Trident S20 Mic Pre?

[mark4man]

Calling all Tracking Brains...

Is anyone familiar with the Trident S20 Mic Pre?

Have a chance to pick one up; & couldn't seem to find much info on the web at all (save for the fact that they are designed by John Oram.)

It sounded great...fat like a tube pre but with a lot of clarity & detail up & down the band.

So I'm wondering:

Is it FET or Xformer based?
Since it sports only one gain control, Is it a single stage?
What makes it sound so rich?
Is the design & construction as good as the sound?
How does it hold up in a studio environment?
How does it stack up against other British designs like the Amek System 9098 or the Focusrite Red 8?
Is John Oram really a genius? (just kiddin'.) [Did hear great things about the old Trident consoles, tho.]

Thanks all,

mark4man

[manning1]

trident are known for their old consoles which a lot of major songs were done on. i dont know how this compares however.
if it costs over 600 bucks i might be tempted to demo several higher end preamps and compare sound quality.
one inexpensive mic preamp ive always respected is rane ms1b which is quite cheap. you might want to demo a rane to compare.
if it blows the rane away then i would get the trident. if it doesnt then i would save the bucks and get the rane. or even compare with an fmraudio.com mic pre which a lot of folks favour.
if you want to go high end expensive compare the trident to such fare as hardy or great river preamps.
but me personally i would be happy with a rack of ranes.
a lot of people even like the cheap dmp3. depends what your looking for.
peace.
ps,,,actually i got out of the mic pre rat race. i build my own mic pre for 20 bucks. using very low noise transistors or op amps.

[Big Kenny]

http://www.proaudioreview.com/par/july03/trident.shtml
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar0...tridents20.asp

[ozraves]

One of my friends owns the S20. He also owns some nice vintage gear including a Neve console. A lot of people don't like Oram but it appears in this instance he's put out a decent product. If you like it, then let your ears be your guide.

[tdukex]

Just a thought. The S-20 costs $1,000 for two channels. But you can get a Sebarton VMP2000e for $1,150 (handmade, discrete, class A, valve preamp).

http://www.watts-up-pro-audio.com/sebprod.htm