Post by kcatthedog on Mar 25, 2018 5:28:50 GMT -6
This is from the gearslutz thread listed in Heritage thread here. My comments at bottom.
I've had a little bit of time to play with the Heritage HA73EQ and the Warm WA237EQ on my voice and bass (through the DI on both units). I'll preface this discussion by saying that I have decided to keep both units and also order a second Heritage so that I have a stereo pair of both channels. As you might suspect, that means I like different things about them but both are good units, in my opinion. Some of the differences are actually pretty surprising to me, though.
1. Hardware: Of the two preamps, I think the Warm has more solid external hardware. All of the rotary switches just feel very nice and solid on the Warm while the Heritage switches feel a little less solid to me (they don't click into place quite as nicely, but they seem to work just fine). The push buttons feel pretty good on both units, although the Heritage phantom power button feels a little bit wobbly to me. It does light up and stand out nicely from the others, though, which is a handy feature. The potentiometers on both units feel fine and the stepped gain controls also both feel very solid on both units. One thing to note as far as connectors go: the Warm has Neutrik XLRs and jacks while the Heritage seems to have a different brand without that little locking button for the input that Neutriks have. The ins and outs feel fine, though. Something I appreciate on the heritage, though, is that the top plate of the unit can be screwed off directly for easy access to the insides. Handy if you need to fix something or just are curious.
2. Features: The features are also a bit different between the Warm and Heritage Elite. One thing that surprised me a little bit is the High Pass Filter operation. On the Warm, you have the ability to use the high pass filter without having to engage the rest of the EQ, which I find quite useful. On the Heritage, the High Pass Filter is only engaged when the EQ is engaged. This means you never get the high pass filter without the 12hkz treble shelf filter engaged and you have to turn off the other two bands individually if you don't want to use those. It's a little bit of a bummer, but not a big deal.
Speaking of the 12hkz treble shelf filter, this is a fixed frequency on the Heritage (as it is on a Neve), but the Warm has options for 10, 12, and 16hkz shelving. Personally, I am totally fine with the 12hkz only as it seems to be the most useful of the 3 ranges for me (probably why Rupert picked it). The other frequency selections are the same, but I'll talk a bit more about the EQ later in the sound section.
The Warm of course, also has an insert loop which is very cool and it also has a number of other features not present on the Heritage. The Warm has 1/4" line ins and outs, which are handy, and an additional XLR input on the front of the unit (also handy). One other slightly different feature is the DI switching. The Warm has a separate switch to engage the DI input (allowing you to leave it plugged in) while the Heritage automatically switches to DI if you plug something in the DI input. This is a bit of a tossup for me, as I think both methods have merits. The Heritage also has a pad switch for the mic/line inputs that the Warm lacks. This is a good thing because...
3. Sound: The thing that strikes me as most obviously different about the Warm and the Heritage is the amount of input gain each unit has available. The heritage can get WAY dirtier (I mean really, a lot) and seems to be overall much hotter at the input stage. This is a bit weird as the gain controls both have equivalent steps on them. At 70-80db, the Heritage essentially becomes a Fuzz Pedal through the DI (which does not seem to use the pad). It will also sag out on bass notes at this extreme gain setting, producing a swell effect. The Warm does not get anywhere near this level of distortion and its breakup is a lot more mellow (surprisingly quite different). On the other hand, though, the Heritage, when dialed in to lower gain settings, starts to sound very similar to the Warm, though I do notice that it seems to have a faster transient response (leading it to seem a bit brighter and, again, a little "hotter"). I suspect that it has a bit more natural compression than the Warm because of this which may lead it to sound a bit more "open" counter-intuitively because it seems to be more reactive.
Now are these good things about the Heritage? Well, sometimes. I find it felt a bit more satisfying sometimes (both are very nice on DI bass, especially with a Stam LA2A and Hairball 1176 in line after, but the Heritage hotness seems to be nice for adding a bit more attitude. I got pretty close to a Master of the Universe type bass tone, actually). On vocals, I think it depends on the song and singer, but the Warm's mellower sound matched my voice better for the song I happened to be working on. The faster transient response was a little too much. I suspect the Heritage will sound great on guitar cabs.
One problem, here, is it's going to be very difficult to try and do a true A/B test because it doesn't seem like the gain settings correspond directly to one another (unless, perhaps, the pad brings the Heritage into line with the Warm's range.
Regarding the EQ, I think I am going to have to reserve judgment here until I get to play with both units more. My initial reaction is that the HPF sounds great on both units and I prefer the fixed high shelf on the Heritage, but it's not really a big deal. The Heritage does have an additional inductor inside, it seems (more like a Neve). This is, I believe, for the mid-band EQ and Heritage claims this gives them the right curves. It's possible that the Warm has some kind of stacked inductors, though, and they just look like one and are actually functionally two.
Anyway, long story short: I like both units though they are quite different. Maybe I got a crazy gained up Heritage by accident or something, because I am really pretty surprised how much hotter it is (but I'm keeping it regardless, because it's awesome).
Great review thx.
Two points, the Warm went after the original Maranair design and sound so it should sound more vintage, the roundness and smoothness.
For DI, the Warm does not go through input transformer, so less gain and no overdriving for dirt.
