Very clean and smooth with good depth of soundstage and very good placement of instruments. Very detailed, but with the right tubes, no etch or grain. Strings, especially cellos and double basses are especially rich in tone and detail. Acoustic material is the true test and is wonderfully rich.

No remote. Ganged volumn control not totally linear from low volumn to high and a bit of a hassle to use. It's no beauty.

Excellent sound, especially at this price. Chinese tubes that were original equipment in mine are mediocre: EI 12AU7's with Sovtek 12AX7LP's transform the sound and really create the magic. I use a touch of bass boost (horrors!) to compensate for a problem in my room and the bass stays clean while everything else is uneffected. Highly recommended. With the new tubes the sound is addictive. By the way, I'm using the AMC with a Bryston 4BST.

No coloration, liquid midrange, superior soundstaging, detailed clarity in voices and acoustic material, build quality

Plain looks, ganged volume control a bother

With the right tubes this pre-amp sounds very good, very clear with an excellent sound stage, no coloration. I am using it in conjuction with a solid state amplifier (Carver A-220). The build quality is very good, but over all looks are plain. I would strongly recommend this pre-amp with the JAN-Phillips tubes, the chinese tubes are bright and brittle. The JAN-Phillips 5814A used for the 12AU7 and the JAN-Phillips 12AX7WA sound very good and are easily obtained (www.thetubestore.com). I purchased this pre-amplifier from www.surroundidea.com - a southern california dealer for AMC. If you are looking for excellent sound quality with no coloration, no processing, an excellent phono stage and dual amplifier outputs (you can run two amplifers) - this is a little giant. Highly recommended to all audiophiles. I give it 5 stars on value, 4 stars on looks and the balance control.

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Harmon Kardon

Resolution, Silence,Mid-range, Sweet highs, PRICE !!!

NONE

This is the best pre-amp I have had in my system to date.
AMC put the money where it should, in the sound, looks are plain, but who the hell is look'in. I have the model with the tubes soldered in place but I have no desire to upgrade
to better tubes at this time, I think these sound wonderful
now. Best $290 I have spent on audio ever!

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Bryston BP-20, Musical Design SP-2, Superphon, Adcom, NAD

Same as below

Same as below

As an update to my review below. This unit still performs fantastically, however I have learned more about the unit and its requirements over time. First, the tubes should be matched. www.triodeel.com is an excellent source for matched tubes. Second, the JAN Phillips tubes are great, the Electroharmonix 12ax7a are greater, warmer bass, better midrange and clear highs. I continue to really like this unit, it is excellent for learning about tubes and really has made my system sound great. It also allows you to hear qualities and the lack there of in recordings, a very revealing unit. I recommend this unit more now (now that I am more familiar with it) than ever.

Warm tube sound

No remote

This is one great Preamplifer. If your looking for that warm tube sound, but don't want to spend thousands, this is the preamp for you. This is a no-thrills clean well built systems that really makes my system sing.

Phono preamp, tone controls (including bypass switch), guarantee, clear, pleasant, quiet sound

Inferior stock tubes, reliability (the first one failed in two weeks; AMC shipped free replacement)

Marginal sound quality with the stock tubes (dark, indistinct). Greatly improved quality with RCA clear top 12AU7s ($30/pair NOS) and Svetlana 12AX7s ($30/pair from Conus Audio) replacements. Very slight hum (ground loop?) with volume control at minimum. Not a serious issue. Fine phono preamp. Adequate controls, inputs, and outputs. Great bargain at $385. If you are considering this preamp, buy the version with the sockets (the stock tubes are intolerable). Virtually noiseless.

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vintage tube audio (fisher x101c, sansui 1000a)

Warm, totally focused sound. Capable of amazing detail. Strings especially sound great.

Tubes are soldered into circuit board. Makes it almost impossible to audition different tubes. I had The Soundsmith
in Peekskill, NY add sockets. Now it is a truly great preamp.

I would strongly reccomend this providing you add sockets. The chinese tubes that come with it are marginal at best. It sounds brittle with them. It is a totally different piece with NOS tubes.

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HK Citation IV

Price, price, price

Tubes soldered in. No remote

After hearing so much hype about tubes I felt I had to try something. I like my Denon 5700 and Bryston too much so I thought I'd try out a tube pre-amp but I didn't want to spend a ton of money.

AMC is apparently getting rid of all their old stock so I was able to pick up a 1030 (which sold for $699) for $325, so I figured what the heck.

The unit arrived the next day(!) and while isn't going to win any awards for cutting edge design, looks okay. It has plenty of inputs and dual outputs but no remote. I took the cover off and sure enough the Chinese 12AU7s and 12AX7s are soldered directly to the pcb. I plan on installed pcb tube sockets as soon as I get time. It doesn't look like much of a job.

The build quality os okay, although is says made in Taiwan I don't buy it. It's probably Chinese, Taiwan construction and assembly is usually better than this. The pcbs all are stamped 1993 so I don't think these have undergone much upgrades.

I hooked it up using my Panasonic RP-91 DVD as a source and a Bryston 4B-ST as the amp. I have to admit it sounds pretty good. While I am not a tube expert by any means I can say for certain that the sound is improved over the Denon as a preamp. It seems more transperent and airy and warmer.

All in all I think based on other reviews where people paid much higher prices, for $325 this is a bonafide steal.

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None