Ive just acquired Ed’s latest build of the DS-EQ1, and now feel that my near 40 year journey for the ultimate vinyl sound has peaked. I have arrived at my destination. Build quality is insane. It’s my first Meitner bit of kit and fairly certain it’s not the last.
The Meitner pre sounds sounds a lot like my old Nakamichi 610 preamplifier, which is very neutral and have had since the early 1980’s. To add flavour to my main system I swopped out with Nakamichi for a Vacuum State valve Preamplifier in the late 1980’s which i still use today and is at current specifications which I just love. The Meitner has great credentials and I like the minimalist approach. It sounds like it would be a perfect preamplifier and a keeper for anyone starting out that knows exactly what sound they like. Love the gear that your reviewing great stuff thanks.
Yes Vacuum State is an Australian ... you know ... Australian you know, High End uh ... product of sorts and like a lot of stuff in Australia, is cobbled together by well meaning individuals just like the company's founder Allen Wright. Take for example the Harvey Mayer stuff that was an Australian rival the the SONY TA-1630 amplifier and we might ask WHO would try to offer a native rival to mass-market SONY? Well ... at the time, SONY had earned itself a bad reputation for being poorly made and unreliable and they tried to improve their image but you know ... SONY or some ... Australian ... thing. It's interesting that you landed a Vacuum State product as to just what sort of customer buys Australian stuff.
@@keplermission Thanks for the reply. Alan Wright whom I sort of got to know after he moved to Switzerland was actually from New Zealand but in the early 1980’s I was looking at VTL and Audio Research amplifiers and made a decision to purchase Australian made as I’m an Australian (be it first generation) I also chose the Vacuum State FVP because I thought it sounded better. There are some very cleaver audio engineers /audiophiles here in Australia that make superb audio equipment. It’s just a very small market and very hard for the back-yard cottage industries to take a footing although there are some enterprising people that have done well. I love gear but love listening to music more. Thanks.
Thank you for supporting Meitner. We are thrilled to hear you’re enjoying the MA3. There is an upgrade development in the works. Stay tuned 🙏🏼🙏🏼 cheers from the team at Meitner!
@@amadeusmeitner5483 Thanks for the info Amadeus! Can you say what the upgrade will concentrate on? Like will it be in the power supply, streamer or analog stage?
I agree that the outstanding feature is the low noise. I have the predecessor - the Emm Labs Pre 2. Silent as the grave. The downside to this unit is the inputs. Three inputs is not enough and one balanced makes it even worse. I assume it is balanced on the basis of the XLR connector. Two of my inputs are the Oppo 205 and a DAC. Both have balanced outputs and I think a top pre-amp should have two or three balanced inputs.
The idea is to pair this with the Meitner MA3 DAC/streamer which will handle all of your digital sources, leaving you with two inputs on the Meitner PRE for analog sources.
A pre amp is pretty much just an electrical impedance matcher with gain. Some source component don’t match electrically with some amps. You can get high frequency roll off if a high impedance source is going to a lower impedance input. That’s why amps and preamps from the same manufacturer works so well together.
You know ... that's an old one ... high frequency roll off if an old tubed reel to reel tape set is plugged into a 1980s Solid State amplifier. Back in the 1950s there a 100K ohm input that we were feeding with 70mV and then in the 1980s, Japanese stuff it was 150mV into 22K ohms. Then we had to worry about a whole load of stuff, certainly they weren't compatible and there was hiss and QUAD of England tried to clean things up by getting rid of the European DIN socket that was not suited for Japanese equipment. Controller amplifiers are very complex and not easily whittled down to basic ideas like being an impedance matching device. All very difficult but seem okay if you don't compare results with other systems. You might be very happy and missing detail and you know, just very happy with your lot. But Steve would take a dim view.
I don't understand why some manufacturers have, in this case three RCA inputs and only one XLR input. This makes no sense to me because my other sources all have XLR outputs beside phono outputs. I want to use XLR. I'm happy I use an XP - 22 pre.
Over the decades I've always read or heard that "oh, you don't need XLR, you're not in the studio", or "single ended is just fine". My ears say otherwise. I think you need to get the noise floor in the system and environment low enough to really notice. Every little bit counts, and it stacks. One should only be annoyed by a sh!t production or performance and not some attribute of the playback system.
