Mic preamp is one of the most crucial part of the vocal chain. The SSL Alpha Channel sounds big, it has extremely clean gain, so if you use mics which require a bit more more gain f.e. sm7, this is a perfect product.

Too Clean? yes believe me or not, it is very transparent pre, however the Variable Harmonic Drive circuit can add a bit of harmonics to the sound, just turn the knob and hear the difference.

Is That All? Not at all! It also has a equalizer, limiter, compressor and many routing abilities. I find that eq adds a bit of the analog "hiss" not much but if you wanna use it as an insert plugin for your daw you might find it disturbing.

Price? Well around $1000 might seem a bit too much, however if want to save few bucks try finding used unit, they are around $700. Pricey but worth it.

Life experience:

Personally I use it mostly for vocals, however I ran bass guitar through the unit as well few times. Its very easy to use, it seems you can't really do much with it, but it's very flexible unit. If you have 2 units you can sync them and have them working as stereo unit. I never had any problems with it. Turn it on and it's ready to go. I'd recommend it for anyone who's looking for a great piece of gear for a quite fair price, home studio or pro studio, everybody would enjoy working with this unit.


Sound:

It sounds big and clean. I compared it with few other pres/channel strips in the price range $400-$1000 It just adds the SSL vibe to the original sound source.


Pros:
- Sound
- Lots of clean pre amp gain
- Design
- Routing abilities
- It takes only 1U space in your rack
- Variable Harmonic Drive Circuit

Cons:
- Price
- (I'd love to mention more cons however besides price there isn't any)