CoolCat
Well-known member
Always wanted to try one of these M101 preamps. Seem in the past decade the Grace M101, Great River Mn1v, ISA One were the Top 3, entry to "pro" stuff.
Grace was the Clean one, built with top tier piece, while Great River was the "1073-inspired by" and the ISA One was the ISA110 colors of clean with transformer.
Guitar Center has 45 day returns and a pretty large Used inventory. ...so why not?
Grace M101, the black one, with internal power supply and the Ribbon button. Rev 2 and a Unbalanced and Balanced Line Out! very nice.
I suspect not much in sound difference, nothing mentioned online about rev1 and rev2 sounding different so Ill assume same CHIP type clean preamp, spec same.
$500 used, plus ship / tax. First impression was its really light to hold. Then 2nd impression, as I plugged it in, it didn't work at all. No sound!!
Soon that was traced to a pretty severe crackling HPF mechanical push switch. The Ribbon button too had a very loud crackling pops. So once I wiggled the buttons to get sound the volume knobs were tested and very nice feel, with a Stepped Main and a smooth Trim. I opened it up and sprayed the Detoxit and the switches were silent and problem totally eliminated. (see picture 2 )
SUBJECTIVE SOUND and CONFIDENCE:
Sound test immediately lead to compare the interface preamp.
-The Grace is built with top end stuff my interface has a tiny plastic knob.
-The Grace has solid connections Neutrik, Balanced out and Unbalanced Out, it has DI, solid unit offering confidence of top tier gear."industry standard clean preamp"
-I don't have a Ribbon mic but the Ribbon button can be used on dynamics and when pushed the impedance changes and the +48 turned off. An option I might never use.
-The Grace has 75db gain, similar the ISA One that has tons of gain too. My interface works best with hotter mics, the hsssss starts when preamp is pushed into 90-full gain.
Playback of both tracks on both m101 and Interface using the GraceDesign 902 headphone amp with Beyer 280-250ohm, and my results were "the interface preamp sounded really fine, ok, and had no negatives. I doubt anyone could tell a difference" in my HR-hobby hole recordings. Some claim in a top tier studio you can hear the Grace shine more, I don't doubt that one bit. Monitoring is key.
Still its a confident piece of gear, Clean king, ..released in 2008 black-face rev 2, so might need some detoxit on the mechanical switches.
Cheers!
Grace was the Clean one, built with top tier piece, while Great River was the "1073-inspired by" and the ISA One was the ISA110 colors of clean with transformer.
Guitar Center has 45 day returns and a pretty large Used inventory. ...so why not?
Grace M101, the black one, with internal power supply and the Ribbon button. Rev 2 and a Unbalanced and Balanced Line Out! very nice.
I suspect not much in sound difference, nothing mentioned online about rev1 and rev2 sounding different so Ill assume same CHIP type clean preamp, spec same.
$500 used, plus ship / tax. First impression was its really light to hold. Then 2nd impression, as I plugged it in, it didn't work at all. No sound!!
Soon that was traced to a pretty severe crackling HPF mechanical push switch. The Ribbon button too had a very loud crackling pops. So once I wiggled the buttons to get sound the volume knobs were tested and very nice feel, with a Stepped Main and a smooth Trim. I opened it up and sprayed the Detoxit and the switches were silent and problem totally eliminated. (see picture 2 )
SUBJECTIVE SOUND and CONFIDENCE:
Sound test immediately lead to compare the interface preamp.
-The Grace is built with top end stuff my interface has a tiny plastic knob.
-The Grace has solid connections Neutrik, Balanced out and Unbalanced Out, it has DI, solid unit offering confidence of top tier gear."industry standard clean preamp"
-I don't have a Ribbon mic but the Ribbon button can be used on dynamics and when pushed the impedance changes and the +48 turned off. An option I might never use.
-The Grace has 75db gain, similar the ISA One that has tons of gain too. My interface works best with hotter mics, the hsssss starts when preamp is pushed into 90-full gain.
Playback of both tracks on both m101 and Interface using the GraceDesign 902 headphone amp with Beyer 280-250ohm, and my results were "the interface preamp sounded really fine, ok, and had no negatives. I doubt anyone could tell a difference" in my HR-hobby hole recordings. Some claim in a top tier studio you can hear the Grace shine more, I don't doubt that one bit. Monitoring is key.
Still its a confident piece of gear, Clean king, ..released in 2008 black-face rev 2, so might need some detoxit on the mechanical switches.
Cheers!