@@tupuhumuhumunukunukuapuaa3093 there are certain exceptions for me especially with high quality SET tube amplifiers. They seem to sound incredible with or without XLR inputs. I was stunned by the sound of the Western Electric 300 B amplifier design using the newly redesigned Western Electric 300 B tubes.
There were many things to consider when deciding how many inputs and outputs to put on the Meitner PRE. One limiting factor was space keeping the product in a 2U chassis while maintaining circuit integrity. Our goal was to provide DAC input and optical EQ/phonostage input, alongside one extra single-ended input. Our flagship EMM Labs PRE has 3 sets of balanced inputs and 3 sets of single ended inputs 😊
@@stimpy1226 Oh yeah, totally. I enjoy the tube sound. I bought Maggies way back and well, I chose to have kids, lol, so buying the amount and quality of tube amp for that was a non-starter -- down the solid-state road I went. With my current speakers, I'd want to look at tube amplification at some point in the near future (ooh, that's going to be a journey). I enjoy clean sound, but I'm not opposed to a little "seasoning". The current common comment received from visitors is that my system is noise free, projecting powerful sound without the earache, unbelievably cohesive and cohesive soundstage, and the real feeling of presence within that space. Nothing sounding etched or accentuated. If that can be enhanced, I'm interested. Happy Listening!
Great review, Steve! I need to keep this on my short list of pre-amps to audition. To my ears, the pre-amps at my disposal are currently degrading the sound from my DAC, and I don't want a pre-amp with personality, I need it clean and noise free, just pass along the music to my amps. I wonder what the crosstalk figures are for this thing. I told my wife when she asked if I'd be looking for a pre-amp and I said that "I'm probably not going to find anything under $8k that's really dead silent." Well looks like $7500 might be the entry point. Luckily at the moment my DAC only attenuates its output, and for my configuration, I can run without a pre. I need a more capable pre-amp to reevaluate things and this might be the ticket. HT passthrough, and RS232 got my attention as well. I need those features (I've got some nifty home automation to control my gear and I don't want to lose that). (automation hint: if you have triggers on your amp and you want to remote control them, get a smart outlet and power supply with appropriate tip for the 5-12v trigger)
re; lush, exaggerated tonal richness, vis-à-vis absolute transfer function transparency ... I'd suggest any pleasant additive element to be inserted as late in the chain as possible. I'm sure this Meitner pre is stellar. His digital work is peerless. His digital attenuation and remote level control is the best. The viewer system of the day; a nice modern assemblage of audio!
The Meitner gear is Top, top-shelf audio gear. .. A class of few. . Cheers, Vail, Colorado ... P.S., pre-set volume is clever. .. Under $8K USD? .. Thank you, Steve G. .. P.S.S., , My ATC ASL 100 actives would sing ... Step aside old ARC SP-pre ... (subscribed long ago)
Steve: Please review the Canadian designed Musical Paradise MP701mk2 tube preamp! Tube and capacitor rolling test bed. Make sure you install the right value coupling caps for your power amplifier. Bryston needs 2.2uf, Schiit needs 4.7uf.... Needs supplied tubes replaced quickly. Basic hovland/bennic caps for $700. With vcaps for $1k! Loving mine. You can colour it whichever way you like Steve 🎵😊🎵
Hello Steve, may i ask from what i saw from the spec, the system gain is +6dB, is this the preamp signal gain? Lastly, do you know this preamp using overall feedback or local feedback? Thank you much. Ph.
I have and love the early Pink Floyd! I playing the LP's up the old WEGA P550 Direct Drive Turntable with Goldring E 3 Cartridge up an LUXMAN C03 Preamp and two LUXMAN M03 as Mono-Amp! Loudspeaker Floorstand QUADRAL AC 4100. This is fantastic! Sorry for my bad english!
Thanks Steve, for the great review, as always!. The Meitner PRE sure is a great preamp, but I find USD 7,500 just too much. There are a lot of neutral/accurate/transparent preamps that cost much less.
I don't understand why you want a pre-amplifier to have a certain sound to it. So you want the recording to sound like something it's not supposed to sound like? Odd if you ask me
@@Trogdor204 Joel....the speakers themselves, recording, and room give a diverse sound enough. The duty of the source, pre, and amp is to stay true to the song itself. This is hifi 101.
