Differentiating Mic Pres

OK, so too broad of a question. I found this page on the Musician's friend site, and the part that got my attention was on transformers and the fact that apparently they are 'controversial.'  Can someone weigh in on what's so controversial about them?  Disclaimer - I'm looking for a good clean/transparent single channel pre-amp to complement my Dizegoff D4's, which have plenty of character.  And though I'm hoping to get specific advice on that score, I really want to have a better understanding of the general differences in solid state and possibly hybrid designs.

Transformers are good for isolation from interference, impedance matching, and dealing with voltage loads, and can add a pleasing distortion and transient handling. But some transformers like Jensens are transparent and low distortion.
Transformerless designs are more transparent generally speaking, and cheaper at entry level, but hard to design for musical character and low interference.

If you want a transparent pre that is still musical I would check out John Hardy M1 with transformer. For transformerless design but low interference and on the warmer side, Forsell, Schoeps, Gordon, GML, or AEA.

That said, maybe that's not actually what you want.

To give a basic rundown, some preamps such as transformerless or opamp designs and so on are faster with the transient response, and some are slower, like tube and multi-transformer designs.
Some, like a cheap IC design you find in all-in-one USB interfaces are more opaque and flat, or like a true discrete design more 3 dimensional.
Same is true of microphones in general.

Also preamps can have more headroom before distortion or less, and can have musical or nasty clipping distortion.

Some examples:

API style pres are mid forward, CAPIs are a little mellower/thicker, with more harmonic character like the vintage API designs.
So one might use them on snare or guitars.

Neves are thicker and slower and bigger sounding.
Some one might use them on kick or overheads or vocals.
Engaging the eq on a 1073 will also tighten up the sound a bit, and can be used to add sheen.

Electrodynes are sorta in between, not too fast, balanced but pretty fat sounding.

Vintage style tube pres like Telefunken, Chandler Redd 47, Tubetech and so on are more euphonic, have a pleasing harmonic distortion or soften sibilance and are really 3D or big sounding, but can still be more laid back or forward sounding depending on the character. Telefunken is more laid back, Chandler is more forward, and Tubetech is fat.
Some modern tube designs are pretty clean sounding, though, like DW Fearn.

Another thing to consider is how preamps stack in the mix, which is a big part of the API or Neve sound, for instance, where you have a certain character in midrange and separation of elements as a result.

Right, a lot of vintage tube designs are pretty hifi sounding with proper gain staging and a lot of cheaper modern designs are pretty gray, noisy or congested sounding.

I found this post that I made from another thread. Updating here, with some more current info/thoughts.

Disclaimer: This is all based on my first hand experience. Clean to one person might be sterile to another. Words describing sound should always be taken with a grain of salt.


Nightpro PreQ3 (Maag PreQ4: transformer, solid state) - Great preamp. Nice weight/clarity and the Air Band is killer.

Thermionic Culture Rooster (transformer, tube) - Nice preamp. Solid color. EQ is good, not great, attitude is cool when you need some added tube harmonics. Lot of use here.

Peavey VMP-2 (transformer, tube) - Really cool, vintage sounding preamp. Thick on the bottom, round top, sounds pretty old school. Not an everyday workhorse, but cool when you're looking for that sound.

Millennia HV3C (transformerless, solid state) - Fast, clean pre. I know a lot of people don't like these, but I love the clarity for some sources. Really dig these on acoustic instruments and overheads with a pair of KM184's. Modern, clean, detailed sound.

UA 610 (transformer, tube) - Thick and wooly. I've have good results with kick and bass DI. I've tried it on vocals, acoustic/electric guitars, and snare and haven't liked the results.

Vintage Neve 1073 (GAP, BAE, Heritage Audio, AML: transformer, solid state) - Thick bottom, round top (darker than you would expect), with the ability to get dirty when pushed. Complete opposite of the Millennaia. I've used these positively on vocals, snare, and acoustic guitars.

API 512c (CAPI, Warm, BAE: transformer, solid state) - Fast, mid forward, great bite. Love them on guitar...drums all day. I haven't been happy with them on vocals or acoustic guitar.

Avalon VT-737sp (transformer, tube) - Nice, fairly clean tone. GREAT EQ. Love it on snare, good on vocals.

Grace 101 (transformerless, solid state) - Quick and detailed. Great sounding, inexpensive, transformerless preamp.

True Precision (transformerless, solid state) - Quick clean tone, but soulless.

SSL E and G (solid state) - Average preamps. Utility.

Joe Meek VC1 (transformer, solid state) - This thing has a tone to it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Doesn't blow me away on anything, but it's serviceable.

Midas Venice (transformerless, solid state) - Average preamps. Utility.

I think you spelled "suck ass" wrong. But I might be mistaken...

And the 'tube sound' is often actually the transformer sound.  You could DIY some 990 Hardy type preamps with all sorts of different and antique 1:2 and 1:1 transformers and get something else entirely.  

Clean, huge, no trannies: DAV BG1

Correction noted... Voltage gain!

Daww, one of my favorite geeky topics!

I tend to favor the solid state transformer preamps for just about anything. SCA N72 (Neve) is fat and thick, CAPI VP312 (API, I modified to use Cinemag transformers) is a little more snappy sounding with a mid push to it, but still plenty of color. Both are usable on almost anything, and I absolutely love both of them. I just wish I had about 10 more of each.

The rest of my preamps are of the clean utility type, including Apollo Unison, Mackie Onyx, Presonus XMAX, Steinberg Yamaha D-Pre and Yamaha MLA-8, Focusrite Scarlett, and the Tascam UH-7000 HDIA Preamps. Wow, I have a lot of these! They get used but not as often as the CAPI and SCA. Usually more for instrument inputs.

Probably my favorite of all of those is the Tascam UH-7000. The sound is so smooth and natural to my ears, it almost rivals the Neve sound, just a bit lighter and cleaner. But the sound is so very "warm" for an IC op amp transformerless preamp, they did a great job with those. I would not hesitate to use these on any critical recording.

The Yamaha D-Pre in the Steinberg UR824 also has a smooth, natural sound and is a great all-around choice.

I use the Apollo preamps mostly for Hi-Z inputs now and then, when I'm doing DI work.

I am extremely curious about tube preamps, but the expense and scarcity of them has sort of kept me away. I did own the UA 610, and it's been described well above. Sort of warm and wooly, sort of dark on top.

I love preamps like the API that can have a DI input on them. That makes them extra fun for me.

One of these days I'm going to build a 4-channel Hardy M-1 clone. That will be fun. Also would like to add some VP28's from CAPI.

I have considered the J99.

However my plan is to use the Jensen input transformers, and I already have 4x PCBs and a PSU ready. I just need to get nitty gritty, order the case and parts, all the transformers, op amps, etc, and get started with it.

It's going to be a somewhat expensive project, however I think it will still come out slightly cheaper than the SCA. Also I love me a good from-scratch build, rather than using a kit. I just have about 20% more fun that way. You should see svart 's stuff, it's amazing, mostly from scratch.

It's interesting that the term bloom has not been used here. To me, where tubes reach beyond solid state, is something I identify as bloom or note bloom. Another key thing with tubes vs solid state is the randomness valves can yield, which I find to be more natural. None of this is to say tube circuits are better than solid state, just different in the message each send.