Extreme transparency, lack of any sonic signature of its own.

Could have had more inputs, easier volume controls. Transparency and lack of tone controls make bad source amterial sound even worse.

Actually, I do not have an ELAD of my owen yet, but I have listened to it extensively and for a long time at a friend's house.

From the very first momwent, this preamp sets all "High-End" (read High-Priced) dogmas on their ear. After long continuous brainwashing, most audiophiles believe that lamps are better than transistors, transistors are better than ICs, balanced connectors are better than unbalanced, etc., and that anything that weighs less than 100 Lbs and does not come with a $3000 powerr cord is worthless. Of course, it is never defined what "better" means. Leaving aside various audio voodoo terms like "musicality", "sweetness" and the "there there", a component (unless it's a room or speaker correction system, of course) is better if it does not introduces less distortion into the signal, i.e. if it does not change and color what was recorded on the source material. Based on that crietrion (the only one worthy of discussion, IMHO), there may be preamps _as good_ as ELAD, but there are none _better_. The reason is very simple -- ELAD does not have any sonic signature of its own. I won't repeat what was already said about the transparency of ELAD here before, but it is really something to be heard, particularly in a product of such low price.

ELAD will not win any prizes for aesthetic design, but it is a very well built device, and it shows thjat it was built by someone who likes what he is doing. Definitely a 5-star rating.

Similar Products Used:

MacIntosh C15, some ancient Treshold, Audio Analogue Puccini.

Performance, Build Quality, Service, Value

Nothing that really matters

I've been giving the ELAD a thorough testing for the last two months since having the privilege of taking delivery directly from Don Morrison during a very enlightening lunch at a downtown Toronto pub. In the week that followed, I received three phone calls from Don following up to make sure that everything was going well with my new purchase. Don talked about his service philosophy during lunch and his commitment to personally guarantee the quality of every single unit he delivers. This wasn't a salesman's pitch, but a completely sincere commitment from a truly refreshing individual.
Don is clearly enjoying the success of his new creation (the ELAD) but not as a typical business owner who sees the $$$$ opportunities of a clear success. Don reminds me more of proud parent than an entrepreneur breaking through to the bigtime. If he was the latter, he would be tripling the price on his unit and working out a mass distribution deal. Fortunately for the privileged few that have managed to get their hands on this gem, we will be able to brag for years about the absolutely terrific deal we managed to scoop on this brilliant piece of equipment.
As reviewers before have said, this is a truly transparent unit that gives you exactly what is contained in the original source. I have played several hundred CD's on this unit over the last two months, and another 20 or so DVD's when I hooked this in to run the front two channels on my home theatre system. The music has never been better on those CD's that have been superior source material, but the weaker material, with less than adequate production, is presented with all their warts exposed like never before. About 1/3 of the CD's played on the ELAD produced the most rewarding audio experience of my 30 year quest for that "perfect" sound. The bottom 1/3 of this experience,is the reason why I took an extra month of testing before submitting this review. I really could not tolerate listening to many of these "inferior" discs and it was tough coming to the realization that these discs would now be filed away to the dusty netherlands of my collection. It didn't take me long to realize that the experience of a lifetime derived from the "superior" discs playing unencumbered through the ELAD was far and away balancing the scales on the plus side of the experience. Who cares if 1/3 of my CD collection will never get played again, or be relegated to play time on my less than spectacular car system. The part of my collection that really counts, is now producing an overall sound experience that is literally out of this world.
The last part of my review relates to the DVD experience. Instead of the multichannel surround sound effect, I hooked a Sony DVP S7700 DVD Player directly into the ELAD, and partnered with a Bryston 4BST AMP and an old pair of KEF 107 Speakers, I had a Movie sound experience to die for. The KEF 107's have always delivered outstanding bass reproduction, but the range of sound coming out of this pair sounded like 8 speakers, instead of 2. However, just like the CD experience, only the DVD's with superior source material delivered the goods.
In conclusion, the ELAD is one truly spectacular high end piece of audio equipment, available at a price that is a small fraction of the value received. My recommendation : Go for it!!! You may have to wait several months for Don to get through his backorders, but the wait is certainly worth it.