@@ryanschipp8513 I don't know what you are even arguing about. Amplifiers sound different. It is the way it is. Certain amplifier manufacturers have their own 'house sound'. This caters to different tastes. Some people like a little more high end sparkle, just like some people want to add pepper to their plate.
Yep, I like a bit of color too. Not too much mind you, but that certain something a tube preamp gives. I guess that’s why Quicksilver has only made the most modest of revisions to their line stage preamp after nearly 30 years in production. And it’s only $1,500 too. I might try new amps and speakers, but this preamp is my Herb Reichert Tannoys type of reference.
@@amadeusmeitner5483 Cool. I have heard a lot about your products. They have never quite been in my budget, so I usually buy more affordable stuff and I own a Pre90. Thanks for replying to my comment. It is an honour.
@@NeverCryWolf64the honour is ours! Thank you for your kind words. Sometimes, second hand units come up, but they don’t last long. Send me a PM and I can keep you in the loop for the next one I see :)
@@amadeusmeitner5483 Thanks. I am quite happy with my system now. After upgrading the amps and speakers and other components for decades I think I will not upgrade further for several years. The Topping pre90 is very accurate and quiet, and suits my needs. Thanks for the offer.
Hey Steve wish you talked about pairing it with gato monos. How does it pairs with gato monos? Is it a too much of a good thing situation? Considering both are ultra clarity & delineation focused? Or it's best combo ever?
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac I wish I could see some well-constructed blind comparisons between - for example - DACs. Maybe there is some venue where I can find such comparisons. In my own blind DAC listening tests with pro musicians and audiophiles I have not found audible differences between the various DACs I've used in my tests.
I did review the LTA integrated amplifier. And at some point I will review the preamp. But as you can see I referred to it all the time in other reviews, it's fantastic.
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac What's fantastic is that you responded to my question. Thank you. I look forward to all your videos...and the music that you review on them. I have picked up a number of music selections that I never knew about from your reviews.
While this sounds like a great pre-amp, I adhere to the old adage followed by some high-end audio enthusiasts that "the best pre-amp is no pre-amp at all." I've used for years a custom "passive pre-amp" just to control my source component inputs and subsequent volume attenuation then running straight into the power amp. The ultimate in clarity. I've never looked back.
Appricate you my dude Hey Rolling stones paint me black blew me away steve ! Galion S.E. Dynoaudio emit 50s Ares2 Sony cdp 605esd as transport geez ohhh Pete Layers/imaging/Airyness Had me floating in the room😮 I should sighn up for Hifi systemssss of the day 😆 Thanks Steve You 🎸! (ROCK)
$7500 for an eight layer circuit board with high tolerance components, locally made metalwork, designed and hand-built by a family business in Canada. Yessir! 😊
@@amadeusmeitner5483 According to Steve...it's a preamp that gets out of the way and doesn't color.the sound. Sounds just like my Nuforce MCP-18 that I got for $400 used, retailed for $1000. Reviewed by Steven Stone, he was very fond of it. No way the Meitner sounds 7x better than the Nuforce. The Meitner weighing in at 16lbs is grossly overpriced, even with the items you just mentioned. The markup has to be astronomical. Just calling a spade a spade. Anyone that's been in the hifi game for 20-30 years knows this is.the case.
@@ryanschipp8513 we’re thrilled that you’re happy with your Nuforce that you picked up for a bargain! We’re happy that Steve likes the PRE as much as we do and maybe he’ll do a shootout with the Nuforce some day. :)
I really don't like the mic setup and mixing on that Yo-Yo Ma and Katherine Stott album. The piano was close mic'ed with a pair of mics pointing down into the piano strings. The piano sound is wall-to-wall but mixed in with the ambiance mic to make it sound distant. Very unnatural. However, the tone of the instruments is excellent, sounding like a mid-hall seat in a warm concert hall - if not for the unnatural size of the piano.
$7k for a 3 input pre with no phono or dac and mediocre knob feel is simply a non-starter, I don’t care how it sounds. As a reviewer you should not be abetting this kind of insanity. It’s an input selector with a volume knob. There are dozens of options for the “affordable” price of $1k or less that will be sonically indistinguishable in a blind compare, and you know it. Shame on you.
