So following the thread I started a few weeks ago on a recommended pre-amp I have been trailing the Radford Revival Preamp - and I have to say that it is just simply awesome. Far in excess of what I was hoping for.


I have had a Radford STA25 for many years so am very used to the sweet mellow full range transparent sound of this design.


About 3 years ago Will at Radford Revival built me one of his Revival STA25 units which proved to even much better than the original unit I had (dating from the 60s I guess). So from this pedigree I asked Will for his ideas on a preamp, a few days later his prototype arrived which took all of 5 minutes to get plugged in.


Here are some of the notes I made back to Will. If anything, now two or so weeks after I wrote to Will, the experience is even better.


Clean, precise, very focused (= great sound stage), able to resolve very fine detail. Fantastic 'speed' - as you said "punchy" - but more specifically excellent attack and decay.


The sound is highly coherent - nothing is left behind struggling to catch up. Bass, mid and treble form a wonderful whole.


Super smooth sound - the preamp adds nothing (so far as I can hear) simply opens the window to the sound without any feel of holding it back. Almost like well trained horses taken off their reins and allowed to gallop freely.


Listening as I type - the micro-detail simply flowing through. Complex music with layers easily resolved resulting in a holographic image. Zero fatigue. A roller-coaster ride. Organic.

Every time I experience such a step change in how the music can flow I can't imagine what further improvements are possible but almost always surprised. And now I very much feel that I will not be able to experience such a further huge step change - certainly as far as a preamp is concerned. In a couple of weeks time I will get to try out in my system an Audio Note preamp - it will be interesting to see the difference. If the Audio Note is up to the standard of the Radford I really ought not hear a difference.


The only negative on the Radford preamp is that it is so revealing of poorly miked and mastered music that I'm even more aware of some of the crud I have collected over the years.


Ed