Honest and clean. Tells the truth about your source, amplification and cables. It can sound thin and trashy or honest and neutral.

White knobs. Easy to get filthy so I don't tuch them unless I have too. Clean regularly.

Handsome piece and honest. I also use mine with an B&K Ref4420EX. I think it's a marriage made in heaven merging the tonal qualities of these two pieces. I just wish it didn't have the white knobs. I clean mine on a regular basis because I've seen second hand ones where the knobs were filthy. I guess you would have to order new ones from Mondial Designs if it gets out of hand. Other than that it's awesome and if you feel you have nothing to hide in your system, go get this pre amp.

My system:
Paradigm Ref 100'sV2
Acurus RL-11 pre amp
B&K EX4420 2- channel amp
Denon 1650AR CD player
DH Labs T-14 Speaker cable
DH Labs BL-1 Interconnects
MSB DAC Gold

Similar Products Used:

ADCOM, NAD

Good construction. Remote control. Great sound. Value for money.

Will reveal weakness or poor sound in any other component or CD. No phono stage. Have managed to get some loud feedback with the right/wrong combination of listen selector and record selector.

This is one nice preamp. I am very happy with it. It's sound is detailed and not nasty. Great sound all around.... Remote is very handy. Construction is wonderful. Warranty not as long as Rotel's, only 2 years.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel. Dynaco. Onkyo.

quiet as a church mouse...

remote really needs an input selector, because I am getting lazy in my pre - AAARP years.

Having been an "audio freak" for 20 years, this preamp is my all time favorite piece...it is what one expects a preamp to do. add no flavor. It is wonderful.

Similar Products Used:

lazurus, audio alchemy, superphon, cant recall all the rest

several others

Everything!!! Very natural, can listen to it all day.

None.

This review is LS11 which is the same as RL11 with out remote. As the matter of fact, the only thing I complain is this version has no remote. I've been using my Yamaha A1 as pre-amp for a while. It was good till I got this preamp. Everything else just comes to life. Very open, detail, natural. I've try Conrad-Johnson the "Tube preamp", The only thing I found was slightly better bass, but I lost detail. I returned CJ and keep LS11. It was significant improvement between Yam as preamp and LS11. If you want excellent preamp with out second mortgage, then check this one out. If you need remote try RL11.

Equipments:
Soliloquy 5.3 main, C3 as center.
Engergy e:XL12 Sub.
Sony SCD-777ES SACD player.
Citation 7.1 power amp. (What a killer amp for money)
Yamaha DSP-A1 for HT.
Toshiba 9200 DVD and Audio.

Similar Products Used:

Conrad-Johnson, Adcom.

Clean appearence, quality components, natural sound. dual pre-outs adds flexiblity for connections.

average remote build quality, needs an input selector on remote.

This is as good of a pe-amp as you can find for under $3000. There is no reason ANYONE should reqire more performance than this unit provides. High build quality, ease of operation, CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN sound from a very attractive package. Remote works well but could use improvement for features. If you find a good deal on one (I did) BUY it!! You will be impressed.

Similar Products Used:

Conrad-Johnson (Sonograph), Bryston, Adcom, Rotel, Legacy-Audio, Classe

Very easy on the ears. Very close to as accurate as they come.

Sounds much better than it looks.

A wonderful preamp. With a little bit of part upgrades it becomes near reference.

Similar Products Used:

Arc ref 2, Bat 30SE, Arc ls-15, Bat 50Se,and Arc ref 1.

My system consists of an Acurus A250 amp, Legacy Focus speakers, Sony C801ES CD player, Sony 59ES DAT player, Sony S707ES tuner Esoteric Audio interconnects and Monster Cable speaker wire.I listen mainly to rock, alternative rock and the blues. I'm an extreme skeptic when it comes to differences in the sound quality of amps, preamps and CD players. I've listened to several highly acclaimed preamps costing two to four times that of the RL 11 and can tell no difference in the sound produced in my system. The reasons I chose this model are mainly aesthetics, features, and quality of consruction which was better than some of the more expensive models. Highly Recommended!

This is what a pre-amp should be. Very little controls, few paths, clean, efficient and fast. The Acurus is all those. The pre does the following lets you select record selction, playback selection, balance, volume, thats it thats all. I like that, you may not. In a well placed system, with everything present and accounted for, this may be all the pre you need. It doesn't affect the signal in a noticeable way, also ideal for a pre.
Higly recommended.

Regis Poirier

this line-stage preamp is great. why do i say "great"?1. direct-path ==> no alteration on musical signal (who cares...? i care!)
2. reasonable cost ==> at these preamps are ghost. why? look at them; white knobs, 8" deep, and even 3.5" high? that is a preamp should be.
4. clean? YES.
5. detail? OF COURSE, and depends on the fronts. anyway rl-11's are line-stage and direct-path preamp.
6. quite? not really, try yamaha cx-2 (almost the same retail price) it's extremely quiet.

overall? a great line-stage preamp for money.

I have an RL 11 that I use in one of my listening rooms with an Acurus A200 driving a pair of Legacy Signature III's. The RL 11 is a very fine preamplifier. The Acurus (Mondial) design philosophy is excellent. They focus on the basics. Simplicity is a virture here. It allows them to create an inexpensive preamplifier that is very clean and smooth. Their method of having military/medical contractors build their products is very smart. They get quality and efficiency.