The Sound Board

Hi,

I’m selling my original silverface Grace 101 mic preamp. It’s single channel, VERY clean and transparent and in very good shape and perfect working order, just a few light scratches here and there. I’m asking $300 shipped in the U.S. or $285 shipped internationally, buyer pays shipping. Two week money back guarantee for any dysfunction, again, buyer pays shipping. Please PM me if interested.

tempted, but alas I have other more pressing needs. Still that is a remarkably fair price. Does yours have the lovely Ribbon mode button?

I am curious, with what are you replacing it? The Grace is probably my second favorite preamplifier, and the only two that beat it - to my ears - are the Millennia Media and John Hardy, both equally clean and transparent. So what replaced it for you? Inquiring minds and all that.

Hi Bill,

Nope, the silver face doesn’t have the ribbon mode, that was in the next iteration.

As for replacing it, I recently transitioned from a MOTU Ultralite to an RME Babyface Pro, and when I tried it out I decided I liked the mic preamps enough to let go of my beloved Grace, though itvtruly is a lovely piece of kit. I too have more pressing needs. Cheers!

It would be pretty simple to add a ribbon mode - I've done something similar to other preamplifiers with mixed results.

So the RME microphone preamplifier is competitive with the Grace? I am seriously impressed! That's no mean feat...

You know, I can’t really say that, and in reality I’m sure it isn’t, at least not for more discerning ears than mine. Thing is, when I initially hooked up my BabyFace directly without the preamp and did a vocal, I thought “hmmm, that sounds pretty good.”

That was DEFINITELY not the case when I tried my MOTU in the same fashion. I heard that difference immediately.

I have great respect for RME. So I'm not shocked that it could be competitive, impressed, but not shocked. And of course competitive implies that we are talking about application specific, your room, your ears. Pretty good has become good enough, or rather good enough has become the new quality benchmark. We might have chased after that last 10% once, we are less likely to do so now. I think it is cool that you found a way to simplify!

Well, simplify...maybe yes, maybe no. If I sell it, let's see what I invest the proceeds in...

you are wise beyond your years Larry!

At well over one hundred years old, I sincerely doubt that, Bill