[quote author="pucho812"]As for the portico's they sound good but the whole wall wart thing is a turn off to me.[/quote]
...Then go and run them off a car battery.
It's what they were designed for.
Does that make you feel better?
Abby Normal;
They sounded a little dull, but it wasn't JUST a tonal thing... they sounded like something was just "wrong". -A little fuzzy, vague, blurred... just un-clear. -Seriously, I thought that there was something wrong with the darned thing, it was THAT inferior to the Portico.
The Wall-wart comment baffles me... -If someone brought in a preamp which used banana-peel as a power source, it wouldn't bother me, and if it sounded even HALF as fabulous as the Porticos, I'd be all over it like hair on an ape.
For a quick test, I tried an SSL channel preamp, and if it wasn't for the fact that the 'client' didn't want to use the console because of certain valid logistical reasons which were specific to that instance, I would have used the Porticos for the most important 8 channels, the console for channels 9-88, and only then turned to the UAs for channels 89-96... they really did sound 'foggy'.
I can't come up with a word. -I wouldn'6t say 'dark' or 'dull' because that suggests a tonal imbalance... this was more of an unpleasat distortion, and I don't know why or what... I just know I didn't dig it...
...And there's actually not many preamps which I really do pick out for criticism, but the UA really disappointed me.
Keith
Keith