Summary: The audible illusions L-1 linestage was purchased from art ferris the owner of audible illiusions who are now located in ormond beach florida a postal money order for 750.00 was sent to art on nov 3rd 2009 and i was supposed to get a rebuilt m3a, which i was told by art that it would be ready to ship in 3 days. this is where things took a turn for the worse. my m3a did not arrive as was promised i called art and was told he was waiting on parts, well to make a long story short after about 75 phone calls to art and countless escuses of all sorts and 5 months later i relented and agreed to have him send me a rebuilt L-1 linestage that took another 3 weeks to arrive. in mike fremers1996 m3a review in stereophile he stated that you should not send money in advance for a preamp to be shipped to you that was 1996 well that still holds true as of march 2010.after the preamp arrived i went through a 1 month brake in period. i was ready for some serious listening. the first thing i noticed was that this thing is very bright almost harsh on the top end. and very cool and clinical sounding not to my liking at all.in all honesty i think my opinion is somewhat jaded on this piece . it has been sold and replaced by an audio research LS-16 which is light years ahead of L-1 . exercise caution in your dealings with MR ART FERRIS
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Summary: I must say that I am very pleased with this preamp. It gives music a presence that makes it seem alive. The soundstage is very big and deep with 3 dimensional imaging.
A number of CD's in my collection I could not listen to and was about to throw away because they had too much glare and were too harsh. Now I am going to keep them and they all sound much better.
There is a lot of detail. This detail is in all frequency ranges - high as well as low. You also get the sence of many individual instruments playing. You can actually pick out the instruments as they play.
I actually was so pleased with what I heard that I must confess that I decided to split my system into a music and a home theater system and went out and bought VTL Tiny Triodes(2001) to pair with it.
I really recommend this preamp if you want very high quality sound !!!!
Strengths: Large soundstage. Very natural sound. Gives the music a presence that was not there before. Great detail with out being harsh. Lots of bass.
Weaknesses: None that I can think of.
Similar Products Used: VTL2.5 ;Audio Research SP-6,SP-8;MapleTree Octal 6
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Summary: I purchased used for $619. My first foray into Tube gear. I was amazed. A notable difference in lows & sound stage. It sound more "natural" Voices sound like voices, instruments like instuments. I use a simple Sony JukeBox for CD's and use an Old JBL Metregon for speakers alternating with a newer set of Platium Audio Speakers. Amp is Adcom 555.
Strengths: Warmth, better 'sound stage', better, more natural lows. Simple to set up.
Weaknesses: It would be nice to have better lighting on the knobs/dials, they are a little hard to read in low light situations. Mine is installed in a closet, I had to install a small light to see what I was doing.
Similar Products Used: Adcom products, Rotel Products.
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Summary: One of the best preamp I have ever used And I used many. Smooth and detailed. Caution very particular of tubes used I bought replacment sovtecks (junk noisy ) go to tubeworld.com he will take care of you I bought some amprex a little pricy but worth every penny about 140$ a pair it open this preamp to a new level and music comes out of blackness. awsome
Strengths: Build and smooth
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