Yeah, shame on him for talking about things you don't approve of. Come to think of it, you should call the police; they'll sort this hooligan once and for all!
@@yantrussart6584 No bigger free speech advocate than me. He can say what he likes. Likewise, I’m entitled to my opinion. $7k for this device is ludicrous. It’s reviewer malpractice. Good day.
To decouple evident quality from purchase price, as industry and reviewers still do, makes customers insecure. Buying hifi has become a big gamble: will you hit the sweet spot or pay too much for nothing special or will you pay too much for something nice but still way too expensive in comparison? I love good music and vintage hifi, but I turned my back to this industry completely. I rule my own kingdom developing speakers, selecting and soldering the cables and well I don’t dare to visit a brick and mortar store anymore, I just can’t curb my hostile distrust.
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac I consider reviewers to be guardians at the gate for audiophiles who are often victims of manufacturers who make products with dubious value propositions. This is a glaring example. It doesn’t matter if the buyer is wealthy or into only high-end gear. It doesn’t matter if this manufacturer has good credentials. There has to be an honest value proposition. There is no way…none..that the materials and labor in this device justify such an asking price. Electronic coupling? Cool. Nifty. But $7k for three inputs? Stop it. Just stop. Snap out of it please. It’s up to you and your reviewing brethren to point these obvious things out. It shouldn’t be up to folks like me. Yes I do watch, and I watch carefully. And I do keep an open mind. But having watched, I grow increasingly disillusioned with this hobby and the manufacturer/reviewer industrial complex that would have us purchasing products like this at prices like this.
Ive just acquired Ed’s latest build of the DS-EQ1, and now feel that my near 40 year journey for the ultimate vinyl sound has peaked. I have arrived at my destination. Build quality is insane. It’s my first Meitner bit of kit and fairly certain it’s not the last.
The explosion in Canadian manufacturers being covered by reviewers lately has been amazing
🇨🇦 makes good shit !
I enjoy your reviews,especially the mix and match of different combination’s of components.I have been waiting for Meitner to release this Preamp.
Nice to hear from you! Thanks
The Meitner pre sounds sounds a lot like my old Nakamichi 610 preamplifier, which is very neutral and have had since the early 1980’s. To add flavour to my main system I swopped
out with Nakamichi for a Vacuum State valve Preamplifier in the late 1980’s which i still use today and is at current specifications which I just love. The Meitner has great credentials and I like the minimalist approach. It sounds like it would be a perfect preamplifier and a keeper for anyone starting out that knows exactly what sound they like.
Love the gear that your reviewing great stuff thanks.
Thanks!
Yes Vacuum State is an Australian ... you know ... Australian you know, High End uh ... product of sorts and like a lot of stuff in Australia, is cobbled together by well meaning individuals just like the company's founder Allen Wright. Take for example the Harvey Mayer stuff that was an Australian rival the the SONY TA-1630 amplifier and we might ask WHO would try to offer a native rival to mass-market SONY? Well ... at the time, SONY had earned itself a bad reputation for being poorly made and unreliable and they tried to improve their image but you know ... SONY or some ... Australian ... thing. It's interesting that you landed a Vacuum State product as to just what sort of customer buys Australian stuff.
@@keplermission Thanks for the reply. Alan Wright whom I sort of got to know after he moved to Switzerland was actually from New Zealand but in the early 1980’s I was looking at VTL and Audio Research amplifiers and made a decision to purchase Australian made as I’m an Australian (be it first generation) I also chose the Vacuum State FVP because I thought it sounded better. There are some very cleaver audio engineers /audiophiles here in Australia that make superb audio equipment. It’s just a very small market and very hard for the back-yard cottage industries to take a footing although there are some enterprising people that have done well. I love gear but love listening to music more. Thanks.
I’m demoing the Meitner MA3 DAC right now. It is a fantastic DAC. Smooth and little warm but still clear and detailed.
I own the Meitner MA3 Server/DAC.Great product with the pride of ownership from Ed Meitner and Canadian manufacturer.
Thank you for supporting Meitner. We are thrilled to hear you’re enjoying the MA3. There is an upgrade development in the works. Stay tuned 🙏🏼🙏🏼 cheers from the team at Meitner!
