Preamps anno 2023...

Hi forum,

What's a good preamp these days?

Been looking to try one out, but I don't have access to trying one as I live in country with none. It doesn't have to be the best of the best, but good and fun to play on.

Who has experience with Ras EFX? I like the look of his stuff.

Other suggestions? Would a mini one be the way to go for home use and sessions when the chance is there? What are the drawbacks of mini preamps?

Any advice welcome, thanks.

A traditional pre will likely blow your home speakers or slowly kill them. Mini pre may give more cost effective  result as you won't need too many extra features. 

Have you considered the software options, can use a midi controller to give a hands on feel. 

Thanks all for the answers.

I'll check out the AmpFreqq too. That looks like a great option for club gigs as well.

King Simeon mentioned the signal from a preamp being too hot for home setups. Is this also an issue when you run it into a DSP?

My current setup for outdoor events is 4xsubs + 4xTops +DSP and two amps.

For a long time I thought that a preamp had to match the speaker boxes, so say a 4 way preamp would only match a 4 way speaker system. However, a friend said they run their preamp through a DSP. This is actually why I changed my mind about getting a preamp. The reason I want a preamp is to have the options of kill switches and other all the fun sound shaping features etc.

A mini or AmpFreq might be the more sensible choice though, since most my gigs are in clubs and my own speakers are in storage most of the time.

ii have the RAS EFX 5RU 4 way pre, its good, it doesn't add "tone" or "colour" beyond how you apply your EQ and so on, so in that regard its v transparent but the kills are super tight and it has a fullrange output also as well as the 4 way mono outs