Pretty much everything I would say in praise of this preamp has already been said in earlier reviews. When it's $ (i.e. $) it's truly a steal. I've now used it with a ribbon, a condenser, and a dynamic mic on vocals, mandolin acoustic guitar, electric guitar cab, and bass cab. I've always kept the gain between 60 & 75, and I've never had the output level above noon. I don't use the vintage button, but I've come around on Air 1 recently. I pair it with a dbx compressor & EQ, and--with the mics and instruments I already have--I've got pretty much all I need. Overall I'm very satisfied with this. One thing I didn't pay attention to is its dimensions, so it's half rack in width (which I noticed), but it's much deeper than my other rack units--almost as deep as they are wide. Still it's a great piece of gear.

You won't find a 1073 clone remotely close at this price point. You'd have to spend $ more on WA to get a better clone.

I bought this so & I was so excited, got home & it worked fine, it actually sounded pretty decent but then it randomly stopped picking by up signal. I called long & mcquade they said to call the company…so I got ahold of the company & was told to take the top off & "wiggle" the wires around. To my surprise that worked…a few months later same problem & now it doesn't work anymore…I'm gonna try ordering a new adaptor…but if I send it in for repair at this point it will cost at least like half the price I paid for the unit….not happy obvy :( waiting to hear back from the company…the frustrating thing is I'm just trying to make decent music with decent vocals & now I have to wait for my preamp to work or dish out a bunch more money for a new one? Pause on the music….

This preamp will transform your mics and transform the way you record, period! I bought this to pair with my WA-47 and wasn't disappointed. I was also pleasantly surprised at what it did to my SM7B! If you want some vintage tone and glossy polish on your recordings, look no further. It's also packed with features, but just the right features to seemingly address any situation. I record at home in an untreated room and the on-board high pass filter (Switched to HP2) made all the room noise magically disappear. If you want color, tone and polish to any recording, I can't recommend this preamp enough!!

If you haven't invested in a dedicated mic preamp, I strongly recommend you do. Pre amps on budget interfaces just don't produce enough gain. This particular unit is versatile and cranks out plenty of db's for my SM57's and assorted condensers. The EQ filters are a nice addition.

I use this for my work interfaced with my MOTU Ultralite mk.4.i work in customer service and best sound video are my big points that all my coworkers positively comment on. The GAP 73 mk.3 raises the ante' more so. The Vintage setting does nothing for me, but dial to 65db and low impedance, and output to 2 o'clock and perfection I have here. I am very happy with the result of the mic pre. I have as much fun with this as I did with the Alesis XT20 ADAT I bought here. Sweetwater has always taken great care of me through the years. So this looks like I have found what I really wanted since I got my SM7B. A preamplifier to give it the oomph and sound just fine too. What else do I need. Also it came with candy in my order. Love that touch from Sweetwater.

For reference, I do not have any experience with the original Neve 1073. But I do know that when recording my Shure SM7b, this preamp gets the job done. Plenty of gain for my power-hungry SM7b. I also use a UA 710, which I do like more.. but for half the price, you cannot beat this preamp.

Several years ago I purchased a Warm Audio WA-12 mic-pre. It made my singer-songwriter recordings sound like they were recorded in a professional studio.
It was an amazing transformation of quality from the built-in preamp in my expensive RME interphase. But after playing around with this new thing I've had for about a week now, I believe the Golden Age Pre MK 3 is significantly better. It goes much farther at adding presence and clarity. It provides that elusive heft to even the quietest whispery vocals that I usually only hear on records.
I know GAP makes a more expensive model now. But, I just can't imagine a better sounding colored mic-pre than this one. especially for the money. Five easy stars from me, six if I could. Great Product!

Best combo I've found

I've been involved in the music industry for 50+ years. First as a coffee house "folkie", then a salesperson in both home and institutional sound, live sound guy. and guitar maker. In my retirement, I've set set up a small "bedroom studio" to basically archive the songs i have loved and performed over the last 50 years. Relative to mixing live, I've discovered studio work to be much more difficult and demanding. I've struggled to get my voice to sound decent to myself. I tried various mics and pre-amps with not the most consistent success. A friend who has been involved with some pretty high end studio people and equipment suggested I try to get a better mic pre-amp. He suggested something along the lines of a Neve style pre-amp, namely the combination of the Golden Age Pre-73 and EQ-81 combination. He basically said it's a "whole other world" than what comes in the average home recording set up. Boy, was he correct. The Pre-73 / EQ-81 combo has sounded absolutely natural and open with all the various mics that I own. My voice sounds like me, to me, and more importantly, to others. Great products!!!

