ADDAC 712 Vintage Preamp

First: it looks great, top notch design.

Second: gain staging between L and R is insanely difficult. I suppose the in/out knobs calibration wasn't identical for both channels, thus my struggle.

Third: I don't know whether this is a flaw or an electric scheme thing, but the amplitude for both channels was being clipped at "-" side for both channels easier than on the "+" side. First I thought it's just DC offset, but nope - "-" clipping before the "+" side. Weird and made me feel uncomfortable. It can cause problems with proper compression and limiting when mixing.

Fourth: the sound is... nothing special. If you want to have just a clean preamp, then sure, but if your goal is to saturate things a bit - like I wanted - I'd seriously look for something else. Not much character, nothing too memorable, just sort of "technical", rough drive on the signal.

I decided to return it and go for Erica Dual Drive.