quote:

In shootout after shootout the John Hardy M-1 is always a top contender and is often the preferred mic pre for acoustic guitar. You can literally smell the wood. The M-1 was first introduced in 1987 - long before everybody and his brother was making a mic pre. When we started testing and using mic pres in A/B sessions a few years ago we called John Hardy to see if he'd like to send an M-1 to us for comparison. We'd bought a pair of M-1's for a studio in 1989 and used them - and loved them. The M-1 [ and some very loooong conversations with John Hardy in '89 ] was our first introduction to the use of superior external mic pres. Fast forward to 2002 - we wanted to see how the M-1 had held up over time with so much mic pre competition on the market. After the M-1 arrived and we fired it up we were not disappointed! The M-1 is a "clean" mic pre. The Jensen 990 opamp and the Jensen transformer adds just enough "traction" and "grip" to the sound that the result is natural and pleasing to the ears. It just sounds "right". When you order a John Hardy M-1 we highly recommend you get them "loaded" - with the VU-1 meter and JT-11-BMQ Jensen output transformer.