After extensive research on 1073 clones, I landed on this one. All I can say is wow. I paired this with my SM7b and the vocals just jumped out of the monitors. Breathes warmth and depth into the vocal tracks. Makes all ITB stuff way easier when you have great sound before it even hits the interface. Highly recommend.

This little preamp is actually pretty good. Discrete signal path transformers give this thing a purr I can't really put my finger on. It's definitely character and actually the Air 2 setting seems to give it this openness without adding that kinda of "eeeee" sound you get 16khz and up. Air 1 is also good, but definitely boosts stuff that might be in range of what you're capturing with it.

I'd call the character hyped in the mid-range between 2-5 khz. By hyped, I don't mean boosted in gain/amplitude. I'd say it's more of a glaze of harmonics that overlap in that region. That kinda of "blurriness" really makes vocals smooth and is great for DI guitar and bass. At the high end before you get actual distortion there's a good saturation but I will say I don't care for this driven into distortion.

This isn't a replacement or a low-end version of a 1073 ultimately, it's a character piece that is affordable for project studios and for the right application will add something special.

However, here's why there's a star deducted: 1. While plugged in and powered down, there is still power provided to the outlets. I do not like that at all, because in the event of a surge there's a path to the interface it's attached to. This means I have to completely unplug and replug to use it. 2. This might just be my unit, but I did have one issue where it wouldn't produce a sound. It was just once, but I still don't know what the root causes is that makes me wonder about long term reliability.

This is my first preamp. I was leaning toward the WA Tonebeast but didn't have the bucks for a whole 500 series setup and didn't really want a full rack size piece of gear. Also, while I could hear the difference in transformers, it was so subtle that I couldn't justify the $ since I'm just a home hobbyist not a recording engineer.Anyways, I settled on the GAP pre-73 MKIII-WOW! before I was either putting my mics into a Scarlett 2i2, a Xenyx preamp on my Behringer mixer, or straight into my Alto Trouper or Loudbox mini. I have to say, I didn't really know what my mics could sound like. A+. I can't compare this to any of the other well regarded preamps out there, but if your like me and looking for your first pre the GAP is awesome for the $

Very nice for the price - even for twice the price - this is a nice unit.

Well made - awesome sound - very warm when you need it - great on large condenser mics - and overdriving it produces a sweet roundness that thickens and pulls the vocal up front.

I also purchased the rack shelf and will purchase another as well very soon.

Easy to use and sounds very close to an actual 1073.

Well for the money I'd say well worth the price. Clean and adds a little depth to vocals and acoustic guitars. I've used it as a di for electric and bass and it sounds great. This is for use in my home studio but I bring pieces I track to a production studio and blends in nicely with tracks recorded in the studio. I run it through a universal audio apolo no plugins and it's great alone. But my next purchase is an 1176 for that but of compression I get later in the mix would be nice already on the front. But anyway I'd say great product in happy!

I've owned two of these units over the years. The first (which I purchased around 2010) was great - had the Carnhill transformer upgrade and sounded amazing on bass, guitar, vocals. More recently I purchased this recent version only to have the circuitry go bad after a month of use. I have since gone with the Warm Audio WA12 MKII and it sounds equally amazing and seems to be built a little heftier. The WA12 also has the POL and TONE option which add to your options of coloration. I really wish I could have kept using this unit but I was worried it would go bad again. Lastly, be careful of the paint - it scrapes off pretty easily.

This unit, based off the Neve design, sounds fantastic and makes a great addition to any studio. If you're looking for an outboard option for adding color and character to your signal, and within an affordable price range, this is it!

I never realized how much having a dedicated pre could improve my overall sound. I'm running this pre thru an Apogee Duet 2 and I'm using an Aston Origin microphone for vocals and I couldn't be happier with the results! Although the Golden Age pre made my AT4040 sound 5x better, the Aston Origin took it to the next level. This is pretty straight forward and easy to use with some great functions. I'm glad my sales rep Mike Harris suggested it to me.

I'm not much of an engineer but have been playing classical and jazz for a long time. I recorded my violinist at home in a well treated space and was able to get a very rich sound through a ribbon mic. He is very particular about his sound and I am happy to report the end result is ideal. This item does a great job of producing a warm, balanced and highly detailed instrument recording. Highly recommended!

Really impressed with the quality of this unit. I was unsure about purchasing considering the low price but It's well worth the money. Brings new character to my acoustic Gtr and vocals.