It always amasses me how the audio media pull out of it’s ass a “literature” about preamps. They write review after review, admiring the sexy knobs, amusing futures and the reported “musicality” but ironically a year after year NONE of the audio propaganda participants did the only thing that must be done in the BEGINNING of any conversations about preamplifier performance: how transparent the given preamp is.

Ironically to test a transparency of a preamp is superbly simple. Take a simple good quality DC coupled mono source with output impedance of a few ohms drive with it an amplifier. Then inje!!ct a preamp between the source and amplifier. If ANYTHING changed in sound, literally anything (!!!) then it came from the preamp. How simple should it be!?
 
However, pay attention that none of the Morons who write those idiotic reviews for you ever did it for you. Do you wonder why? Because in order to make a positive review the reviewer should start his review by claiming the preamp’s transparency and describing the result of his “preamp bypass” assessment. But here is a catch: if a reviewer writhe BS about “wide soundstage” and “Patricia Barber on his laps” then he demonstrated to his readers no verifiable or credible BS. However, if the reviewer did claim for a given preamp the success during the “bypass test” but the consumer bought the preamp and in context of his playback the “bypass test” failed then one of three conditions is true:

1) The reviewer is deaf idiot who has no business to write about audio assessments.

2) The reviewer has no transparent or indicative/illustrative playback installation that incapable him to write about audio assessments.

3) The reviewer is fraudulently dishonest that does qualify him to be where he is – to be aTampax of Audio Industry

So, what I feel that the Morons who write their audio doodles do not do for this readers the simple “bypass test” juts because they scared liability and afraid to publicly expose their incompetence and uselessness.

So, when you read a review of ANY preamp when the author did not make his “bypass test” assessment then discard anything else that will follow because you deal with an author whom I have described in one of the 3 entries above.

Rgs,
Romy the caT

With a typical for me sarcasm and cynicism I look though Paul Bolin’s writing about “new” Audio Research Reference 3 preamp. Bitching about preamps is my specialty for years. It is not that I’m on a market for a preamp but whenever somebody does anything that is “pushy” I would like to learn about it. It would hardly possible to accept from Audio Research anything “pushy” and their “old” Reference 2 Mark II was quite boring preamp. However, since Audio Research did not have exposure in press for quite a while and fifty Audio Research’s dealers desperately needed new taking points to butter up their customers the Audio Research introduced a new model, the one that not updateable and not retrofitable from the older Reference 2. Doing this, all reviewers who have written about the “perfection” of the Reference 2 bring official apologies for mislead the public and the Audio Research Corporation reimburses cost of Reference 2 because as they learn it was not as good as it should.might be…   Yes, it sucks that there is no Lemon Law in audio….

Anyhow, the purpose of this post is not to mock the Audio Research but to point out the foolishness of Paul Bolin, the preamp reviewer. Paul Bolin demonstrated his BS-orientated incompetence by forgetting to conduct a very simple and very objective “bypass test” (that I described above) BEFORE he was composing his typical reviewers empty adjectives. Paul Bolin has Manley Steelhead that has around 150R output impedance. It is near similar to Audio Research’s 600R and it would be very simple for him to learn how much AR Reference 3 interferes with Sound….

Now, I wonder, after reading a review about this $10K preamps: was the “bypass test” not performed in the given case juts because Paul Bolin is juts another spineless “pretty face” among the reviewing Morons or perhaps after conducting the “bypass test” it was too shameful to publish the honest result? This question of mine does not require an answer. By nature of reading a meaningful review a reader should not even ask this question...

AudioArchitect wrote:

You should find a life somewhere!You have really big issues with self image, big fragile ego, Dunning Kruger mental illness, and manybof my friends who are medical clinicians read many of your articles here, and they told me everything i saying to them, that you have serious lack of knowledge, lack of life success in any field and because of your frustrations on a daily basis , everything can be recognised in your articles. My advice to you.1. Ask someone to explain to you how to build any audio equipment.2. Try to build your own system and try to expose it in many audio shows and consumers.3. Try to learn how business works and what you need to take to make things successful in audio.4. Start to be humble in life5.,Start to read books about audio electronics 6. Obviously you don't understand basics, but you feel that you are capable of writing about it.7. Ask someone to help you if you have no mental capacity to comprehend what is really wrong with you. Sorry man, people around you are not imbeciles, unfortunately.... you are. And my statement have nothing to do with audio reviews and people who write them.If you don't understand how mentality sick you are..... read my points and help yourself, one time in your life.

AudioArchitect wrote:

You should find a life somewhere!You have really big issues with self image, big fragile ego, Dunning Kruger mental illness, and manybof my friends who are medical clinicians read many of your articles here, and they told me everything i saying to them, that you have serious lack of knowledge, lack of life success in any field and because of your frustrations on a daily basis , everything can be recognised in your articles. My advice to you.1. Ask someone to explain to you how to build any audio equipment.2. Try to build your own system and try to expose it in many audio shows and consumers.3. Try to learn how business works and what you need to take to make things successful in audio.4. Start to be humble in life5.,Start to read books about audio electronics 6. Obviously you don't understand basics, but you feel that you are capable of writing about it.7. Ask someone to help you if you have no mental capacity to comprehend what is really wrong with you. Sorry man, people around you are not imbeciles, unfortunately.... you are. And my statement have nothing to do with audio reviews and people who write them.If you don't understand how mentality sick you are..... read my points and help yourself, one time in your life.

AudioArchitect wrote:

You should find a life somewhere!You have really big issues with self image, big fragile ego, Dunning Kruger mental illness, and manybof my friends who are medical clinicians read many of your articles here, and they told me everything i saying to them, that you have serious lack of knowledge, lack of life success in any field and because of your frustrations on a daily basis , everything can be recognised in your articles. My advice to you.1. Ask someone to explain to you how to build any audio equipment.2. Try to build your own system and try to expose it in many audio shows and consumers.3. Try to learn how business works and what you need to take to make things successful in audio.4. Start to be humble in life5.,Start to read books about audio electronics 6. Obviously you don't understand basics, but you feel that you are capable of writing about it.7. Ask someone to help you if you have no mental capacity to comprehend what is really wrong with you. Sorry man, people around you are not imbeciles, unfortunately.... you are. And my statement have nothing to do with audio reviews and people who write them.If you don't understand how mentality sick you are..... read my points and help yourself, one time in your life.