sonic purity

it looks different than other high end preamps. No remote control

In July of 1999 I started to shop for a high quality audio system to replace the Sony receiver Klipsch shelf speaker system in what was formerly our vacation home. As an electrical engineer my plan was to prescreen the multitude of products by simply comparing the performance specifications of those units in my price range. What a rude awakening! The specifications, when available tended to be incomplete. The new subjective method uses elaborate brochures and magnificent prose to describe the attributes of equipment. The better the prose the better the equipment, I guess? From July thru January I continuously had systems on trial, comprised of four different power amps, five preamps, and five FM tuners. Local specialty houses that didn’t appear to be really interested in the audio system customer supplied most components. The five-channel home theater sale seemed to be of more interest. After yet another disappointment with a highly recommended preamp that arrived with an intermittent remote control, subsequently replaced by a factory fresh unit that arrived DOA, would not power up at all - I found Don Morrison on a Web Search.
Thank goodness!!!! Here is a manufacturer with complete specifications – no BS. He’s even interested in having you as a customer and you can talk directly to the man that designed, built, tested and shipped your unit! WOW! And if the performance is what he says it is, the pricing is to good to be true.It’s not remote controlled.Nor does it have mega inputs and outputs or lots of dials and lights but although physically attractive it is rather unassuming. But as one would expect from specs that are out of this world - the SOUND! - THE SOUND is absolutely brutally pure.
With all the combinations of equipment I had demo'd in my home there was minimal to no soundstage, no matter what tweaking, speaker placement, furniture arrangement, etc was attempted. (My speakers are bi-wired Martin Logan Aerius i driven by a McCormack DNA 0.5 power amp; Magnum Dynalab MD 102 FM tuner; and Sony CD player.) I was told that when the 30 day, 45 day, 60day burn-in period is completed the sound stage will appear but of course you know that never happened. The moment the ELAD was installed and turned on there was my three dimensional sound stage from wall to wall and the depth of a concert hall stage!! No other tweaks were made then, nor since. It’s simply not necessary. The sound is simply magnificent.
My musical interests are classical music as well as Jazz from its Golden era. Each night I sit in my listening room for a few hours, immersed in this magnificent sound field. It’s having your own private concert hall, slate of performers and most of all, being emotionally involved in the music. All made possible by Don Morrison,his vision of what a preamp should be and developing that idea into a viable product.
Buying audio gear, unseen and unheard from an unknown individual in a foreign country intuitively causes some trepidation. But of all the transactions I have been involved in since last July, dealing with Don Morrison has been an extraordinarily pleasant and satisfying experience. I always felt like I was doing business with a very good personal friend because he always provides more than one would expect; more performance, care, integrity, quality, reliability and pride in your preamp. No cause for trepidation here folks. Dealing with Don Morrison restores ones faith in our capitalist system. I’m looking forward to purchasing the next Morrison product.
I’ve read all the other reviews here and from a performance point of view they have expounded on the virtues of the ELAD far better than I could. Just believe - it really is all true; outstanding performance at a reasonable price, from a product built with enormous pride by a firm and individual that’s simply a joy to do business with. What could be better?

Similar Products Used:

HK Citation, Aragon, Adcom GFP750,sony, etc. etc.

simple and sweet

You can't believe a product so simple and so low in cost can sound so good.

What can be said about this preamp that has not been stated over and over again? Mr. Morrison is one fine man to make such a wonderful preamp that cost less than a small car. The system it is in very demanding SuperAudio CD player all English Rugby Team Speakers all MIT cables. So a preamp that can match this system was hard to find from all the usual suspects. Then I read a review on this very site...talked to the man...and now I am singing Oh Canada. So get in line and happiness will come to you for a lot less than you think.