@@amadeusmeitner5483 Thanks for the info Amadeus! Can you say what the upgrade will concentrate on? Like will it be in the power supply, streamer or analog stage?
Many thanks to Steve for this video. Cheers from the Meitners! 🙏🏼
For many of us “more transparency” doesn’t mean more “musical enjoyment.”
I agree that the outstanding feature is the low noise. I have the predecessor - the Emm Labs Pre 2. Silent as the grave. The downside to this unit is the inputs. Three inputs is not enough and one balanced makes it even worse. I assume it is balanced on the basis of the XLR connector. Two of my inputs are the Oppo 205 and a DAC. Both have balanced outputs and I think a top pre-amp should have two or three balanced inputs.
The idea is to pair this with the Meitner MA3 DAC/streamer which will handle all of your digital sources, leaving you with two inputs on the Meitner PRE for analog sources.
I mean, it is a pre, it isnt suppose to change the music, just a good way of controlling the gain between the dac and amp.
Precisely. And the volume control circuit in the PRE is quite a unique design of Ed’s. We’re very proud of what the PRE can do :)
A pre amp is pretty much just an electrical impedance matcher with gain. Some source component don’t match electrically with some amps. You can get high frequency roll off if a high impedance source is going to a lower impedance input. That’s why amps and preamps from the same manufacturer works so well together.
You know ... that's an old one ... high frequency roll off if an old tubed reel to reel tape set is plugged into a 1980s Solid State amplifier. Back in the 1950s there a 100K ohm input that we were feeding with 70mV and then in the 1980s, Japanese stuff it was 150mV into 22K ohms. Then we had to worry about a whole load of stuff, certainly they weren't compatible and there was hiss and QUAD of England tried to clean things up by getting rid of the European DIN socket that was not suited for Japanese equipment. Controller amplifiers are very complex and not easily whittled down to basic ideas like being an impedance matching device. All very difficult but seem okay if you don't compare results with other systems. You might be very happy and missing detail and you know, just very happy with your lot. But Steve would take a dim view.
Thanks Steve. Great video! Kathryn Stott's recordings of the music of Ravel are also some of my favorites. Truly magical.
Way back in the early 70s I had a Bidat
I don't understand why some manufacturers have, in this case three RCA inputs and only one XLR input. This makes no sense to me because my other sources all have XLR outputs beside phono outputs. I want to use XLR. I'm happy I use an XP - 22 pre.
Over the decades I've always read or heard that "oh, you don't need XLR, you're not in the studio", or "single ended is just fine". My ears say otherwise. I think you need to get the noise floor in the system and environment low enough to really notice. Every little bit counts, and it stacks. One should only be annoyed by a sh!t production or performance and not some attribute of the playback system.
@@tupuhumuhumunukunukuapuaa3093 there are certain exceptions for me especially with high quality SET tube amplifiers. They seem to sound incredible with or without XLR inputs. I was stunned by the sound of the Western Electric 300 B amplifier design using the newly redesigned Western Electric 300 B tubes.
There were many things to consider when deciding how many inputs and outputs to put on the Meitner PRE. One limiting factor was space keeping the product in a 2U chassis while maintaining circuit integrity. Our goal was to provide DAC input and optical EQ/phonostage input, alongside one extra single-ended input. Our flagship EMM Labs PRE has 3 sets of balanced inputs and 3 sets of single ended inputs 😊
@@amadeusmeitner5483 thank you for your reply. Great review from Steve Guttenberg🙏
@@stimpy1226 Oh yeah, totally. I enjoy the tube sound. I bought Maggies way back and well, I chose to have kids, lol, so buying the amount and quality of tube amp for that was a non-starter -- down the solid-state road I went. With my current speakers, I'd want to look at tube amplification at some point in the near future (ooh, that's going to be a journey).
I enjoy clean sound, but I'm not opposed to a little "seasoning". The current common comment received from visitors is that my system is noise free, projecting powerful sound without the earache, unbelievably cohesive and cohesive soundstage, and the real feeling of presence within that space. Nothing sounding etched or accentuated. If that can be enhanced, I'm interested.
Happy Listening!
You're an awesome reviewer Steve.
