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John Stafford 5 October 2004

Hi Everyone,
I'm curious about the DAV BG1 pre. I've heard some great things about it, and it's not ludicrously expensive. I read elsewhere that it's absolutely glorious with a Shure KSM-44 on vocals. I hope I got the mic name right; anyhow it's the multi-pattern retro looking one.

Sound On Sound gave it a glowing review, but they tend to give great reviews to everything, so I'm not really sure what to think. Have they ever said anything was a piece of crap?

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bap Tue, 10/05/2004 - 15:18

I e-mailed them about buying one in the USA and they said that they could set them up for US electrical and ship one over. As of then they had no US distributor. I didn't buy one.

I remember that review and was intrigued. Mr. Robjohns generally does not speak highly of inferior gear and seemed to like this quite a bit.

I have heard it highly recommended by elite location recordists but have a feeling that many on this site might not approve of it's relatively 'uncolored' sound.

Is it possible for you to try one out?

Bruce P.

John Stafford Tue, 10/05/2004 - 22:25

Hi Bruce.

Thank you for your reply. It's a shame that they don't have a US distributor. The only one I know of is KMR in the UK, and it's tempting to hop across the water to test some stuff out (I live in Ireland).

I agree that its uncoloured sound might cause some consternation on the board -especially as it uses op-amps on the input stages (I think!), but the whole Decca heritage thing is intriguing.

It's a pity for me that the British Pound is riding so high at the moment!

John Stafford

anonymous Sat, 10/09/2004 - 12:08

I just bought the DAV BG1 to use instead of a Mackie VLZ pro. I record classical music with a Schoeps CMC6 MK4/MK8 M/S stereo pair, and Lynx L22 AD/DA converter. My first impressions are that the DAV has a much more open sound than the Mackie, so the instruments sound more real, and the acoustic of the recording space is better captured. It is also small (12ins x 4ins x 2.5ins), and light (3lbs), so ideal for location recording.
From my pre-purchase researches, I would doubt there is anything to match the sound quality for less than double the price. I would be interested if anyone on this board disagrees.
Patrick[/url]

FifthCircle Tue, 10/12/2004 - 12:38

I'll be purchasing one of these after my next round of paying bills... I'll post on what I think of it. For $600, though, it doesn't have to be that great to be usable.

Some engineers that I trust a lot have been raving about it and selling off gear that costs many times as much as they just aren't using it anymore since purchasing DAV pres.

Granted, these are all classical folks, but we need good pres, too. :P

--Ben

Krou Tue, 10/12/2004 - 13:48

John Stafford wrote: Sound On Sound gave it a glowing review, but they tend to give great reviews to everything, so I'm not really sure what to think. Have they ever said anything was a piece of crap? :wink:

I have to disagree with this. I've been reading SOS for about 5 years now and I've seen many "mediocre" reviews. They have a job to do and it wouldn't be in their (or any professional entity for that matter) best interest to claim a piece of kit a complete "piece of crap". Perhaps you've just been lucky enough to see them favor whatever it is you're interested in buying at any given time...stranger things could happen, you know.

John Stafford Fri, 10/15/2004 - 20:38

I have to disagree with this. I've been reading SOS for about 5 years now and I've seen many "mediocre" reviews. They have a job to do and it wouldn't be in their (or any professional entity for that matter) best interest to claim a piece of kit a complete "piece of crap". Perhaps you've just been lucky enough to see them favor whatever it is you're interested in buying at any given time...stranger things could happen, you know.

Ok, maybe I'm being a little unfair to SOS, but I genuinely feel that there have been many times when some pieces of kit should have been criticised more heavily. Maybe I've just been unlucky with some pieces of equipment that I've tried on their recommendation, and have been very disappointed with. That's not to say I consider myself a connoisseur of pro audio gear -far from it!

John Stafford

bap Sat, 12/04/2004 - 11:54

Ben - do you have your BG1 yet? I am ebay-ing a couple of things off will hope to use the funds to buy one for myself. I haven't heard back from DAV yet, though.

To add to the fun of it all, my ebay offer has been fouled by one of those Nigerian scams. Now I get to wade through a bit of crap trying to straighten things out. :evil:

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