Stereo mic / line pre-amp

[R_A]

I'm looking to buy a Stereo mic / line pre-amp price point at GBP 900 to 1800.

Initial research indicates that the choice is between Drawmer 1972, Focusrite ISA Two and Phoenix Audio Ascent Two. Are there any others I should be aware of?

My gut says the Drawmer might be the best bet at this price point. What do you think?

[Hugh Robjohns]

It obviously depends what features, facilities and sound character you're looking for... from that list I'd go for the ISA Two. It's a very simple, classic, but supremely elegant design that sounds excellent. I use ISA428 preamps a lot here...

But my personal favourite, and the one I'd buy above all else at any price right now, is the Cranborne EC2. It's a stunningly good, ultra-clean, ultra-quiet preamp with masses of gain on hand. It's beautifully designed, with every aspect of it's design exactly as it should be. It's an engineering masterpiece, and that's not surprising given that it was Cranborne's original flagship product that had many months of love, care and skill poured into it, essentially with no expense spared. It punches so far above its price point it puts preamps costing thousands to genuine shame!

And if you want sonic flavour, the Mojo knob and cream/thump options have everything covered at the turn of a knob. Plus, you get a couple of excellent headphones amps as well. The EC2 is the preamp I turn to first for any job in the studio, and it's my standard comparative review mic preamp. Can't rate it highly enough.

[Bob Bickerton]

I can’t really offer views on alternative options, but just to say I used to have an ISA428, which I really enjoyed. When I moved over to a UAD Apollo system, which itself has excellent preamps, I added an ISA Two. Apart from sounding good, I wanted to have a nice tactile preamp across my first two channels, the channels which are used the most in my setup.

Bob

[R_A]

But my personal favourite, and the one I'd buy above all else at any price right now, is the Cranborne EC2. It's a stunningly good, ultra-clean, ultra-quiet preamp with masses of gain on hand. It's beautifully designed, with every aspect of it's design exactly as it should be. It's an engineering masterpiece, and that's not surprising given that it was Cranborne's original flagship product that had many months of love, care and skill poured into it, essentially with no expense spared. It punches so far above its price point it puts preamps costing thousands to genuine shame!

Thank you Hugh. Cranborne are a new name to me. Though I see that they incorporated in 2017 and the company directors have been involved in a number of UK audio companies in a past. I will do some more reading and hopefully some listening.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Here's my SOS review of the EC2:

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/cr ... camden-ec2

And my review of the original Camden 500:

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/cr ... camden-500

[R_A]

- following up on this thread.

I went with the Cranborne and I'm very happy with it's performance.

Thank you to Hugh for the good recommendation.

[Hugh Robjohns]

[wireman]

The EC2 looks really intersting but this puts me off...

[R11] Power: Provides Camden EC2 with power via the provided external 24v 1A DC power supply. No other power supply should be used.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Yes, it uses an external line-lump. Not ideal, I agree, but not actually a problem if the preamp lives in a rack or flight case. And not something that invalidates the stunningly good and versatile preamp capabilities... or the superb dual headphone amps.

Whichever way you look at it, the EC2 offers outstanding value for money, and I dont mind tolerating an external PSU as part of that deal.

Plenty of other preamps use external power supplies, of course, usually for logical technical reasons. Amongst my own collection of preamps the SSL VHD, AEA TRP, GML 8304, and the Cranborne EC2 all have external PSUs.