What DOES harmonically compressed mean? I would personally go with the Telefunken. Doc

why would you go whith the telefunken?
I love that in your face sound of the amek 9098 preamp...it sounds different then the telefunken! The telefunken stands not so in front like the amek its more that vintage character....warm and transparent, better usable for chorus vox and so on....the amek is more usable for lead vox. I´m recording mostly female pop vox and acoustic and les paul guitar whith preamps. Therefore I nedd a good one! I use as mic an Studio Projects C1......

So any other tips or hints from you?

ms-scope

I had to add my two cents ... just can't resist.

Take the Amek and throw it in the trash! It made it into my worst preamp category. I recorded an entire pop/r&b (female vocals, lead & backs) album with one to try it out to see what the end of line results were. Needless to say I was more than not impressed. Very cold and sterile. I tried it out on other things as well, i.e. acoustic guitar, electric, drums, bass, etc.. Same result ... cold and sterile. Mic's were TLM 103, C12-vr, U87, 414 TL II. For the money I'm sure you can find something much more interesting. That telefunken is a good start.

:p:

If I wanted to follow suit here I would be getting my undies all balled up right now because I own 2 9098s. But I can understand Tommy’s comments. While I don't agree that they are the worst thing around, I would agree that they are a whole lot of nothing. But I think the same about 1272s, so go figure. The V76 is a tube pre, so of course it is going to be a bit warmer/darker sounding and may even have a pronounced sizzle to the top end! In the comparison I ran of several different pres, the 9098 did not place last in anyone’s list of preferences ,so that has something to say for it. It all depends if you prefer pres that add something to the sound or ones that do the job without adding anything at all. There are 2 schools of thought in regards to this. I like to have some of each, for different applications. It's like guitars. No one ever is perfect for everything. Kurt

It all depends if you prefer pres that add something to the sound or ones that do the job without adding anything at all.

I must agree with you there. I tend to be more on the side of preferring a pre which adds a little something so I'm definitely biased in that direction. My appologies if I offended you seeing that you own a couple of them (I knew I was going to start something ;) ). I stand by my statement though, they are in my experience not worth the price. I'll also agree that there are much worse things out there but I think that a pair of API pre's (for example) would get a lot more usage and better end results.

:p:

Tom,
I am not offended at all. I actually have been on the other side of this situation myself when I have made a dispariging remark regarding a piece of gear and someone has gotton upset because they owned one. I think it's funny actually. I have the 9098 pe/EQ's and I think the EQ's are great but as I said the pres are real "nothing". Much better than a "Smackie" but I myself as you do, prefer the pres with attitude. When I bought the Neves, I had an MCI 600 console, so I wasn't really concerned with the pres, I wanted the EQ's. Recently, I have become very enamoured (as you probably know) with the Sebatron pres. Also high on my list is the Millennia ORIGIN. I will be posting the review on the Millennia in the next day or so. Kurt

a) i agree the 9098 is a lot of "nothing" sonically.
poopy.
b) the V-76 is SO far the other end of the spectrum that it's almost hard to compare.
I can't even come up with a creative (and suitably witty) analogy!
The V-76 is a great sounding valve pre but it's very old technology AND even in its day it had a definite sound. It SOUNDS old and tube-y!
Not much in the way of EQ flexibility and not great at handling high levels either.

c) why an IC modern one or an all valve old one?
Why no in between? How about a discrete transistor, transformer in, but new one?
API? Daking? "reissue" 1081?

Guys... Thought I should point-out that he said a 676a, which is a transistor preamp. And if I recall correctly, it has a transformer input and output.

As a note, some people prefer the unbalanced output tapped before the output transformer, so you might want to wire it up both ways.

You're right. Serves me right for late night/early AM reading.

well..
the 676a is an unremarkable sounding preamp in all respects.
Not really interesting, as far as I am concerned.
but i STILL think the right answer to that question is "neither".
in fact, given this parameter, even more so.

Originally posted by Recording Engineer:
Guys... Thought I should point-out that he said a 676a, which is a transistor preamp. And if I recall correctly, it has a transformer input and output.

As a note, some people prefer the unbalanced output tapped before the output transformer, so you might want to wire it up both ways.

OOPPPS! I gotta get some new glasses.. or stop trying to answer so many posts in the am. (good excuse wwittman :D ) Thanks, for pointing that out Recording Engineer! Kurt