icOn passive preamp reviews
“The bottom line is that the Icon 5 delivers sonically at the very highest level; balanced and generous in all four musical pillars, transparent as can be and doing the least sonic damage to the output signal of any line stage that I have had through my hands. Period.”
SIXMOONS
SIXMOONS “Today’s award wrote itself… One this good and flexible is simply more globally relevant than many will have thought. Being priced fairly and built to a high standard makes it a true standout.” Srajan Ebaen
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icOn 4PRO
by Dawid Grzyb – HiFi Knights / May 16, 2021
“In the past I’ve sampled many active preamps, but their passive subdivision eluded me for years. Today’s the day when I can finally cross this breed off my bucket list, the opportunity to investigate its representative baptized icOn 4PRO revealed itself just recently. Enjoy!” Read more…
The Wam Hifi and Music Forum
icOn 4 (AVC) Passive Preamplifier Review by George Sallit / October 2, 2020, Updated
“That is all well and good but how does it compare to the Townshend Allegri? And confession time here….Errrr…..I could not hear a difference between the IcOn 4 and the Allegri. I listened and listened and thought I could hear a difference but no when I reinstated the original preamplifier the differences disappeared. Oh dear, time to hand in my reviewer’s badge? In discussions with Martin Colloms at Bristol, he said he needed his £100K system to hear a difference and a small change in the quality of a cable would make the differences disappear. Good, I am not going mad (well I might be!). So, I am going to call it a sound quality draw.”
HIFI CRITIC
By Martin Colloms 2019
THIS SIMPLE PASSIVE AUTOTRANSFORMER LINE CONTROL UNIT MAY NOT QUITE BEST MARTIN COLLOMS’ REFERENCE CHOICE – BUT HE HAS TO ADMIT IT GETS VERY CLOSE
“Now with refined system design, excellent ergonomics and improved sound quality, the remote controlled icOn4 is a no-brainer for overall value.”
MARTIN COLLOMS
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POSITIVE FEEDBACK
A Creative Forum for the Audio Arts
“Using the icOn4 was a pure joy… I found the dynamics shockingly good… the icOn4 seems to excel on transparency; other than the better dynamics mentioned above it seemed like the preamplifier was simply not in the circuit” Sam Rosen @ Positive Feedback
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HIFI CRITIC
ANDREW HARRISON CHECKS OUT AN EXCEPTIONALLY FLEXIBLE TRANSFORMER-BASED PASSIVE CONTROLLER, WITH FULL REMOTE CONTROL
Once set up the icOn 2 proved easy to operate and a delight to use. The numerical display indicates current volume for each channel at all times, and was just readable from 5m. This unit is a revelation after using TVC units which lack remote switching and other creature comforts. The freedom to set level by wand to within 1dB proved a boon, even if a maximum attenuation of –48dB may be too little for a loud source played late at night into sensitive loudspeakers. Despite the banks of relays, the unit is effectively silent while sweeping volume. There are no clicks through the speakers, just a gentle ‘tink-tink-tink’ of relays from within the unit. As followers of the breed will recognise, the icOn 2’s audio background proved blissfully silent in circuit between source and amplifier.
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Hifi Pig
Janine Elliot – ex BBC sound engineer and professional musician compared our icOn TVC preamplifier to her 4 times more expensive, “world’s best” preamp listening to her own compositions. We can’t imagine a more authentic reviewer.
Her conclusion was: “…this is an exceptionally well thought out and clever unit for those wanting the clarity and purity of passive but with additional features turning the technology truly into the 21st century… In terms of features and originality, it is in many ways an outstanding product and well worthy of your attention.”
TNT-audio
“Occasionally I find a product that instantly raises the joy level from my audio system – this is one. For several weeks the icOn had substituted for my own reference system Sachem Pure preamplifier (which provides less control) and had been a highly satisfying stand-in, yet at roughly a third of the cost. I had witnessed music playback with a consistently lively presentation, and the sense that nothing was standing in the way of the music. Yet I had very convenient control and support for my Sachem monoblock power amplifiers in doing their job highly effectively.”
Richard Varey, TNT – New Zealand
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