CoolCat
Well-known member
all the discussion is what lead me to interest in the Grace Design gear.
its not that its better or worse but it is designed in the case of the mic preamp to be clean and being invisible was the goal.
who wants to pay for that? some do. then over the decades it seemed tested by skeptics and data driven types and the results seemed to be hard to
claim Clean is better with X than A or D or G ....and Clean on a oscope is cool tech spec but way beyond the ears ability. who cares? some do.
but then the build quality adds to a price, the name brand too, and somehow Grace Design "became" accepted by majorstudios and so it is, aka Clean.
In price a person can question the cost for it and compare to a 8channel clean IC chip preamp with fine specs. I like spending a bit more for "well built".
point is once Clean is set as a standard in your room/studio others can be compared to it. right?
I will say if running a Mic comparison thing, Grace, and others can offer a "clean" invisible, mic-only. ..to your monitoring. An interface preamp is really clean too, a Rane MS1 is known as clean for cheap and used on Steely Dan records whose known for top quality etc..etc.. Clean Pre is easier to obtain and accept.
But to hear is to use Monitoring, convertors, speakers walls rooms reflections dampened or too dampened...lead me to headphones and a Grace Design headphone amp.
for the same reasons... Pro's accepted and used in large commercial studios always about Clean- invisible- true..etc...
Does it sound way different than my other headphones amps? No. Some are close and very cheap, others not so good, but wow, I guess a lot of it is for "confidence"? and I don't question the headphone amp or convertors anymore. Worth $500? $400? who knows. Its got a lot of I/O and built like a tank , so its worth some extra. My Line 6UX8 is cheaper made and yet sounds really close but has light plastic knobs etc..(wouldn't handle pro-studio constent usage).
I don't think its a waste of money or time really because at least now I know when using my Line6UX8 headphone amp I know its not garbage and when using the Mic Preamps, that can sound clean, I know with the Grace m101 the other PreAmps are fine and again "not garbage".
Im not a big fan of racing to the bottom in competition to be cheap.....so I enjoy a well built unit, with nice feeling sockets and knobs and VU meters or I/O. Ill pay extra for that. Its ok.
Jim Lill ...I watched it twice so far. Its great work imo, but I also noticed he's using First Act guitar Pedals, and using the 2i2 bottom line unit is ok... he's got a nice tele.
Seems an awesome player and yeah he can probably make great recordings with a 2i2 or his Neve- OEM strip.... and his AKG mic he used is pretty cheap too. It sounded really good. At the end he mentions EQ and EQ kind of blows everything apart, right? any mic with an EQ can be changed so vastly its 100 sounds. or more.
I kind of fall into the Jim Lill side, like trying the U87ai, it wasn't blowing me away at all, and there surely wasn't any magic. You wonder though when someone is over the moon over some product, "is it real? or is this person high on endorphines?" its just gear and fun with skepticism sprinkled in.
Are Skeptics negative or positive?
its not that its better or worse but it is designed in the case of the mic preamp to be clean and being invisible was the goal.
who wants to pay for that? some do. then over the decades it seemed tested by skeptics and data driven types and the results seemed to be hard to
claim Clean is better with X than A or D or G ....and Clean on a oscope is cool tech spec but way beyond the ears ability. who cares? some do.
but then the build quality adds to a price, the name brand too, and somehow Grace Design "became" accepted by majorstudios and so it is, aka Clean.
In price a person can question the cost for it and compare to a 8channel clean IC chip preamp with fine specs. I like spending a bit more for "well built".
point is once Clean is set as a standard in your room/studio others can be compared to it. right?
I will say if running a Mic comparison thing, Grace, and others can offer a "clean" invisible, mic-only. ..to your monitoring. An interface preamp is really clean too, a Rane MS1 is known as clean for cheap and used on Steely Dan records whose known for top quality etc..etc.. Clean Pre is easier to obtain and accept.
But to hear is to use Monitoring, convertors, speakers walls rooms reflections dampened or too dampened...lead me to headphones and a Grace Design headphone amp.
for the same reasons... Pro's accepted and used in large commercial studios always about Clean- invisible- true..etc...
Does it sound way different than my other headphones amps? No. Some are close and very cheap, others not so good, but wow, I guess a lot of it is for "confidence"? and I don't question the headphone amp or convertors anymore. Worth $500? $400? who knows. Its got a lot of I/O and built like a tank , so its worth some extra. My Line 6UX8 is cheaper made and yet sounds really close but has light plastic knobs etc..(wouldn't handle pro-studio constent usage).
I don't think its a waste of money or time really because at least now I know when using my Line6UX8 headphone amp I know its not garbage and when using the Mic Preamps, that can sound clean, I know with the Grace m101 the other PreAmps are fine and again "not garbage".
Im not a big fan of racing to the bottom in competition to be cheap.....so I enjoy a well built unit, with nice feeling sockets and knobs and VU meters or I/O. Ill pay extra for that. Its ok.
Jim Lill ...I watched it twice so far. Its great work imo, but I also noticed he's using First Act guitar Pedals, and using the 2i2 bottom line unit is ok... he's got a nice tele.
Seems an awesome player and yeah he can probably make great recordings with a 2i2 or his Neve- OEM strip.... and his AKG mic he used is pretty cheap too. It sounded really good. At the end he mentions EQ and EQ kind of blows everything apart, right? any mic with an EQ can be changed so vastly its 100 sounds. or more.
I kind of fall into the Jim Lill side, like trying the U87ai, it wasn't blowing me away at all, and there surely wasn't any magic. You wonder though when someone is over the moon over some product, "is it real? or is this person high on endorphines?" its just gear and fun with skepticism sprinkled in.
Are Skeptics negative or positive?
