Pre Amp Shootout

What is the difference?

We have 3 preamps. 2 Of which are around the 500 price point, the third is over the 1000 mark commonly going for 1150 street. One (RNP) has been a low end champion for years.Yet another (Auteur) is challenging the RNP at the same price point…..

All were done using a Sennheiser e906 mic on a 20w TopHat combo, with a loop running on my DD-20 delay pedal. So the loop just repeats, the mic position didn’t change at all, and I just switched the different preamps in and out. As close to “scientific” as I could get and any differences you hear are due to the pres themselves as much as possible. Volumes were very close in recording and then matched in my DAW so that each clip has the exact same max RMS value at the same spot in the clip.