I hope you review a Van Alstine pre-amp. I think they will be your bag. 😉
He reviewed Van Alstine in 2021.
@@josephchamberlain3681 he reviewed a power amp with a volume control….not a pre-amp
You'd like to see Van Alstine's top solid-state or tube preamp? Just curious.
@@BruceCross tube
@@seanb3303 Yes, I'm curious if it's a giant killer for the price.
Great review, Steve! I need to keep this on my short list of pre-amps to audition. To my ears, the pre-amps at my disposal are currently degrading the sound from my DAC, and I don't want a pre-amp with personality, I need it clean and noise free, just pass along the music to my amps. I wonder what the crosstalk figures are for this thing. I told my wife when she asked if I'd be looking for a pre-amp and I said that "I'm probably not going to find anything under $8k that's really dead silent." Well looks like $7500 might be the entry point. Luckily at the moment my DAC only attenuates its output, and for my configuration, I can run without a pre. I need a more capable pre-amp to reevaluate things and this might be the ticket. HT passthrough, and RS232 got my attention as well. I need those features (I've got some nifty home automation to control my gear and I don't want to lose that). (automation hint: if you have triggers on your amp and you want to remote control them, get a smart outlet and power supply with appropriate tip for the 5-12v trigger)
Please let us know if we can help you get a Meitner PRE for demo. We really appreciate you considering our teams products 😊😊
@@amadeusmeitner5483 Oh wow, ok, I will be in touch!
re; lush, exaggerated tonal richness, vis-à-vis absolute transfer function transparency ...
I'd suggest any pleasant additive element to be inserted as late in the chain as possible.
I'm sure this Meitner pre is stellar.
His digital work is peerless.
His digital attenuation and remote level control is the best.
The viewer system of the day;
a nice modern assemblage of audio!
Steve will you please do a review on the Musical Fidelity NU-VISTA range, in particular the preamp along with the PAM mono blocks?
The Meitner gear is Top, top-shelf audio gear. .. A class of few. . Cheers, Vail, Colorado ... P.S., pre-set volume is clever. .. Under $8K USD?
.. Thank you, Steve G. .. P.S.S., , My ATC ASL 100 actives would sing ... Step aside old ARC SP-pre ... (subscribed long ago)
Thanks, yes $7,500 USD
Thank you for your kind words. The work continues and please let us know if we can help you in any way. Cheers Michael!
Steve:
Please review the Canadian designed Musical Paradise MP701mk2 tube preamp!
Tube and capacitor rolling test bed.
Make sure you install the right value coupling caps for your power amplifier. Bryston needs 2.2uf, Schiit needs 4.7uf....
Needs supplied tubes replaced quickly.
Basic hovland/bennic caps for $700.
With vcaps for $1k!
Loving mine.
You can colour it whichever way you like Steve
🎵😊🎵
Only $7000? What a bargain! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hello Steve, may i ask from what i saw from the spec, the system gain is +6dB, is this the preamp signal gain? Lastly, do you know this preamp using overall feedback or local feedback? Thank you much.
Ph.
Can I use this pre amp to quiet down my sewing machine.....it sounds like a lawn mower?
I have and love the early Pink Floyd! I playing the LP's up the old WEGA P550 Direct Drive Turntable with Goldring E 3 Cartridge up an LUXMAN C03 Preamp and two LUXMAN M03 as Mono-Amp! Loudspeaker Floorstand QUADRAL AC 4100. This is fantastic! Sorry for my bad english!
Thanks for watching
Why Bamboo when Granite is far more Acoustically dead, and cheaper? Why a Stand on trolley wheels when spiked is a greater isolator?
Thanks Steve, for the great review, as always!. The Meitner PRE sure is a great preamp, but I find USD 7,500 just too much. There are a lot of neutral/accurate/transparent preamps that cost much less.
For those of us that these alternatives are not obvious to, can you share some examples? Are you referring to Benchmark, Bryston, .....?
Hi Steve, Could you please tell me the brand of acoustic panels you have on your wall? They look great. Thanks buddy!
GIK Acoustics
I don't understand why you want a pre-amplifier to have a certain sound to it. So you want the recording to sound like something it's not supposed to sound like? Odd if you ask me
If everything sounded the same, why would we need so many options in audio gear? What fun would that be?