Don Morrison is the strength. His ethic, his engineering, his skill, his tenacious quality control, his delightful client interaction, and those wonderful Analog Devices 797 op amps that sit at the heart of his ELAD's.

Uhhhh... Let me think. There must be something. Uhhhh... Hmmmm... This could take a while.

Wow! A Canadian who actually bought Canadian! And am I ever glad I did! Orders for the ELAD are coming in from all over the world thanks to the internet and this web site. For example, Don is just finishing a unit for a doctor in northern Greece. Last time we talked it was Singapore. Whenever I call him or he calls me, it seems to be from some other interesting place that someone is making the ELAD decision.

As I thought about adding my two cent's worth to this "review" section, I actually stopped and read the other twenty-three previous reviews for ELAD and its (included) power supply, called ERPS. Really, there's not much to add. These (often impassioned) folks have given you a pretty complete and realistic sense of the product and man who stands squarely behind it.

For me ELAD is dead quiet and wonderfully invisible. The output from the Ah!Tjoeb CD player (yes, me too) just pours through the ELAD and onward toward my (active bi-amplified) Canadian-made speakers.

I have to tell you that I nearly burst into laughter when the box arrived in Ottawa, Canada after its short (200 mile) trip via UPS from Toronto. Talk about overkill. In comes a huge box filled with styrofoam panels and another box inside. I opened up the second box and found more styrofoam panels and three more boxes, each one lined with soft foam. In one box was ELAD (in a soft-cloth bag), then ERPS (equally attired) in the next box, and finally cables and such in the last box. Later, Don told me he packs for a six-foot drop. Six foot drop, nothing!! That maze of boxes-in-box-in-box could have gone over Niagara Falls. But that's Don! Nothing half way.

I know there may be some of you out there who are dying to read reviews that are filled with reassuring and quintessential adjectives that describe the impact of introducing ELAD to a stereo system. In the final analysis we each have to judge this for ourselves. So, I don't know what to tell you. Suffice it to say that I'm nearing 50, have a fair bit of hearing left (that's "hearing" not "hairing"), and have never had so much fun in my life. Real pleasure, hour after hour. And every now and then I turn my head and just look at ELAD and ERPS and admire them. Then I close my eyes and drift back to Alison Krauss, or Raymond Leppard with the English Chamber Orchestra and Mozart, or a spot of Stanley Turentine on sax.

I've lost some CD's. It's true. The ELAD shows their faults and I know they will now start to collect dust. No matter, it's a small price to pay.

The ELAD experience has demonstrated to me the very best scenario for the acquisition process of audiophile-grade equipment (regardless of whether I, myself, am an audiophile or not). How often do you end up "mattering" to your vendor let alone the manufacturer? Well, get ready for the ELAD experience and Mr. Morrison's personal commitment to "you". Then you'll know what we know (i.e., those of us who've written about ELAD at AudioReview). What more can I say? Check Don out at http://www.donmorrisonaudio.com.

Thanks Don. And keep working on that poweramp. We're waiting.

Similar Products Used:

I can't answer this. None of the preamps I've ever used performed as well, as invisibly, as the ELAD, so I cannot call them "similar". Maybe there is something out there as good as the ELAD. But if there is, I certainly can't afford it. Only Don has allowed me the privilege of superior acoustical electronics for a veritable bargain (US$650).

Definitive transparency; closest to sonically invisible I've
heard.

None.

This preamp automatically ended any concerns I had about
which preamp to own. It is amazingly transparent - EVERYTHING played through it has its own sound; this extends to both music and upstream components.

When you turn it up, it gets louder - period. NO artifacts
show up in the sound at all. It has no audible signature to
cause any assessment of its sound to be characterized as
solid-state, tube or passive.

The ELAD's neutrality is not "solid state" neutral or "tube-
like" neutral - it ACTUALLY IS ENTIRELY NEUTRAL.

If you want a disappearing preamp which won't disappear your hard-earned loot, your search is over; if you don't, look elsewhere.

