Neve 1073SPX Microphone Preamp and EQ

No complaints at all.

Makes any microphone sound better. Just plug it in, adjust gain and that's all. Don't even bother tweaking anything else if you don't know. It's expensive for what it does, but it does it well like no other.

Always in the conversation for best microphone preamp and EQ. It’s not perfectly transparent, and that’s the point. Beautifully musical, but not surgical. For classical and surgical transparent work, consider Millenia. This preamp is years and years of heritage. I’ve had mine for years, and it compares to the 80 series modules new or vintage pretty much indistinguishably. It is worth noting that these units, unlike vintage or BAE models, need to be repaired by sending in. Vintage and BAE are 100% hand wired and can be handled by a local tech, however it’s an extra $1000 for BAE, and an extra $15k for vintage on average. These are perfectly versatile, I use them on nearly everything. The bands in the EQ are so easy to get a good sound out of. I would argue it’s harder to get an EQ move to sound bad out of these. Basically noiseless, and honestly the bang for buck is great if you consider the cost of the internals. Marinair transformers alone run 3-400 to buy, and these have 3 in them (Mic, Line and Output stage). AMS Neve is also just an amazing company that treats customers well. If you only have room for one preamp in your studio, this is the one. Save the money up if you need, and you’ll never need to look further unless you’re creating options after the fact.

Everything to love, nothing to hate