I got the brand new Golden Age Premier PRE-73 in my studio and this new friend is blowing my mind! So I decided to share the audio files with you

In the last few months, several new 1073 clones entered the market:
Warm Audio's WA-73 Series, BAE's 1073 and the Heritage Audio HA-73.
Here in Germany, Warm Audio is the cheapest of the bunch at 649.- € street price. Now, Golden Age Premier (the new premium line of Golden Age Project / GAP) just released two versions of 1073s starting at 489.- street price!
I wonder where this journey will go... Will we all get 1073's for free in a couple of years?

I ran a few tests comparing it to an original AMS NEVE 1073 DPA. The results are really astonishing.

I split the mic signal with a Radial microphone splitter Pro MS2 to route it to the Golden Age Premier and to the NEVE at the same time. Surprisingly both signals sound exactly the same. If I flip the phase on either the NEVE or the Golden Age Premier the signal erases itself almost completely due to phase cancellation.
This phenomenon only appears when you have two absolute identical signals / preamps. You can try this yourself with the .wav files.

For me it is unbelievable that they sound that close and I didn't trust my ears at first. Also, thanks to the Air Band EQ, the HPF, the Output Pad and Trim it's extremely versatile. I also like that it has 4 LED's to display the output.

About the samples:

I chose to record an acoustic guitar with a Beyerdynamic 201. It's a dynamic microphone that is known to need a lot of gain on quiet sources, almost like a ribbon mic. 20cm from the 15th fret. As the splitter lowers the signal about 10db, I used 65 db of gain.

For the vocals I used a AKG 414 in cardioid mode.

I include the phase inverted signal to the audio samples as well. You hardly hear any signal anymore (every volume setting is the same in my DAW - I just flipped the phase)

Interesting! Nice work. I've got 3 of the GAP73 mk2 pres in my studio and love them.
If I was a rich man, I'd maybe have the real Neves, but I'm not so I'm very happy with the GAP stuff.

thanks will check these out later...

Just for you guys to get an idea how the phase-cancellation audio samples compare to other preamps, I did a test with:

AMS Neve 1073 DPA Channel 1 vs AMS Neve 1073 DPA Channel 2
AMS Neve 1073 DPA Channel 1 vs Golden Age Premier Pre-73
AMS Neve 1073 DPA Channel 1 vs RME UFX

I split the microphone signal to feed two preamps and switched the phase on one channel.
What you hear as a result is the difference between the preamps.
In the best case, you would hear nothing at all, but as we are talking about analog gear, even the two Neve Preamps in the same rack don't cancel each other out completely.

You will need to listen on higher volume, as the signal is of course very low.

This looks real promissing!

Nice post and I like your methodology and photos! Thank you!

I liked the Neve by Nat's whisker - The difference in small.
I'm buying a couple of GAP Premier 73s, but also have their DLX, which I'm more interested in comparing with.
Ive also owned the GAP Junior and some of the pres with the EQ, however always stuck with the DLX's.. they sound truly great !
GAP is very nice gear if your poor or budget conscious like me. Its very good value here in the UK. I also like Warms Tone B.

Are there any additional comments or reviews on the new GAP 73 Premier? It looks like a nice circuit with the Carnhills and I need a 73 style mic preamp for male vocals. Brand names mean nothing if the differences are minute and only heard with the best headphones/speakers. Thanks so much for the sound samples!

I just posted my review in the review section:
Golden Age Premier PRE-73 Premier PRE-73 Premier

Thanks for doing this! It looks like an excellent deal with those 2 Carnhill transformers and the overall good sound compared to other "1073" based preamps.

I think it's the best 1073 deal out there. The sound is spot on and the extra features can be really handy!

roughgear,

Could you please take a look at your power cord/adapter? I am wondering whether it can work with 220V or not. I am going to purchase Pre-73 Premier in US but will be using it in another country. thx!

Very nice! Golden age should use this to make a dual pre rackmounted version
but with a more sensible top HPF at say 120-140 Hz instead of 200 Hz.

Hi,

I'm located it Berlin and I got the Europe version of the power supply.
It reads: 230 V and 20 VA / 24 Volt

I hope it helps

Best,

Raphael

agreed, the top end of the neve isn't quite there in the gap. I found this clear enough listening on my adam p11a's to be pretty convinced it was not just "expensive is better" bias. Noticed it especially on the guitar and the spoken word recordings.

I guess this is when the OP tells us he has named the files randomly

Thank you so much, it helps me a lot.

Best,

firmz1987