Hardy pres

I have an M1 with transformers in and out. Been my main preamp for vocals and acoustic instruments for over a decade. They are clean but not boring or flat sounding. If you can find a Daking Mic Pre IV, I think that is another good option for clean but not boring. I have them both. I tend to use the Hardy on vocals more and the Daking on piano and drums more. If I could afford another four channels of Hardy, I would buy it. Very well built and it sounds great. I love the metering too. The meters on the Daking are fairly worthless as the amount of gain from the Daking is way more than I ever need so the meters hardly ever move. On the Hardy, the meters are completely accurate and usable. Hit the red a little bit and it comes in on my +4 interface just perfectly.

As you know, I have some Hardy M-2 channels. They are incredible. Like, amazing. They are built like tanks. LED metering on the if you get the VU style is great. Has two modes.

They are big, clean, hi-fi but with a little character. You may not realize their character at first as it doesn't hit you over the head like Neve or something. Next to Sytek or AEA RPQ you'll notice. It has this 3-D larger than life kind of space to it. Depth and width. My IAA QPP is actually in a similar vein but with its Cinemag output has more of a classic warmth to it. The Hardy is a little more extended. Splitting a mic to each of those pre's showed them to be pretty close to one another but the differences are still there.

I really aspire to get more channels of Hardy. I want 8 M-2 eventually. You'll probably want more color from time to time, but you could live on Hardy pre's forever.

The Seventh Circle Audio J99 is another Hardy style Twin Servo preamp but uses a Lundahl input transformer and a high nickel Cinemag output transformer.

www.seventhcircleaudio.com/product-page/j99b-preamplifier

Maybe in the early years of SCA but I’ve had mine four J99’s for about five years and there was no Jensen option offered then or since the rebirth of SCA in the last year.

I’ve seen Hardy pres get recommended for and vocals more and more over the last few years, especially over the 1073 unless it’s a production with deliberately “retro/saturated” sound. I’m curious: has the 1073 Fallen out of favor as an all purpose vocal pre simply because it was the best at the time but it’s been eclipsed in the digital era? Or was the 1073 always more about the combination of the EQ and the pre and less it’s strength on vocals specifically?

Cross a Neve with a Millenia and that gets you somewhere in the Hardy territory.
Not as thick/coloured as the Neve or as clinical as the Millenia.

I find that if you leave the eq character out of both preamps the Neve seems to have a longer capture of the vocal with extended reverb tails and vocal lines. Almost like it has a built-in compressor. The Hardy is shorter but in a punchy and fast style. Someone mentioned Avalon which is another great one from that character class. I use the Avalon and Neve the most on vocals.