Sound on Sound preamp comparison

[Fran Guidry]

Sound on Sound magazine in the UK is my candidate for least offensive gear rag. They used an automated piano to create a reproducible source then tested a bunch of preamps with three different mics. The result is too much information, but with a little paring down one might learn something useful.

Here's the description of the test: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct1...eampsmedia.htm

and here's the current discussion thread: http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/sh...part=1#1009249

There are a couple of discussions going on at Gearslutz as well.

If anyone can ABX the difference between two of these samples from the same mic (13 successful out of 16 tries) I'd be very interested.

Fran

[Doug Young]

This seems like a well done test. Too bad theres no reasonable way to do it with guitar:-) I downloaded the files and quickly determined there was little sense trying to hear differences, if there are any, they're too small to matter to me. The SOS editor seems to sum it up pretty well:

" , as you can plainly hear, even the cheapest modern preamps manage to deliver a perfectly usable sound that is pretty accurate and uncoloured.

James is quite right when he says mic choice and positioning are far more critical in terms of sound quality and character."

[moon]

Thanks for the link Fran. Been too busy with work but will be interested to try the test when I can.

[Scott Whigham]

Originally Posted by moon

Thanks for the link Fran. Been too busy with work but will be interested to try the test when I can.

+1

Subscribed for when I can listen!

[Scott Whigham]

Whew. That's a lot to digest in one sitting. I just listened to each one back to back. They start to be indistinguishable pretty quick. There were three that stood out in the Brauner and MKH but only two that were "Wow!" in the Royer. I question though whether, upon a second listen, that I'd have the same reaction. When I listen back to back like that, some of my "reaction" is really more a comparison to the previous file rather than a comparison to reality. I just can't trust myself in large tests/shootouts like this!!!

My faves on my first pass were: Brauner_C, _D, and _H. MKH_B, _D, and _E. Royer_B, _G (with _H a "Hmmm... maybe that's the same but sheesh...")

Now I'm off to the forums to laugh at myself for (surely) picking the cheapies over the expensive ones

Haha - I laughed when I matched my favorites with the "key". There was a definite difference in my first picks and my last picks in terms of the "accuracy", I bet. What I thought was what was sooooo off.