everything from sound and build quality to Morrison's support is exceptional.

All i can say is that this preamp is amazing. I've had it for a few days only but it didn't take long to fall in love with it!
There is no use in using audiophile terms to describe what it does to the sound because it doesn't do anything to the sound. So what you end up with is a bare, acurate and transparent signal. After you start listening to music through the E.L.A.D, you start to realize that there really aren't that many BAD recordings at all, just BAD systems! This thing trully lets the music shine through. Plus it looks great too, completely black and trully built like a ROCK! Just pick up the power supply and that phrase will take on even more meaning...

I would also suggest getting the headphone box, which lets you use one of the E.L.A.D's outputs as a headphone amp. Plugging a pair of decent headphones in will definetly make the signal shine through in a new light. Unless, of course, your speakers are doing a near-perfect job of reproducing music in your room, which is most likely not the case.

One last word on Don's service. I guess it is quite amazing really. It's not likely at all that you will get this kind of personal support along with an exceptional product these days. But here you have it...

There is not much else to say, although i could go on for a while about Morrison's product and service, but i guess you are going to need time to read the many future reviews here too! All the good things that have been said in the past reviews ARE true but obviously you will have to try one for yourself and see (hear!).

I love this thing!

(one word to Don - Get some rest, man !!!) ;p

Excellent sonics; low cost, superb build quality

None

I have been a devotee of tube preamps for the past 20 some odd years. Even when using solid state amps, I always preferred the sound of tube preamps to solid state units. I was aware of their limitations but was willing to live with them because of what I perceived as their basic musicality (a naughty word used in judging electronic components, I realize). I admit there is one tendency of tube units that I had found mildly irritating over the years, and that was the production of an upper midrange glare. This lent an excitement to the music but ultimately proved both irritating and fatiguing after a long listening session. Then along came the Morrison E.L.A.D. Having garnered so many raves since its introduction I just had to give it a try. I was impressed the moment I began to unpack the units. The simple beauty of the metalwork, the uncluttered faceplates, the obvious high quality of the parts used impressed me right off the bat. Well, "handsome is as handsome does," as the saying goes, so I plugged it in and allowed it to warm up for and hour or so. (Associated equipment: CEC belt-driven CD player; Goldmund SRM amps; Triangle Zephyr speakers). Nothing could have prepared me adequately for the sound (or lack of it) of the E.L.A.D. The old cliché that a new component "brought out details in my recordings that I didn’t realize were there" held true—in spades! This preamp is utterly transparent, seemingly passing information that other units somehow miss. The extra details are not just in the higher frequencies as one might expect, however. I hear much more throughout the alto and baritone ranges (the violas, cellos, and trombones in an orchestra), as well. And there is no upper midrange glare. I have another confession to make—I have never warmed up to the sound of CDs, having a rather large and well-loved LP collection. Well, CDs are now just as satisfying to listen to as vinyl.

Similar Products Used:

I have only used full-function preamps before

In addition to all of its technical/electronic strengths, this product eliminates once and for all the entire BS that goes on in the audio world. If Don has built this pre-amp only to annoy the industry, then I will smile every time I will listen to it. If you rather pay thousands of $$ to have a pre-amp that would do the same, if not much less, go ahead. But, if you are serious about sound and free of hype, call Don and just order the damn thing. It is a delight to talk to this man and receive his product.

The main weakness is Don's subversion against the audio industry, exposing the unlimited amount of BS that goes around there. If he can build this pre-amp for $790, why the industry cannot do the same? Is it their huge marketing budget?

I had purchased a new pair of speakers, but thought that they would have to be returned; the quality sound was just not there. Yet, the reviews of these speakers were very positive and the dealer advised patience. Then Don's pre-amp has arrived and with it a Bryston 3ST. I caught myself with my jaw wide open. This is a brilliant pre-amp both in design, production and concept. Do yourself a favor, avoid the industry's hype, supported by colorful magazines that get paid handsomely for advertising. This pre-amp will not disappoint you! It is a wonderful product.

