This thread is for discussion and sharing info and sounds related to the Useful arts Hornet. I wanted there to be a thread outside of new product alerts for it. It’s an interesting Preamp sitting just under $300. Does it really rival $1000 pres? I’m not sure. I want to post a few audio examples of stock interface pres and some examples of what the color knob does.

For now, here’s some photos since I haven’t seen a single photo of the internals.

Reserved for color/no color examples.

Reserved for A/B stock interface pres vs Hornet.

I appreciate the photos, and would love to know more about people's experiences with this preamp.

They seem to keep moving them whenever they come into stock! (I have them on several watch lists so I get notifications).

I got a pair of these recently and absolutely love them. I have used them with vocals, bass, drums, guitar, and they sound phenomenal. With the color knob off you get a clean, tight, clear, full, transparent yet forward sound.

Then as you dial in the color knob you get rich harmonic character added. Both knobs will alter the gain so they are interactive in that sense.

Plenty of headroom, great as a pre or a DI, and really impressive in general.
Using as a DI for a Bass guitar and cranking that color knob and letting the meters kiss the red a little is just gorgeous!

I could not be happier with these and a pair cost me $600 brand new for a set of pretty versatile preamps that can do clean/clear and can do colored/rich. Massive great value for versatile quality preamps. These are miles better than the built in preamps in my MOTU M4 interface. (I plug into lines 3&4 on the back to bypass the MOTU preamps on the front).