Price difference?

[TaxiCab]

Forgive me if this is just a dumb question but I was just looking at a gear magazine and wanted to know why the price would more than double from 1 channel to 2 channels on the Grace preamps. I know that you need 2 channels to record in stereo but could you not get the same results just buying two 1 channel preamps? The specific models that I am referring to are the Grace Model 101 $565 vs. the Grace 201 $1865. What is the benefit of having one 201 vs. two 101s? All of this is still very new to me so if I am missing something very obvious don't hold it against me.

[heroics321]

From Sweetwater:

"The model 201 & 801 uses Grace's highest quality 24 position gold-contact rotary gain switches (very expensive, but perhaps the best gain control there is), which provide precision gain adjustment in 2dB steps. The model 101 uses an precision 11 position silver-contact gain switch (less expensive) and comes standard with a 10dB trim control.

The model 201 & 801 uses a high-quality linear AC power supply with custom wound toriodal AC transformers (very expensive), while the model 101 runs off an external 6VDC supply.

The model 201 and model 801 are both endowed with robust, high current output sections, capable of driving very long lines (1500') and loads down to 50 Ohms, while the model 101 has a bit less output current and is more suited towards standard studio applications. This differnece results in a greater amount of output headroom for the 201 & 801 (+28dBu balanced) than the model 101 (+25dBu balanced).

In reality, the 201 is simply a 2-channel version of the 801 while the 101 was created with the personal studio owner in mind. "

[tdukex]

Yes, the 201 and 801 share the same electronics, including the Burr Brown INA 103 amp chip. The 101 has different electronics and uses the INA 163 chip.

[TaxiCab]

Thanks for the info I just though that they were all made of the same quality parts but different channel configurations.

[Massive Master]

If it helps though, there are few preamps in the 101's price range that can touch it.

[tkingen]

Don't know if this is true but the infamous Fletcher at Mercenary Audio claims the amp chips in the Toft ATC-2 are a better bet than the Grace. Of course, he sells Toft and not Grace.