Similar Products Used:

Similar?

Minimalist design. Overbuilt quality. COST!!!

No remote. Too few inputs. Sound Quality.

After having the Morrison ELAD in my system for five months, I thought it time for a true evaluation of the product. My system is tube gear, both for the source and for the amplification. The speakers are the Audio Physic Spark IIIs.

At home, the sound I get out of this set-up is wonderful, and belies the total system cost. The Morrison is a fine addition to it and maintains the incredibly natural tone character of the entirety. That being said, I thought it time to evaluate it in an incredibly REVEALING and UNFORGIVING system.

I brought the unit in to the Hi Fi store with which I do business, and allowed them to examine the unit for layout and design. Very simple piece with a monster power supply (overkill for the little op-amps) but well designed and definately over-built. This unit costs $790, which in this day and age is extremely inexpensive. The system it was placed into consisted of a Proceed CD/DVD transport, Mark Levinson Digital Processor, Wilson Audio Watt/Puppy 6s, Mark Levinson 33 amplification, all wire together with monstrous Siltech interconnects and the new Harmonic Technologies Magic Speaker cable (also found in my system). Power conditioning was perfomed by PS Audio Power Plant 600s and Ultimate outlet. As a comparison, we used the Mark Levinson 38 (?) Reference Pre-Amp, a unit which reportedly runs $16,000 ! so the company it was in were definately BIG dogs!!!

The Sound:
Not bad, somewhat musical, but fuzzy sounding. Very diffuse with center image approx. 3 feet left of center. Bass was soft and cut off sharply when approaching the extreme. Treble region grainy with no hint of silken sheen. Midrange was forced, and vocals came through with large amounts of sibilance. Dynamics compressed greatly.

Switching to the ML was very sobering. All the comments made above did not apply. The soundstage was huge, grain free, liquid vocals, and bass extension and tautness that would knock your socks off!!! It certainly was the cruelest cut, and what I had feared most had come back to haunt me. The reviews of the ELAD now seem to have been, shall we say, inflated.
Given the price, the sound was acceptable, but we ARE trying to evaluate and rate it. Given that, sound quality is the ultimate king (King Tone) regardless of price, and this unit is the Court Jester.

This is NOT the best unit at any price, and unfortunately, my search again continues...

Similar Products Used:

Hovland, Conrad Johnson, Creek, Mark Levinson

A no nonsense pre-amp that delivers the goods and then some. Measurements that are as good as it gets, producing a product with no sound. The output of the ELAD is simply the input amplified, as it should be. Unsusal combination of excellent customer service with a fair price.

The Minimalist design is not for everyone (2 inputs, 2 volume controls). Tweekers and those looking for a pre-amp to be an EQ won't be happy. No Phono stage, no mono switch.

System:
Rotel 971 cd
Thorens 318 turntable (rotel phono stage)
Morrison ELAD Pre-amp
Bryston 3b-st amp
PSB Stratus Silver speakers

This is it! I'm done fooling with equipment for the near future, time to enjoy the music The Morrison ELAD / Bryston combination is udderly silent, as black as a pint of Guiness inside a coffin on a moon-less night. Take the test: Power up your system, select your source but don't play any music (or better yet play a cd with digital silence), move the volume control up ... hear any noise as you turn?, now turn the volume all the way up and place your ear to the speaker what do you hear?. I hear nothing!

The ELAD is a fantastic piece of engineering, Music is art ... audio is science! The Elad does nothing beyond provide source selection (1 or 2 unless you get the switch box), Gain, and Volume control; but less is most definitely more ... you give up distortion, channel cross talk, volume pot noise with this pre-amp. After over a month of listing to my ELAD I can only list things that it doesn't do to a recording, there is really nothing to describe about what it does other than to say it provides gain. It's rather difficult to discuss a piece of equipment with no sound, but simply stating the degree of difficulty is perhaps the highest form of compliment when it comes to audio equipment.

