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The best preamp in the world? Before I supply a bit of techno porn, I will state for the record that this is the best preamp I have ever heard. This applies not only to my system but also to all my friends’ systems and to the brief encounters at many audio shows. By every meaningful measure, the Purity stands as my reference for reproducing musical events. Seeking flaws, I played digital formats and vinyl for hours, day after day. Equipment always makes mistakes either by addition or subtraction. I simply couldn’t fault the Purity in any area.

My tastes emphasize tonal colour.  No amount of detail will ever compensate for a cold emotionless rendition of instrumental timbre. There’s no way to measure this kind of accuracy but it’s critical to music. The Purity reproduces colour faithfully, bringing out every nuance of tone but never overstating what the source provides. My notes are repetitious: "accurate", "precisely!", and "just right". In strings and woodwinds and the human voice where a small error completely destroys the illusion of a live performance, the Purity never let me down unless the recording was deficient.


When tone is reproduced correctly, the emotional content is preserved. Both delicate touch and full force come through the Purity as performers intended. I use Reiner’s readings of Dvorak and Strauss as analytic tools. The string and woodwind sections of the Chicago Symphony have never sounded as authentic as they did with this preamp in my system. The Purity opens a window into the orchestral score that leads back to the composer’s intention.

This is not an effete preamp suited only for chamber music. The full force of an orchestra or a rock band comes through so clearly that I worried my amplifier would clip or my speakers would arc. The old canard that Quad 57s can’t play loud isn’t true. You just have to feed them enough signal. Annie Fischer who may sometimes be wrong in her Beethoven but is never in doubt, crashed through passages more convincingly than I have ever experienced before.  Articulation, the sense of rightness in each note and the space between them, has never been clearer. The Purity conveys Rubinstein’s touch as vividly as any solid-state unit but never sacrifices the delicacy and nuance that accompanies the old master’s touch. The notes are chiseled but the harmonic envelope is conveyed flawlessly.