Solid State Preamp Reviews

This is the only time a butt upstages a piece of equipment. It appears Melody Gardot has put in some gym time on the stair master

As a 70 year old man I am quite confident I would never be able to hear an audible difference between this piece and a Benchmark LA4. For those who can, good for you. Enjoy it while you can.

Who needs a preamp worth this when everything sources or dacs etc have their own volume controls these days with enough gain to "feed direct" into poweramps with one less set of interconnects.
All it serves to do is to add more distortion/colorations into the signal path and have "glitz value" for $75k. It does have a phono stage??

Cheers George

"This preamp really has no sound of its own."

When the ancient Greeks were finally able to create realistic true-to-life statues, the reaction of everyone was not "OH! how great" but "OH! how boring" and sculptors immediately went back to creating unrealistic statues.

"This preamp really has no sound of its own."

And for those that believe that, the second set of interconnects I suppose don't either
Wow that's like inventing "perpetual motion"

Cheers George

I would like to add that I am a fan of extreme engineering. This was a large fraction of my work as a researcher before I retired. There is value in attempting to expand the limits of a given technology without regard to cost. Since we have an economic system that creates a relatively large pool of people for whom $100,000 represents pocket change better that they spend their spare change on luxury goods rather than buying politicians. A Rolex watch is a status symbol rather than a superior instrument for keeping track of time. The average human being is not going to miss their train by relying on a Timex watch. The person with the Rolex is not going to be more on time.

Thank you Jason for a very enjoyable read of something… I will never have. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to behold a unit like this - with or without it being plugged in! Like sw23 alludes, this is undoubtedly a fine piece of jewellery that only certain folk will ever enjoy. However, that’s why I love coming to Stereophile to read reviews like this. It’s the second-hand experience; the audible passion and appreciation of such craftpersonship that makes the reading compelling. Thank you as well for the notes on Ernst Schlader, I haven’t stopped listening since!

I’m with Sw23 on this one. I’ve waiting for my Benchmark HPA4 to arrive so I can plug it into my AHB2s and would like to think the journey will stop there. Hopefully my ears will convince me!

Good review, JS. But ... "the maximum gain for the balanced and unbalanced inputs to the balanced outputs was a little lower than the specified 4dB, at 3.7dB" --- that's a 7.15% deficit from spec, and it makes me wonder just how "precision" this device really is. If anything, I would have expected a box like this to be conservatively specified (e.g., 4dB spec = 5dB or 6dB actual). I have $200 Chinese boxes that are far more accurate at meeting their published specification.

This one, or another - priced tens of thousands less, no less - which JVS characterized as "clear and transparent and truthful as can be."

He went on to conclude that it "could very well be the keeper, the component that delivers a lifetime of joy and pleasure. It is one of those rare products whose excellence is proclaimed with every note. It is more than an object of beauty; it reaches into the emotional core of musical experience and opens a window onto ultimate truth."

I use my MSB Reference DAC as my system pre (Amps DD 400M MxV). Have been considering adding a preamp. Yet I'm confused. If the Soulution 727 has no sound signature how will it be an improvement over my DAC? Lots of back and forth on this subject. Jason can you shed some light on this subject? Cheers