@@Trogdor204 Joel....the speakers themselves, recording, and room give a diverse sound enough. The duty of the source, pre, and amp is to stay true to the song itself. This is hifi 101.
@@ryanschipp8513 You know that isn't true. Just talk to anyone that is into tube amplification.
@@Trogdor204 gotcha, so you are the same guy that orders a gourmet dinner and then throws a bunch of salt pepper and ketchup on it. Now it makes sense
@@ryanschipp8513 I don't know what you are even arguing about. Amplifiers sound different. It is the way it is. Certain amplifier manufacturers have their own 'house sound'. This caters to different tastes. Some people like a little more high end sparkle, just like some people want to add pepper to their plate.
Yep, I like a bit of color too. Not too much mind you, but that certain something a tube preamp gives. I guess that’s why Quicksilver has only made the most modest of revisions to their line stage preamp after nearly 30 years in production. And it’s only $1,500 too. I might try new amps and speakers, but this preamp is my Herb Reichert Tannoys type of reference.
I dare you to do a double blind test with a topping pre90 at about one tenth the cost.
We’re open to it!!
@@amadeusmeitner5483 Cool. I have heard a lot about your products. They have never quite been in my budget, so I usually buy more affordable stuff and I own a Pre90. Thanks for replying to my comment. It is an honour.
@@NeverCryWolf64the honour is ours! Thank you for your kind words. Sometimes, second hand units come up, but they don’t last long. Send me a PM and I can keep you in the loop for the next one I see :)
@@amadeusmeitner5483 Thanks. I am quite happy with my system now. After upgrading the amps and speakers and other components for decades I think I will not upgrade further for several years. The Topping pre90 is very accurate and quiet, and suits my needs. Thanks for the offer.
Hey Steve wish you talked about pairing it with gato monos.
How does it pairs with gato monos? Is it a too much of a good thing situation? Considering both are ultra clarity & delineation focused? Or it's best combo ever?
Right, but the Gatos were gone when I did this review.
Solid review, even though I would have preferred a review of the Meitner DAC instead.
Let’s make it happen Steve!
Do you ever do blind A/B comparisons?
When I first started to write for home theater magazine we regularly did blind comparisons. But if you're asking if I do them now the answer is no.
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac I wish I could see some well-constructed blind comparisons between - for example - DACs. Maybe there is some venue where I can find such comparisons. In my own blind DAC listening tests with pro musicians and audiophiles I have not found audible differences between the various DACs I've used in my tests.
@@billmiloszI for myself have different gear some basic and some very resolving. There is a difference with the appropriate gear.
@@michelcouture7026 So you've done double blind listening tests? How many listeners? What kind of statistics did you get?
Instead of 'crisis' how about awakening, though it is easy to go to far. That said a change to warmer cabling can easily create a happy medium
Hi there! 👍🇩🇪
Ed Meitner was wearing sandals with white socks? Ed knows what’s comfortable - you rock on with your bad self.
It’s the Ed way!! He had a good chuckle at this comment. Thanks David!
The honey-badger of high fashion. Gotta love it!
What ever happend to doing the review on the LTA Microzotl Pre-Amp ???
I did review the LTA integrated amplifier. And at some point I will review the preamp. But as you can see I referred to it all the time in other reviews, it's fantastic.
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac What's fantastic is that you responded to my question. Thank you. I look forward to all your videos...and the music that you review on them. I have picked up a number of music selections that I never knew about from your reviews.
While this sounds like a great pre-amp, I adhere to the old adage followed by some high-end audio enthusiasts that "the best pre-amp is no pre-amp at all."
I've used for years a custom "passive pre-amp" just to control my source component inputs and subsequent volume attenuation then running straight into the power amp. The ultimate in clarity. I've never looked back.
Whatever works is a generally a good approach. That said, passive preamps can have impedance matching issues.
Townshend reference pre perhaps?
Appricate you my dude Hey Rolling stones paint me black blew me away steve ! Galion S.E. Dynoaudio emit 50s Ares2 Sony cdp 605esd as transport geez ohhh Pete
Layers/imaging/Airyness
Had me floating in the room😮
I should sighn up for Hifi systemssss of the day 😆
Thanks Steve You 🎸! (ROCK)
+1 Early Pink Floyd
$7500 for that?? OUCH! Way overpriced for what you are getting...especially since the inside is a cavern.
