Electric & Company, operated by Mattie Smith and crew out of Austin, Texas, hand-build a small lineup of tube microphone preamplifiers and refurbish vintage units. My first experience with this...
These days, it’s pretty rare to see a piece of audio equipment with an innovative feature set, but the Cranborne Audio Camden EC2 is indeed one of those rarities. It is a combination two-channel...
Four years ago, Black Lion Audio introduced the B173 [Tape Op #100], their single-channel take on a British-style preamp at a wallet-friendly price. Last year, their B173 Quad improved on the design...
Coming up in audio in the early 2000s, I was present for what was maybe not the most universally trustworthy or well-informed era of the online audio forum, but definitely the funnest. There were...
When the folks at Benchmark suggested a review of their HPA4 for Tape Op, my first reaction was, “Isn’t this aimed more at the audiophile market?” Benchmark’s Rory Rall replied...
At the January 2020 NAMM Show (which seems like a lifetime ago) the New STAGE 1 Board Combo was one of the cooler things I saw. It’s really simple; an amp-sized heavy-duty ABS polymer plastic...
Based in Austin Texas, Electric & Company builds and restores boutique preamplifiers. The EC6 is a mono tube preamp based on the preamps from the Ampex 600 series reel-to-reel tape machines. The...
Bryston, based in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, has been around since 1961. The company straddles the border between pro audio and the part of the audiophile/home theater world that gravitates to...
A new addition to the venerable Drawmer line, the 1970, is a dual FET compressor, dual mic pre, and mono DI. It's versatile and easy to use with a vast feature set. While the 1970 borrows its layout...
There seems to be an endless number of stompbox companies out there, but a good portion of them are only offering their take on classic circuits. Strymon is a rare exception to this, and has released...
The UAD VT-737 is a recreation of the renowned Avalon Designs 737 tube channel strip [Tape Op #28]. At a glance, the basic features of the channel strip include a preamp section with +45 dB of gain, a...
I first met Bryce Gonzales about five years ago through our mutual friend and pillar of the Los Angeles music community, Jonathan Larroquette. Jonathan is a longtime manager, fixer, and fixture at...
