Not that simple. Depends on the song, arrangement, the singers voice, the singers style, the mic, the room, ect... Both are very good preamps.

Hmm. Interesting. Assuming all the other points are equal, what specific difference do you hear between these two pre-amps for different arrangements Audiogaff?

Hard to put into words. NOTHING is ever equal so you can't proceed from that point of view. But like mics. you can tell when something is working well and and when it is isn't (or at least I can) so If I'm looking for a harder edge for example, I'm much more likely to get it from the Manley than I am from the Avalon. How a preamp handles transients and how how it performs when driven hard vs soft, or how fast vs slow the preamp is are things I consider when choosing. A song and it's arrangement for a ballad vs a hard rocker will influence my decision as well.

AudioGaff wrote: Hard to put into words. NOTHING is ever equal so you can't proceed from that point of view. But like mics. you can tell when something is working well and and when it is isn't (or at least I can) so If I'm looking for a harder edge for example, I'm much more likely to get it from the Manley than I am from the Avalon. How a preamp handles transients and how how it performs when driven hard vs soft, or how fast vs slow the preamp is are things I consider when choosing. A song and it's arrangement for a ballad vs a hard rocker will influence my decision as well.

Im in the process of learning exactly what my Manely sounds like at different db levels,,,so with that said,I can understand youre reponse.----Good one!!

I see, thanks. 8-)

Keep in mind that when you are picking high end gear such as preamps, a lot of times the differences between gear is often subtle and sometimes very subtle and can be far less drastic in difference than the difference between high end gear and the mass produced crap that many are used too. Working with high end gear gets to the point where one is not always or clearly better than the other as much as one is just different than another. Learning what those differences are, how to choose gear based on the differences, and how to make those differences work for you are one of the things that make one person a wanker and the other a professional audio craftsman.

Not everybody can be a good musician and some people no matter how much gear or how much high end gear they have, or time and effort they invest, will ever get past the wanker stage. Such is life...