Amp/Preamp Asylum: RE: EAR 912 preamplifier by rottenclam

Out of the 10-15 active pre-amps with phono-stages I have owned in the last 20 years, the 912 was the best.

I ran it with about 10 different amps during the 5 years that I owned it, and it matched extremely well with all of them. I ran it single ended, balanced, and even through the tape-outs (to have fewer pieces in the signal path) directly into amplifiers as well.

The flexibility is second-to-none, the aesthetic was in-keeping with my tastes (though not for everybody), and the build quality was typical EAR (which is to say, cheap parts, but proper circuit and transformer design). TdP absolutely knew what he was doing and though some might say that he was clever-by-half, I have absolutely loved the gear that I have owned over the years (two of those pieces being somewhat exotic, the 861 Amplifier and the 912 preamp). The 834p phono stage has been a longtime resident, and always something that I put into my systems.

The 912 was extremely quiet (a must!), and always reliable. The only critical word I would say about it is that the remote is a joke...but I dont really care about those types of things too much. The only other thing I would say to check-on before buying used is if the lights for the meters are LEDs or not. The old non-LED lights will burn out eventually, but the more recent models with LEDs will last a very long time.

Good luck! You should buy it.