Golden Age Pre

[HA_DA_JA]

Anyone buying a golden age pre from the guy on ebay had better be prepared to wait longer than advertised.
Maybe not as long as the TnC group buy but a lot longer than advertised with the first shipment.
Cheers

[tweakeasy]

Anyone buying a golden age pre from the guy on ebay had better be prepared to wait longer than advertised.
Maybe not as long as the TnC group buy but a lot longer than advertised with the first shipment.
Cheers

I was surprised when you said how soon you were getting yours considering the long wait (August?) specified on his eBay listing.

If it seemed like he told you he could get it quicker than he actually could just to get your sale NOW, your feedback after you DO get it should certainly reflect that. ;)

[HA_DA_JA]

No mine is one of the first shipments and is actually in Australia sitting on the wharf. I checked with the tracking number I was given. It's just that I should have had this 2 weeks ago which was not reflected in the ad. I will let you know when it arrives.

[tweakeasy]

Cool, sounds like it'll be worth the wait from all accounts! :)

[ppaul]

Hi all, do you guys know if the shipment coming in is the new chinese ones or the originals.
thanks. Paul.

[HA_DA_JA]

They are all made in China.
Cheers

[HA_DA_JA]

Still waiting for mine to arrive which was suppose to be 3 weeks ago.
Did anyone else buy one.
Cheers

[tweakeasy]

Still waiting for mine to arrive which was suppose to be 3 weeks ago.
Did anyone else buy one.
Cheers

Noticed he's listed them again in the last day or so and added that he and recent clients wish that they had given down-payments to Golden Age as it seems the last ones that were earmarked for Tall Poppy got sent off elsewhere. Sounds like stalling technique or just bad management to me.

Can't wait to get your report when you get it though!

[HA_DA_JA]

This is mainly for tweakeasy but for whoever else was interested.
Well I finally got a chance to test the GAP PRe73.
After listening to the shootouts on gearslut I could hear a lot of lowend wooliness to the sound. More talk about that later.
I did a quick bass guitar DI thing with the GAP73, a trident 4T, Speck MP5, and an A Designs MP1 through Pro tools.
It was a using a 5 string Lakland bass guitar and I found it was better to record in passive mode rather that active mode.
The MP1 was very clean and tight low end. It was a little too clean for the higher register and it sounded not brittle but sort squeaky clean but not really in a bad way but not really in a good way either.
The trident was a clouded sound and certainly did not have the full range spectrum that the MP1 had. Still a useable sound but not one you would use if you had an MP1.
The Speck certainly held its ground and had more clarity in the top and better definition than the trident but not the same all round lovliness of the MP1.
I think the MP1 has 2 x valves and you can hear it soak up some of the high DB peaks in my inconsistent bass playing and made it sound pleasant.
The MP1 was a little noisy - which surprised me, not excessive but you could certainly hear it when it was engaged.
The big surprise was the GAP Pre73. There was no wooliness in the low end. And now I undertstand that the sound I was hearing was most likely the added Mp3 artifacts (although it was not as evident in the other gearslutz MP3's). I could not hear the wooliness at all. All I heard was a "round" sound reminiscent of 70's, 80's bass players.
It was very different from the MP1 and I liked what I heard.
We spent 2 hours on this at a friends studio and I wont be able to get back to hear the files in detail until Sunday PM, so I might have more comments for you then.
I have a few more preamps I want to try the bass through e.g. Demeter valve preamp and a nice old TLA P series valve preamp. I have never really gotten into valve preamps so after testing on Sunday I might be falling in love.
The testing was not scientific in any way it was just playing a riff for 30 seconds and doing it again with ear matching the levels.
I cant wait to try the whole thing out again on vocals and how the GAP Pre73 pans out.
The MP1 is a great surprise package. New for $850 for a single channel I think it was well worth it. Pity I let me friend buy it instead of me.
SO yes the GAP Pre73 is certainly worth the $500 you pay for it stock standard (well at least on bass so far).
Must get to bed for the night shift.
Cheers

[tweakeasy]

Thanks for the comments Dale. Considering the positivity thus far you must really be looking forward to upgrading the transformers!

My laptop PC is starting to show signs of imminent death so my savings look to be going towards a Macbook Pro rather than a super-flash pre, so I reckon I might be in the market for a Pre-73 as well given the standout rep it's been getting and the nice low price.

[ppaul]

Hey people, have any of you guys used this pre on a kick drum? what are your thoughts? is it worthy for that application?
thanks.

[Jason]

Hey Dale,

So what do you think of your pre now? Recorded anCything else through it

Cheers

[HA_DA_JA]

Just got it back from hire and the engineer chose it over the racked Neve's I just got done and over a nice valve pre-amp and over a JLM pre at his disposal for recording electric guitars. HE thought that the signal chain through the Daking FET II copressor sounded better for him then the vintage 1176ln at his disposal and he chose to use the James Beesneez mic over some of my other mics.
I am still waiting for the masters to come back from USA before I can hear any clips so I will be interested to hear the results.
I do not do a lot of recording so the gear just sits here and gets hired out more than me using it. All I can do is report back on the feedback fro the users.
I generally load them up with a lot of nice gear then they choose what works for them and use that.
I have not used the GAP PRE73 for kick or snare just bass and guitars at the moment.
I am thinking of maybe offloading the NEVE's I got racked as they dont get used much so I will entertain offers.
Hope that helps.

[Chris H]

Are there the same as the Golden Age Preamps that Serge at Audio Oz is now selling for $475?

http://www.audiooz.com.au/

[HA_DA_JA]

These are the same said ones. I got mine modded by Joe Malone to take out the woolly bottom end.
I hear that something is happening in the pipeline about some modded one of these being available towards the end of the year.

