I had an Avalon 737 + a Manley Ref C for years and loved it for tracking vocals (Hip-Hop / RnB). Eventually the 737 needed repairs, so while waiting for it I decided to try different preamps. I tried the Empirical Labs EL-9, Heritage Audio 73, Golden Age 73 pre, Manley Core Channel Strip, and Shadow Hills Mono Gama.

All of them had something missing from that clean sound I was accustomed to with the Avalon. So I picked this up and it did the trick. I realized I definitely am a fan of this particular clean sound for vocals.
I mainly record my voice (low male) so I give it a high tone/shape boost. I can imagine that for some very bright female vocalists, I may want to go with a little darker/vintage tone, depending on the project. But that could be more important with the mic choice. And I'd say in general, this could work great for any modern vocals.
I did keep the Shadow Hills Mono Gama for a 2nd pre option.

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From Vocals, to acoustics. Even on the low end this V5 is exactly what I was looking for in regards to taking that next step, in quality in all my recordings.

Unbelievable. I purchased this product as a professional microphone preamp to support my 2 electronic bands and for any studio clients that may be recorded at my studio.

Excellent build quality. Solid knobs, metallic body, quality visible internal parts, strong inputs, strong buttons, and beautiful look.

Sound: A perfect blend of 3-dimensionality, classic sound, accuracy, clean sound, and a faithful representation of your microphone. A humongous amount of gain with equally huge headroom; it can go for miles! The tone controls offer noticeable change of the perfect frequencies to produce a sound well suited for every different sound and style. Very well appreciated for recording the sound the way it should be, as opposed to wondering if you are EQing the right frequencies or not. It is all passive cutting EQ as well as far as I understand, which I love.

Features: Perfect job by Avalon. It includes every feature you could possible think of for a preamp, It is not missing anything.

Overall: The perfect preamp to get you into the big leagues. Unbelievable sound, value, build quality and more that you would expect from the Avalon name. Keep your work simple and reliable with the presets. Just the right amount of settings, nicely divided into intuitive sections on the interface and incredibly easy to use. I can't imagine finding a better preamp at this range. Humongous headroom. Just buy it. If you are serious, you couldn't possibly regret it.

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