Don is great fun to deal with, and an honest rogue as well.

The minimalist design of the ELAD will not appeal to everyone (I got used to the dual volume controls very quickly though), but if sound quality is what you are after the ELAD is a world class pre-amp at a real world price.

(makes an excellent headphone amp as well)

Highly Recomended!!! 5 stars for quality and for Value!!

Similar Products Used:

Nothing similar, experience with full function pre-amps from NAD, Rotel, Adcom, Parasound.

OK folks. No B.S. about "pace" and all those idiotic buzzwords that float around the glossy audio rags. If you are at all technically inclined OR actually partcipated in double blind, matched (to within .1dB AT THE SPEAKER TERMINALS!)listening tests, you would know all that Robert Harley verbiage IS JUST THAT, so much (too much) verbiage. A brief technical electrical explanation is that whatever goes in this line stage is what comes out...only BIGGER. Capisco? What strikes one first is the care with which this unit is packaged. There is virtually no chance that you will receive a damaged unit as it is boxed within a box. Then, upon looking at the level of craftsmanship, you will be blessed again. This thing is joy to behold! From the solid steel cabinet, to the impressive size of the torroidal transformer and the care with which each part is perfectly placed on the circuit board, this baby would easily pass mil-spec.

Only one. Actually the unit itself has no weaknesses. The weakness is in Don himself. He just doesn't know how to "puff his wares" so to speak. So what d'ya say to me offering my service as your PR man, Don. What we'll do is get Miss December to lovingly caress your knobs and we'll take a bunch of 8 by 10's and splash 'em all over the audio glossies at 6G's a pop, put a price of $3995.00 on this
thing. Suddenly Fremer and Harley would "discover" your preamp and we'll just sit back and collect. In actuality,
I know Don is too classy and a downright nice guy to do such a thing so you too can steel this unit as i did from Don while it still sells for under a grand.

This level of performance can't be had at any price except for the Morrison ELAD. And the fact that this unit is priced so fairly, incredibly, one can have the finest amplifying line stage at under a grand and simply BLOW AWAY $20,000.00 tube or trasistor preamps is a joy to every audio enthusiest (as opposed to an audiophile, who love gear more than the music that comes out of it). BUY IT, IMMEDIATELY.

Similar Products Used:

Compared to my old Carver C-16, THERE IS NO COMPARISON!!! There is no shhh, fffff, or any artifact which might detract one from the music even at full gain...which is quite a bit higher that the Carver's. Compared to my Superphon SP-100 line stage (no slouch by any standard) only a 'scope and distortion analyzer would show how much better Don's ELAD unit is and it will drive longer cables to boot. There really isn't anything on the market that comes close to this unit's performance and just knowing i'll be able to will this unit in working condition to my great grand kids says a lot. IT IS THAT WELL DESIGNED AND EXECUTED.

Sonic neutrality; dual outputs; separate volume controls for each channel.

Only two inputs; currently no phono stage available.