Yeah, forget quality, quantity is what it's about. Now cram that thing with parts and stuff : we want our money's worth!
@@yantrussart6584 Both can be had. What a silly comment.
$7500 for an eight layer circuit board with high tolerance components, locally made metalwork, designed and hand-built by a family business in Canada. Yessir! 😊
@@amadeusmeitner5483 According to Steve...it's a preamp that gets out of the way and doesn't color.the sound. Sounds just like my Nuforce MCP-18 that I got for $400 used, retailed for $1000. Reviewed by Steven Stone, he was very fond of it. No way the Meitner sounds 7x better than the Nuforce. The Meitner weighing in at 16lbs is grossly overpriced, even with the items you just mentioned. The markup has to be astronomical. Just calling a spade a spade. Anyone that's been in the hifi game for 20-30 years knows this is.the case.
@@ryanschipp8513 we’re thrilled that you’re happy with your Nuforce that you picked up for a bargain! We’re happy that Steve likes the PRE as much as we do and maybe he’ll do a shootout with the Nuforce some day. :)
I really don't like the mic setup and mixing on that Yo-Yo Ma and Katherine Stott album. The piano was close mic'ed with a pair of mics pointing down into the piano strings. The piano sound is wall-to-wall but mixed in with the ambiance mic to make it sound distant. Very unnatural. However, the tone of the instruments is excellent, sounding like a mid-hall seat in a warm concert hall - if not for the unnatural size of the piano.
$7k for a 3 input pre with no phono or dac and mediocre knob feel is simply a non-starter, I don’t care how it sounds. As a reviewer you should not be abetting this kind of insanity. It’s an input selector with a volume knob. There are dozens of options for the “affordable” price of $1k or less that will be sonically indistinguishable in a blind compare, and you know it. Shame on you.
Yeah, shame on him for talking about things you don't approve of. Come to think of it, you should call the police; they'll sort this hooligan once and for all!
@@yantrussart6584 No bigger free speech advocate than me. He can say what he likes. Likewise, I’m entitled to my opinion. $7k for this device is ludicrous. It’s reviewer malpractice. Good day.
To decouple evident quality from purchase price, as industry and reviewers still do, makes customers insecure. Buying hifi has become a big gamble: will you hit the sweet spot or pay too much for nothing special or will you pay too much for something nice but still way too expensive in comparison? I love good music and vintage hifi, but I turned my back to this industry completely. I rule my own kingdom developing speakers, selecting and soldering the cables and well I don’t dare to visit a brick and mortar store anymore, I just can’t curb my hostile distrust.
@@edd2771 The main thing is, you watched my video! Thanks, shows you're open-minded!
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac I consider reviewers to be guardians at the gate for audiophiles who are often victims of manufacturers who make products with dubious value propositions. This is a glaring example. It doesn’t matter if the buyer is wealthy or into only high-end gear. It doesn’t matter if this manufacturer has good credentials. There has to be an honest value proposition. There is no way…none..that the materials and labor in this device justify such an asking price. Electronic coupling? Cool. Nifty. But $7k for three inputs? Stop it. Just stop. Snap out of it please. It’s up to you and your reviewing brethren to point these obvious things out. It shouldn’t be up to folks like me. Yes I do watch, and I watch carefully. And I do keep an open mind. But having watched, I grow increasingly disillusioned with this hobby and the manufacturer/reviewer industrial complex that would have us purchasing products like this at prices like this.
Mono + mono = Stereo... peace!
#LOL Pay more, get less. What a great idea.
Depends how you look at it!
You're too smart to fall for that!
Less is More ☝️😎
Too sterile and too expensive for me. Schiit Freya+, NOS tubes and upgraded caps and resistors is my jam. 😊
Color! Flavor! I agree!
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac MUSICAL MUSIC! 😀👍🏼
Recording wise, Meddle sounds much better than Gates Of Dawn.
I absolutely prefer the BACKERT LABS Rhythm 1.3 linestage tube preamplifier when it comes to preamplifier in this price range and class. ✨💎♾️🎶🫵🌞😊