From : youtube.com/watch?v=QlEqTnSa0uc
vintageking.com/blogs/videos/are-all-preamps-the-same
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Preamps have been a hot topic in the recording world over the past few months. Are they all the same? How much do they matter? Plenty of folks have weighed in, but when it comes down to it, we know that preamps play a pivotal role in the recording process, and the one you choose can have a real impact on the final result.

Recently, we headed into the Scramble Shack to cut one song with three different kinds of preamps at the exact same time. For this test, we used the preamps from two Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 Gen 2 interfaces, along with two modern classics in the Neve 1073LB and API 512v.

For each source, we used Radial Engineering JS3 mic splitters to send the same microphone signal to all three preamps simultaneously. We also bypassed the Scarletts’ conversion and sent the output of each preamp directly into the studio’s Avid HD I/O. This way we could keep the conversion consistent across all three signal paths.