If you are looking for a no-frills line-level preamp that acts as if it isn't even in your system, the Morrison E.L.A.D. is the only game in town and at a price that is more than reasonable.
For me the ultimate test of a line-stage preamp is what it does or doesn't do to the sound from the master tapes that I have recorded myself using a modified Pioneer RT-707 reel-to-reel tape deck with an outboard dbx 150 noise reduction unit. The power supply and output amp of the tape deck have been modified with some of the most neutral sounding components I could find. I have had this setup for years and have made dozens of recordings of live music (bluegrass, choral groups, brass bands, chamber orchestra, and solo vocalists) with different high-quality microphones and in different venues, from churches, concert halls, to small clubs, and in musician's homes. After years of running the deck through preamps of all kinds, I found that the best sound from the master tapes came when I plugged the tape-deck, which has a variable output, directly into the amp. Using DLin Audio Silver Bullet 4 interconnects throughout my system, the Morrison E.L.A.D is the ONLY preamp I have ever used that didn't alter the sound in some way. Setting the volume controls on the Morrison to match the levels of the tape deck when played directly into my Stan Warren modified Adcom 5400 amp, I could not tell any difference in sound quality. All the other preamps altered the sound in some way. Most notable was what the tubed preamps (such as the Audio Research SP-10 or the Audio Electronics Supply DJH) and my modified Hegeman Hapi 2 (solid state) added to the sound: wider, deeper soundstage, with more "ambience." They sounded great, but it wasn't the same sound that the tape deck was transmitting. The E.L.A.D. simply transmits whatever information is given it by your other components and doesn't add or subtract anything (so far as I can hear).
If you prefer a euphonic piece of equipment, this preamp isn't for you. It will honestly reveal what your other equipment "sounds" like, for better or worse. I hooked up an older Magnavox CD player that Frank Van Alstine had modified for me several years ago, and the harshness inherent in that older design (though good for its time) was readily apparent. On the other hand, CDs played on my Rotel RCD-975 and run through an Electronic Visionary Systems Millennium Dac 1A (a remarkable piece built by Ric Schultz), were utterly beautiful, grain-free, and lifelike.
Some people may not like the E.L.A.D. for its electronic honesty. For me, I want neutral equipment: let the performer and recording engineer do their jobs well to make my emotions flow. My equipment should simply get out of the way and let what the artists and engineers accomplished come through.
At $790 new, and if you can live with only two inputs (although Don reportedly makes an excellent add-on switch box to give more inputs), this piece is a steal. It's an even bigger bargain if you can find the rare one that someone is selling used.

Associated Equipment:
Adcom 5400 amp(modified by Stan Warren of Supermods)
Rotel RCD-975 CD player used as a trasport
Electronic Visionary Systems DAC 1A
Sonograph SG-3 turntable
Grado Signature tonearm w. Electro II MC cartridge
Hegeman Hapi 2 preamp (modified) used for phono section
Pioneer RT-707 reel-to-reel tape deck (modified)
dbx 150 noise reduction unt
Newform Research R645s with Hovland capacitor upgrade
DLin Audio Silver Bullet 4 interconnects used throughout
Custom made speaker cable using Belden 1585A CAT 5 wire
Brickwall line filter/surge protector

Similar Products Used:

Audio Research SP-10, AVA Super-Pass 4, Sonic Frontiers SFL-1, Y.S. Audio Symphonies, Conrad Johnson PV 10A, Audio Electronics AE-3 Signature (DJH version), Audible Illusions Modulus 3A, Musical Design SP B-2, Kirksaeter LAB Moderator 100 MC, Hegeman Hapi 2 (modified), and others over the years.

soundstage, clarity, unaltered signal

not optimal for all users -- I'll explain

There has been a lot of talk elsewhere about all of the glowing reviews on this site (some questioning their validity, and in some cases, questioning Don Morrison's motives/morality for contacting reviewers who made less than stellar review postings which were subsequently pulled). I hope to provide some information that appears to be a new frame of reference for those of you deciding whether to buy or not buy.

I bought the ELAD used and it was in excellent condition. I had been using a Denon AVR-2700 as a preamp along with Acurus and Outlaw amps, so the switch to the ELAD gave an immediate improvement. I was in fact hearing new detail, and I was really impressed.

I then purchased a new B&K Reference 30 pre/pro, but planned to keep the ELAD for separate 2-channel listening. However, I found myself enjoying the sound from the B&K more than from the ELAD. Deeper soundstage, less harsh.

The reason (I believe) for my prefence of the B&K over the ELAD is because I was using the ELAD along with a Toshiba DVD player that had mediocre d/a conversion, and was relying on the analog output (so the sound was probably affected in addition by my RCA cables). When I began using the B&K, I was merely using the Toshiba as a transport and decoding the digital output with superior B&K d/a conversion,etc.

