The EAR 868 is one of the best sounding pre-amps ever made. Both the line stage and the MC phono pre-amp stage present strong clean bass, luscious mids, and I can no longer hear the highs, so you can take the word of professional reviewers for that part. There is a tape-loop, so you can install another component (tape deck or CD recorder or (pretend I did not say this: an outboard tone-control unit such as a Schitt Loki) . . . There are dip switches inside for changing the loading (impedance and gain) of your MC cartridge and there is also a MM switch for lower amplification. There are also unbalanced (RCA) output jacks and input jacks and likewise input RCA and XLR. So you can drive two amps. Yes, the XLR still work when you are simultaneously using the RCA; the RCA still work when you are using the XLR. The general character of the sound, compared to most lower-cost units, I would describe as 'meaty' and powerful. A kind of sound you can (and will want to) listen to all night.

Weaknesses ? Well, you may be tempted to upgrade your cables. High cost, if you consider that a weakness. The cost (even for the used pieces) keeps going up. The light around the on-off switch is somewhat unpleasant, but that is easy to alter (make it dimmer or change the color with a plastic ring), The remote that came with it is very cheesy, but there is a new sleek heavy metal one now as a replacement for the original one. Honestly can't think of any other 'weaknesses'.