[musikwerks]

The Chinese just never get it absouletely correct.

Not to make sweeping genralisations about a nation of 1.3 billion people or anything though.

:roll:

[musikwerks]

Actually, I'm gonna go one further on this.

Angus, that is one of THE stupidest comments ever to grace the pages of the Turtlerock Forum.

[Bent my VU]

Actually, I'm gonna go one further on this.

Angus, that is one of THE stupidest comments ever to grace the pages of the Turtlerock Forum.

jeez lighten up. I'm sure he was refering to the clones made by the Chinese........not everything undertaken by the entire Chinese population.

[musikwerks]

I never called you a racist Angus.

I merely pointed out that your sweeping generalisation about Chinese manufacturing was stupid. What do you base this grandiose assumption on?

Like you said, you have your opinion, I have mine. Mine being that your comment was stupid. Deal with it.

[musikwerks]

Good for you Angus.

[rob]

and .... regarding the "chinese" and their inferior products.

Us consumers in the west should keep in mind that the "chinese" like any good businesman produces product that the market demands.

if we want a knock off clone of a vintage british mic pre but only want to hand over $500 and it has passed through a bunch of hands along the way each wanting their 30% margin then what the f@#$ do you expect to get?

There is no point in grumbling about "chinese" product if you feed the machine by buying such products.

and what the hell is some swedish "designer" doing ripping off someones else design, stumping up a bit of cash to get some cheap units manufactured in a plant that obviously has no passion for what it does. I can tell there is no passion because I picked up one of these "Golden Age" things and half the paint rubbed off on my hands. What dispassionate manufacturer produces a product that as it passes down the assembly line everyone who is picking it up goes....ooo look all the paint is rubbing off on anything it touches but lets it continue all the way into its plastic bag and box and doesn't give a shit.

Don't blame the "chinese" ... blame yourselves

sleep tight folks

[HA_DA_JA]

Very True the paint work is starting to come off mine.
Now I can hire it out as the "vintage" look or as some other manufacturers call it "road worn look", custom relic, "aged" etc

[HA_DA_JA]

So Rob how did it sound for you when you had the chance to test it out?

[rob]

"how did it sound".....after washing the paint off my hands I didn't listen to it!

But I reckon it would sound pretty much like a 1073, might sound better than alot of unrefurbish Neves out there currently in use. Probably not quite as good as a top condition original.

The thing is, I reckon it would matter more about what sort of mic you used, where you put it, and most importanty what you were mic-ing up. And probably the quality of the performance and how the tune caught you up would matter more than anything. In the scheme of all this, weighing up a chinese clone 1073 against a Neve 1073 hardly seems worth the effort.

[HA_DA_JA]

DO you want to rack another pair of Neve 3415's.
They should be arriving on my doorstep next week.

[Linear]

I used to blame the Chinese for all the crap about. But alas, I was wrong. Terribly wrong.

Firstly, they do make alot of crap. But note that this 'crap' is all commissioned by Western companies outsourcing their manufacturing to the cheapest bidder. They ~could~ make higher quality products, but the beancounters always seem win out in Chinese manufacturing stakes. I mean, when head office in the US or Europe tries to cut costs, why would they ask for 'high quality' and expensive when they can get middle of the road and extremely cheap (= large profits = bonuses).

If you buy something made in Europe, the US or Australia, you're paying for a safety net. Your paying for proper wages, proper working conditions, insurance, health care, a social security system, environmental management, holidays etc. These costs are built into the unit price of manufacturing in the West.

Buy something from China, and they get none of this. Lose your arm working for a company with no OH&S? Bad luck, you should have been more careful. Company polluting local waterways with lead? Bad luck. Lost your job in China? Bad luck, you're on the street. Speak to anyone who has been to China recently, and they'll no doubt report that the situation there is dire. Already that place looks like hell on earth, and they've still got double digit growth in their sites. It's only going to get worse.

I now refuse to buy anything Chinese (wherever possible) based on this. I'm trying to dechinafy my studio on moral grounds too (although it's pretty difficult). That said I would rather pay $3500 for something made in the UK, than $500 for something made in China. I consider this voting with my wallet to companies that think they can get away with their irresponsible and morally corrupt manufacturing policies.

There is still a huge list of companies that don't manufacture in China. Manley, Apogee, Focal, Neve, API, Thermionic Culture. I've bought something from all these companies in the past year or so because of this fact.

So it kinda makes me sick that you guys are complaining about the quality of this $500 pre. You need to realise that in many ways, buying cheap shit from China actually comes with a huge external cost. Unfortunatley most of us look away because that 'cost' is so far removed from us that we don't know or don't care.

Chris

[walding]

Good post Chris, I'm with you on this one.

Ps whether you like or hate our dear old rode should be added to Chris's list.

Ps the gear I've bought over the last few years has all been made in the USA.

[HA_DA_JA]

I dont care where its made. For a hobbyist I will buy whatever makes me sound good and fits my budget.
If you start down the track of workers rights etc then where do you stop.
Most chocolate comes from child slave labour, most coffee and tea comes form the same deal. Most of our clothes from China, our shoes, our car parts the list goes on and on.
Sure take a stand, but dont preach about it and do half of it.
Why is it that media attention most of the morning was on some dog that was stuck in a cave when my friend lost 130 of his friends mostly women and children who were shot by the govt army because they gathered in a church to worship there God.
The world sucks and things aren't right - get used to it, deal with it and move on.

[walding]

One could say why add to it and be a little disconcerting where ever possible.

Tis all.

[rick]

you know what , i dont like this thread , too many unmoderate moderates for my liking
if i jump in i am going to have to ban myself
locked door here guys - gee we havent done that in years !
whats going on ?