The moral of the story is that the ELAD will present the sound from the source just as it receives it. It may be tempting for some of the entry-level folks on this site to try and dive into the high-end game by purchasing the inexpensive ELAD, but this may be a mistake.

Think of your source components, and whether or not they are of high quality. Then decide whether or not you want to spend the money to preserve that exact sound (through the ELAD) and amplify it.

If buying the ELAD will exhaust your budget, and you can't afford to upgrade your source, too (if you need to, that is), then you may do better in the short run buying something different.

One other note: the B&K has a notch filter that lets me flatten out spikes in my room response -- something the ELAD didn't allow me to do. I know I'm comparing apples and oranges, but the point is that perfect conveyance of a signal (via an ELAD) isn't the final word in how your system will sound. Room acoustics matter too, and I found that collectively, the ELAD didn't allow for as good of sound as the B&K.

I would recommend the ELAD to those that understand precisely what it is designed to do. Those of you who buy it because it is inexpensive and you want to see how it will improve the sound of your budget system may find that you have some other upgrades to do before you are completely satisfied.

Sound, Construction, Design, Price

None

Let me start off by saying that I am not an audiophile, and I don't talk "audiospeak". I purchased my ELAD after reading the many glowing reviews here and elsewhere. I did not take my ELAD home at first but rather to an audiophile friend of mine. Oddly enough we ended up comparing the ELAD to a Mark Levinson reference pre-amp. The other equipment involved included: Meridien CD, VTL Wotans, Wilson X1 Series 3 Gran Slams, and Synergistic Designer's Reference cables and interconnects. (all of his more than the equal of Christian, audiophile from New York). I also had the advantage of being able to do direct, blind comparisons between the Mark Levinson and the ELAD. Not the mention the advantage of not having a salesman in the room whose vested interest was in the perception of great differences. We listened to E. Power Biggs, Bach Organ Fugues, female vocals, Eva Cassidy, and a variety of other musical styles. The sound was breathtaking. I could not distinguish between the Levinson, and the ELAD after more than an hour of listening. My friend felt he could detect subtle differences in soundstaging, a slightly more diaphenous quality to the music. (boy, has he been hanging audio salesman too long!). I thought both sounded remarkably clean, the same lows, highs and mid-ranges were effortlessly reproduced. Note, my friend did not undergo the same blind testing, as he was at the controls. Performance-wise my verdict was that the two pre-amps were essentially indistinguishable.

Now as to value. The ELAD costs about 800 bucks. The ML pre-amp will set you back about 17,000 dollars. I guess the question is whether there is a 16,200 difference in the two. But isn't that the question in high end audio. What are you willing to pay for minute incremental improvement?
(And in this case, is there really a difference?).

The ELAD sits in my bedroom paired with a Bryston 3B amp and an old Mcintosh MR 67 tuner a Ah Neue Tjoeb CD player
and a pair of Castle Harlechs. I love the combo,(total cost $4200,) but then I'm not an audiophile, and I work for a living.

And BTW my friend thinks that the ELAD offers the best price perfomance ratio he has ever seen in audio. (even if that is irrelevant to him!).

Similar Products Used:

Mark Levinson Reference

The ELAD is a very quite preamp. It does a great job of revealing all the details from your source components. It is the only preamp that I've heard that sounds as good as bypassing the preamp altogether. (Using the CD player's volume control) The channel separation is also teriffic and it has extremely low distortion. In fact, a recent article in the Audio Critic claims that this is the best preamp the magazine has ever measured regardless of price. However, it does have a few ease-of-use shortcomings you should be aware of. It has only two inputs.
It has no remote.
And worst of all, it has separate volume controls for the left and right channel. So every time you want to adjust the volume, you have to make sure the levels are matched for both channels. This can be a major annoyance if you do this often. (it does have a mute though)

Despite all this, I love my unit simply because it is the most transparent preamp you can get at ANY price for only about $600(US).

As an added bonus, you get to deal directly with the man who built your preamp, who happens to be a very nice guy.