Has anyone heard a Matisse reference preamp?

I had never heard of them - but happened on some very interesting reviews claiming this is God's preamp. New they were something like £7/8000.

 

I did own a Matisse atom and only recently sold it.Although a lot less expensive it was a seriuosly good valve pre amp and it was with me longer than any other. There was one for sale,a reference, when I sold mine .I have posted some links just in case you havent seen them try audioreview.com, .

www.signatureaudio.com/
There were issues of build quality and from what I found out they went out of business as they underpriced their product.I found that a bit difficult to understand as it was an expensive pre.Hope this helps.

 

Thanks Colin - have read probs with build but as you say ironically outstanding results.

 

laurence, what exactly you want to achive with the preamp? if you would be able to pin that down, someone would come up with a right proposition. i myself gave up a search for a perfect preamp. not sure if it exist at all. i've opted for the one(s) i can live with - at the moment it's EAR 864 and bent 102, depending on my moods. out of all actives i tried, i found 864 to be the best compromise between the sounds usually associated with either the solid state or the valve world. it's sweet enough but not syrupy or slow, it has an excellent bass drive (quite PRaT-ish), its resolution is a killer for valve standards but it's not a TVC. both LF & HF roll offs are acceptable. it has one of the best midranges you can get and it's very involving. compared to promitheus both you and me owned, it sounds 2 classes above, more involmement, much better musicality, more lively, better space, better overall tone, less sluggish - everything better except the areas of frequency extremes.
these are the impressions with stock (EI) tubes - some US freaks claim it sounds dramatically better with the right combination of the NOS tubes. i was too lazy to try it (and actually i destroyed one of the screws so i can't open it without using radical methods)
try to get one if you can for a home dem.

 

Gordan! Hi! Oh this was just simple curiosity, must confess was nervous to ask the question. . . .! I am very happy with the Audio Research - but have to admit i am curious to try an EAR. As to what i want to achieve - well I like warmth, involvement but detail and soundstage is a must. I get this with the ARC actually, but I am with you on thoughts re the search for the perfect preamp. Must get on with my search for the perfect orchid.

 

If you want to search out another very good pre amp try and get a hold of a Van den hul passive.Had a loan of my friends absolutely brilliant ,too hi tec for me I am a simple person who likes a volume and a selector.The VDH allows you to set individual levels etc but build is great .I changed to a TVC Hifi collective style and love it.