Anyone have a Music First Preamp ?

Not that you want to get paranoid about this stuff, the MF is, I am sure wonderful TVC, though I doubt it is any better than the BENT version in TVC or AVC formats, they were and they remain SOTA passives, but if you have <200 ohm sources and 100 kohm input impedance amps, I can guarantee you that the Lightspeed will be a worthwhile listen, and at a much lower price point -- for now.

Anyone compare the MF or Lightspeed to a StereoKnight silver passive?
I've only heard a StereoKnight and was highly impressed.

I've had both Lightspeed and MF in my residence recently.

The Lightspeed is only better than the Music First when the input Z of the amplifier is significantly north of 50K ohms, at least 100K ohms to be conservative. Given finicky system matching requirements, I would not say that the Lightspeed is better than the MF, but I would say "Well, it depends".

Having said that, in the right system, I do prefer the Lightspeed. I prefer the B1 to the MF as well, but the dual channel volume control on the B1 drives me nuts.

Wilsynet,

May I ask which MF you had in your system?

Yes, the MF is likely to have wider application, and that in and of itself has value.
Having said that, I would be surprised if one would consistently pick it over a
BENT Tap with the S&B, or better yet with the Slagle AVC which I thought was
even better than the TVC version. So for more universal applications the BENT
Tap is the passive of choice for me, but when you have the impedances, cables,
and gain right I have found the Lightspeed to be the best of the bunch - and all
of them are at least very, very good in the right systems. Some times you need
gain, some times you need impedance matching help and these wonderful
preamps might not serve you nearly as well. So no universal claims, but system
context is everything for forming an opinion. I've not yet tried the Magnetic Line
Amplifier by Electra-Fidelity which seems like a very interesting new design with
what would seem to be great transformers that would address most if not all
impedance matches, but like anything in audio, at a cost compared to the
"simplicity" of the Lightspeed. We are indeed lucky to have so many choices.