Now that I've heard the ELAD first-hand, I can't imagine anyone who is serious about fidelity not owning one.

Highest possible recommendation!

My system:

Hales Concept 2 speakers
Cardas pure copper jumpers (Hales-supplied)
Cardas Golden Hexlink 5C speaker cables
VAC PA100/100 amp (factory tubes so far)
Morrison-supplied interconnects
Morrison ELAD preamp
DIY 30 guage magnet wire interconnects
Meridian 508.20
Cardas Cross interconnects
Magnum Dynalab FT-101A tuner
Discovery Signature interconnects
Black Cube phono preamp
Cardas Neutral Reference tonearm cables
Project 6.9 turntable with Ortofon MC25 FL cartridge

Similar Products Used:

Adcom GFP-750, passive portion of integrated amp.

an affordably clear and enjoyable window to music

It has made me realise how stupid I was in spending my money in the past.

TO THE PROSPECTIVE PURCHASER:
Previous reviews were right. The ELAD is a brilliant piece of work. It affords the listener a closer insight into the recording process revealing more of the length, breadth, good and bad aspects of the recording and the extent of the engineers ability in the process. Almost all of my cd collection sounded more open and detailed. The ELAD woke up my speakers and scared the **** out of my speakers.
TO DON MORRISON:
"Moose" you are a clever boy. It took a long time to get to me only 3 days to get used to it but the wait was worth it. I did notice however that if the ERPS was pointed in a N.E.
direction away from the ELAD and the umbilical cable wrapped in tinfoil, the ELAD then resting on squash balls next to a thimble of tiger snake venom, the sound became much more pronounced. Just kidding! Well done Don and thanks, its the only product I know of in this mad audio world that has been produced with the KISS principle in mind, simple is better.
"Crocodile"

Similar Products Used:

proceed, N.E.W. p3, muse, sunfire tube

Transparency, silence, realism

None (but I would be more confortable if the volume knobs had some dots or traces around them in order to make easier the gain setting).

I would never be an audiophile without being a sincere music lover. If I wanted music in my room almost as it comes from instruments or humans throats, I had to try. That's what I have done during these last thirty years, full of passion and the necessary compulsion. Since the early (and best) days of the Stereophile, with Gordon Holt writing as the world first audio guru, until the present times, full of many Holt's clones telling trues (and lies) and the high end industry selling zillions, in my opinion much more due to a fantastic makerting machine and a multitude of genius in the industrial design, I never have found a person like Don Morrison. Ethics in a kind of business like the almost infinity hi fi world, definitively, is not easy to find. If someone decide to have the ELAD Preamp, he or she will find a new dimension in music reproduction and in business relationship.That preamplifier and the deal for buying it are how they have to be: EXACT. Try and see by yourself the reasons why so many people from different regions and countries are astonished with the ELAD preamp and the man behind it. Musical appreciation is a subjective question. Sweet highs, deep basses, channels separation, range of frequencies and so on, all of these essential parameters must be resumed in one word: music. That's what come from the Don Morrison's piece of electronic art.

Similar Products Used:

Preamp section of a Krell 300i

accuracy,simplicity

what can i say that has not already been said about this magnificent product and the man behind it
thanks Don for transforming my system and leaving me enough money to buy your speakers

(1)Finest preamp I have heard at any price.
(2)Don's free advice regarding any aspects of high-end audio

none whatsoever

It is hard for me to put into words how excellent this preamp is. I'm re-experiencing all of my favorites from my cd collection with improved image, and greater detail than ever before. I must admit that this preamp is so absolutely transparent, that poor recording techniques become ever more apparent and stand out like a sore thumb. You cannot go wrong with this preamp!!!!! An added benefit is that Don Morrison is very patient and friendly....and will give you no nonsense advice on how to improve your system. Don can help you figure out how to set up the highest quality audiophile system for a lot less $$$$$.

Similar Products Used:

Krell, Levinson