AM preamp on Audiogon. It arrived with a damaged remote control volume pot. I sent it to Vlad and he not only fixed it for free he also paid return shipping. Excellent products and superb customer service, I’ve never forgotten how well Vlad treated me. 

@hilde45 I'll let Vlad know about the thread and see if he can comment. Given how compact the unit is, I don't know what's going on inside and whether he can make a second set of unbalanced outputs, though I know it doesn't take up much room. This would still require folks to use all RCA, where I know many like going balanced from their preamp to amp. In this case someone would need to use some form of balanced splitter, or perhaps have a subwoofer like REL that can tap into the amplifier's speaker outs.

Hello everybody. I am not frequent on forums. I am very busy working on orders and new audio projects :-))))

Here is a clarification on the new LINEA preamp. It uses output transformers for both balanced and unbalanced outputs. The switch is not changing/flipping the outputs. It is connecting/disconnecting the ground to the transformer, making it balanced or unbalanced. Transformers are Lundahl and yes they are one of the best sounding. Adding an extra RCAs to the output is possible but it's not simply a matter of adding a pair of RCAs. The load impedance need to be considered. LINEA output impedance is pretty low so it will work with any 47kohm load(some solid state amps have low input impedance). I can always replace the XLRs with a second pair of RCAs and eliminate the switch.