I'm looking at these and wanted some input. Grace design 101 vs gt brick vs summit audio 2ba-221. I know thats kind of all over the place but what I'm looking for needs to be a.) fairly versatile b.) different sounding than my firefaces preamps c.) a worthwhile step up in sound quality from the preamps in the rme. If none of these offer a significant improvement I'll probably just hold out until I can get the api pres I want. Don't get me wrong my fireface souns real good, just wondering if anything in this range will give me a noticable improvement. I do mostly rock. Any suggestions. I would definitely like something with a little more gain, my large diaghram dynamics are straving for gain with my existing pre's. The summit audio looks cool with the variable impedence. Any thought suggestions would be cool. Thanks
Comments
All of the pres you mentioned are very good pres. I wouldn't ev
All of the pres you mentioned are very good pres. I wouldn't even caveat that with the phrase "for the money." They're simply very good pres regardless.
In any case, the RME pres are halfway decent too. You will get a completely different sound by moving to any of the ones that you mentioned.
Personally, I have or have had all of the pres that you mentioned. Currently, the only one I still own is the Summit. I love my summits and would be hard pressed to trade them for anything else.
I do have my eye on the new GT stereo preamp though....
The Grace is clean. As clean as clean gets (well, almost - there are cleaner - DAV, Buzz, Hardy...)
The Summit is dark and full. It can (based on the amount of tube saturation) run the gamut from full and relatively uncolored to fat as hell.
The GT Brick is really kinda thick. It's somewhere about 60% as thick as the Summit can get when it's pushed all the way.
In any case, you'll be pleased with any or all of your choices.
J.
I recommend the Summit. The Grace is very transparent and refine
I recommend the Summit. The Grace is very transparent and refined. The Brick is a better DI than Pre.